Making the Transition to a Non-Academic Career Margaret Newhouse, Harvard University, Friday, October 9, 1998

^{EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in the Cronicle of Higher Education. It is reprinted here with permission. This article may not be posted, published, or distributed without permission from The Chronicle.}

When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.    -- Helen Keller

    As the graduate-student counselor at Harvard's Office of Career Services for the past nine years, I have worked with thousands of graduate students and alumni, helping them with both academic career planning and, increasingly, career change into non-traditional fields.

    From my work with students and junior faculty members, as well as from my own experience as an academic émigré, I can empathize with the trauma often involved in such career shifting -- the sense of loss, the feelings of failure and self-doubt, and the accompanying anger and anxiety.

    Let me start with my basic philosophy -- and biases -- about pursuing non-academic career options.

    I believe you will find the process liberating, broadening, and empowering. If you make the time and effort to do it right, you will have a clearer sense of who you are and what you want, you will make better career decisions, and you will present yourself more effectively and confidently in your job search, wherever it may be.

    Many disheartened job candidates have landed academic jobs after having developed attractive alternatives, simply because they no longer felt desperate. And many others have found careers that fit them better than academe.

    Doing it right means doing a serious self-assessment, followed by extensive research and exploration of various options, and a systematic campaign to make yourself a desirable candidate. It is wise to embark at least on the self-assessment process early in your graduate studies, to give you more room for strategic planning, should you want to keep non-academic options open.

    More philosophically, I encourage people to pursue work as vocation -- in other words, to do what gives them a sense of purpose, expresses their talents or gifts, and is consistent with their values and passions. Thus, the starting point is not the frequently uttered "What's out there for Ph.D's like me?" but rather "Who am I and how can I find or create something out there that fits me?"

    According to Louis Pasteur, "Chance favors the prepared mind." This speaks to appreciating the delicate mix between planning and preparation, on one hand, and openness to serendipity and course correction on the other. Most of the A.B.D.'s and Ph.D's pursuing alternative careers I have known emphasize the unexpected opportunities that took their careers in directions they never could have imagined.

    Indeed, in contrast to the stability often viewed as characterizing academic careers, I envision careers -- like life -- in terms of process, change, and unpredictability. Holding that vision, you are more likely to embrace the journey rather than fixate on the destination, to look for the opportunities in the midst of difficulty, and to reassess periodically whether you want to change directions.

    Naturally, my philosophy is partly shaped by my experience. I can discern my career as an educator mainly in retrospect, seeing how the pieces fit together in ways I couldn't when I was living them.

    My path has taken me from high-school teaching (in West Berlin and Quincy, Mass.), to graduate school (a Ph.D. in political science), to three years of part-time teaching at U.C.L.A. combined with running a summer internship program for Wellesley College, to eight years as associate and then director of the Scripps College Humanities Internship Program, to two-plus years as administrator of a RAND-U.C.L.A. joint Soviet Center, and, finally, to my current job as a career counselor at Harvard.

    Some of the learning I have taken from my path:

    In hindsight, I got the Ph.D for the wrong reasons and in the wrong field, ignoring multiple signals along the way. (The right reason would be if you have a passion for the subject, and I didn't.) Nonetheless, I'm glad I did it. Not only did I need to prove something to myself but the degree has been required or helpful for all of my subsequent jobs.

    As I used to tell my internship students, negative learning is as valuable as positive job experience. In my RAND-U.C.L.A. job, I discovered that pure administration is neither my forte nor passion.

    Creating the right balance between work and family has been a constant struggle. Having two children during graduate school created stress, but it also provided the outside demands and rewards that helped keep me sane. In a critical and anguished life choice early in my career, I chose to pull out of a job as a U.C.L.A. instructor to attend to urgent family needs -- clearly the right decision, then and now. And another door opened when the time was ripe.

    Serendipity has played her hand many times over my career. For example, while I was still an adjunct at U.C.L.A., I bumped into a college friend on sabbatical there and discovered that her husband was seeking an associate for the internship program he was directing at Scripps. With acknowledged relief, I turned my back on a strictly academic career.

    Three times I have left jobs without having another in place, twice for a cross-continental move and once because I knew I needed a change. In each case, my trust was not misplaced and doors did open after a time. Moreover, the career exploration process I engaged in during those months proved invaluable, both personally and professionally.

    So there you have my story in a nutshell. I've moved steadily -- if not always deliberately -- toward purposeful work I feel passionate about.

    I look forward to being in communication with you about your questions and concerns. For starters, I’d like to hear about your experiences in telling your adviser that you are exploring a non-academic career.

    Please send your comments to ivorytower@chronicle.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margaret Newhouse is the assistant director of career services for Ph.D's at Harvard University.