Read this before finishing your Ph.D.: Practice your ability to choose.
This is the first part of a series on alt-acad careers.
The academic job market is shrinking every year. People don’t have a clue what to do about it.
Anthropology departments are now promoting professional seminars and networking sessions with academics working in the industry.
However, I have a feeling this is all just small print.
Once I had a meeting with a legend in my field and he gave me much generous (and needed) advice on how to approach my academic career. He said to me:
“Practice your ability to choose”.
I think this is the best possible advice to give to someone that is just entering the academic job market. I'll tell you why.
Academic programs give little attention to skills and competencies valuable outside academia. For various reasons, the majority of the departments continue to instill into the minds of our future colleagues that the only successful career is within academia.
I believe the main reason why is because academia as an institution is extremely conservative and still functions according to rules created more than two centuries ago.
The world has drastically changed since then. The way we conceptualise personal self-realization and professional success are way different than it was in the court society. Nowadays, this notion has a lot to do with efficiency, autonomy, and flexibility regardless of area of expertise.
The opacity of the academic institution and great dependency on peer evaluation in order to advance one’s career produce a professional setting in which is difficult to navigate.
On top of that, managerial rationality has completely dominated academia. A traditional institution now has to operate under the drum of managers and innovation consultants. This creates an ambiguous environment in which is very easy to get lost.
A successful academic career is indeed a marathon, not a sprint. To get into a top-tier university in a research position, researchers spend an average of 8–10 years in precarious and contingent roles before having a real shot at a real job. By precarious I mean short-term contracts and teaching positions.
Along the way, they have to make all the right decisions to be competitive when the right time comes: get offers from prestigious departments, mingle with the right people, work unpaid hours writing articles and manage to get published in the right journals.
That depends on what you expect to gain from an academic career. However, most academics secretly aspire to greatness. They will never be satisfied with being second. That intoxicating mix is a recipe for a life of self-doubt, self-loathing and dissatisfaction even when you’re doing just fine.
My supervisor once said to me: Ph.D. is the best time in an academic researcher’s career. He was right. It is the best time. You get a taste of the best academia has to offer, and it gets to your head. It becomes part of who you are. Becomes part of your identity.
Most PhDs have a distorted vision of their level of competitiveness and how their academic career is going to progress. Once you leave the protection of your Ph.D. status and enter the real world you'll get a real shock and it is not going to be pleasant.
There’s no way of buffering the free fall. Even the most prepared and realists feel it.
All that to say: Sorry, but is not enough to promote a seminar to talk about life after a Ph.D.
Up until that moment, you’re going with the flow. Once you finish your Ph.D., you are swimming against the tide.
You become a problem. No one is going to solve it for you. You will have to solve it yourself. Just like everybody else.
The only thing that can actually help is proper training.
That includes going outside academia to be trained as a researcher in other professional settings.
For many academics, that’s pretty much the worst thing they can imagine happening. You are educated to believe that real research only exists in an academic environment.
That couldn’t be farther away from reality.
I’m going to tell you a little secret about me. I work as a research consultant since 2009. Before becoming an Anthropologist, I went to one of those fancy business schools.
Business consultancy is competitive as hell, but with a different ethos and rationality. The experience of crossing borders between two very distinctive yet similar fields of expertise gave not only knowledge but perspective, shrewdness, and practical wisdom.
By the time I started my Masters, I was already swimming with sharks.
I was handling complex projects in a senior role for global clients. I wasn’t just being hired as a field researcher or freelance. I was in charge of managing projects, talking to clients and having to deal with project managers, partners, and other consultants.
For all of you that know how the research business works, you know how tough it is to get to this point. You have to go through a lot to succeed as a consultant, just as an academic would. It is a niche market with very few good opportunities. It is indeed a tough world out there.
The respectability I have as a research consultant today comes from the fact that I have proper academic and research training.
I defended my thesis a year ago. I owe a lot to academia. It gave me amazing friendships, a vibrant intellectual environment, a creative outlet, a new perspective on life. I’m part of international collaborative networks. I’m currently organising a top journal in my field. I am productive enough to keep publishing and fortunate to have academic appointments even though I’m not working within academia.
The reason why is because I invested a lot of time and energy building up my career as an independent scholar and researcher.
If there was one thing the business world has taught me was that the best investment you can make is in yourself. At the risk of sounding too cynical, I learned how to “brand myself” effectively.
That requires serious strategic thinking and an ability to take risks. Exactly what it takes to make it in academia.
My career outside academia perhaps gave me the most precious gift of all: agency. I can apply for academic jobs without feeling hostage of a situation beyond my control. I still feel terrible after an unsuccessful application, but deep down I know everything will be alright.
That’s why I strongly believe that in order to change unequal power structures within academia we have to start widening and strengthening our reach as professional Anthropologists.
For all of you thinking right now: “Oh, but with me, it will be different. My supervisor really likes my work, I spend hours at the department with my colleagues, I get amazing evaluations from undergrad students, I go to a lot of conferences and have a book chapter coming up. I’ll be fine. I don’t need the extra hassle”.
Just stop. That is defensive thinking.
Trust me when I tell you: You need the extra hassle more than ever.
Do you know how many people have the same credentials as you? More than you can imagine. A colleague of mine based in a UK institution was part of an applications committee two years ago. They were selecting candidates for a three-year postdoc position. Considering that this wasn’t the most prestigious institution, the salary was a bit below what one would expect.
There were 1.200 people applying for this job.
This is an extraordinary example, I know. But the competition is fierce everywhere. However, to make your professional profile appealing in this job market, you have to put on an extra effort.
Your most beloved Professors entered academia at a different time. They didn’t have to face this kind of overwhelming competition, therefore they are not the most reliable source of information about the job market. A lot can change in just one year in academia. Grants come and go and you have to be prepared for the volatility of job offers. Don’t even get me started on their knowledge of life outside academia. Not many tenured academics work on personal projects and consultancy or had a previous professional background outside the university.
Part of accepting this reality is coming into terms with your own lack of skills, experience, and know-how.
I know this makes you feel vulnerable. Just get over it. For your own sake.
Autonomy doesn’t come easy. We have to work hard to achieve a state in which we can act according to our will. We all know this will be a hard and sometimes impossible fight to win.
That’s why I wanted to share the advice I received with you. In times when we feel so small, we have to remember there is always a choice. We just have to practice every day to be able to see it clearly.
PS: You don't have to believe me but please believe her.
