
Sharing Your Skills as a Post Ac
One of the things that drives me most nuts is to talk to someone with a PhD who has done mountains of research, speaks several languages, has conducted lectures, workshops and semester long courses, written papers, explored archives and done independent research. Then to watch them somehow convince themselves that because they didn’t get a job/didn’t like the job they got/suffered in a toxic environment. They tell me that their expertise is not beneficial, that they as individuals are unskilled and they don’t have anything meaningful to offer society.
It is MADDENING. And a total waste.
The transition out of the academy IS tough, but easily the most difficult reason is that Post Acs don’t know how to transfer their skills. This is not their fault. They’ve been given years and years of training to look good on the academic job market and usually little to no training on the non-academic market.
This means Post Acs will obsess over the monumental task of turning a 14 page CV into a two page resume (or terror of terrors, a ONE page resume).
They will work themselves up into a lather about what job they could actually GET given their experience. (Is two years of teaching leadership experience? Can I count my volunteer work?)
They worry about how to market themselves, while simultaneously fearing that they’re selling out.
They cringe at the idea of putting together a page on a social networking site, or creating a personal website because they’ll have to address their “failure” to get or keep an academic position.
I am not going to pretend that they’re not issues you have to get through if you’re leaving academia. These are real problems. You gotta figure them out. It’s just that most post academics are looking at these problems through the academic lens they’ve been socialized into. Which is the wrong audience.
I get it. If you’re a PhD, you can’t help but organize around the academy. It’ll seep in everywhere you look. Maybe you’ll cringe at the thought of your advisor or former colleague checking out your new professional website. Or maybe that lecture you did for intro was fun but you’re scared to share it because someone could really poke holes in it if they wanted to. Or maybe you’d like to do a podcast or write an op-ed about that one thing you found in a data set/archive/interview but it wouldn’t advance your academic career. Or maybe you’ve got reams of data but it was a side project and probably no one actually cares.
Do you see the pattern? You want to do work that is interesting, but you’re looking over your shoulder to see if the academy cares. You’re pretty sure that they don’t.(Spoiler alert: They might not.)
But here’s the thing: Smart people outside of your field DO care.
This is why I’m interested in encouraging folks with a PhD to work openly.
Openness is helpful because it does not ask you to become a marketing maven in five short weeks (though feel free to do that if it’s your bag), it does not require you to “dumb down” your skills or to be less of an expert than you are.
Instead, openness is a mindset that asks the post academic to investigate how to make the knowledge they have more available to others.
You can even do this EVEN if you aren’t affiliated with an academic institution, there are ways to put your papers in archives and repositories, ways to share your thoughts in open spaces, to put your data where it can be of use to others, to share your lesson plans, your knowledge and expertise. You can invite in conversations and make things you create participatory. You can put out ideas and get support.
I promise you, there are people in the world who WANT this. Really. I know them. They’ve told me. They want your knowledge and expertise. They want to talk with you about what you know.
Yes it might to take some time to find the right people to share this with, but it’s going to be so much easier for these folks to find YOU if you make yourself Googleable. Openness will help you with that.
Plus, I don’t know about you but I see a lot of figurative dumpster fires in the world right now. We don’t need to list the wildly escalating problems and the deep divisions in our society that are spiraling out of control.
If you have a PhD, you are an expert. You are not required to feel like an expert, but you do have skills and expertise that can be of use to the world. There are many many many places where a more reasoned, expert voice would be of use. What could you offer to be of service? What small part could you play in providing a thoughtful and well-researched responses to problems that plague us? Let’s figure that out.
I created the Open Post Academics Mentorship Program via the Mozilla Open Leaders X program because I want to make it easier for folks with a PhD to network outside of the academy, know how to share their skills and knowledge with the world and to create open projects.
Join me for an informational webinar or learn more about the program online. You can also sign up to receive updates about the program and resources we’re compiling as we go.
Applications for our inaugural cohort will be accepted until November 30th.
More of my writing on post-ac life:
- What Departments Can Do to Support Post-Acs — Part 1 and Part 2
- Coffee with Recovering Academics
- Surprises from Two Years of Recovering from Academia
- Five Steps for Leaving Academia
Beth M. Duckles is a researcher consultant, writer and speaker in Portland, Oregon. She is also the founder of The Athenas, an online peer support community for women and NB folk with a Ph.D. Find her at www.bethduckles.com.
