Professors Leaving Academia: Why They Quit and Where They Go

Ready to make the leap from PhD to Exit? Below find resources to do just that:
Subscribe to the Academic Exit Newsletter and receive resources designed for PhD job-seekers: www.academicexit.com/opt-in-3...
Take Tory's course on how to Rethink Your Resume: Market Your PhD Experience to Land Industry Jobs
www.academicexit.com/rethink-...
Check out this panel conversation to learn more about PhDs' Marketable Skills: • PhD Panel Discussion: ...
Excited to do research outside of academia? Here's a panel discussion of what that looks like:
• What does research out...
Enroll in Jen’s PhD Career Clarity Program to clarify want to do and how to communicate your value so you can land great-fit jobs that let you live where you want, get paid well, and still do meaningful work: courses.fromphdtolife.com/bun...
Subscribe to Jen’s From PhD to Life newsletter to get advice and resources for professors, postdocs, and other PhDs who are done compromising their values and priorities chasing prestige or a paycheck: subscribe.fromphdtolife.com/
Check out Jen's interview with @HigherEdPR all about informational interviews!
• What are Informational...
Watch Jen's conversation with @Papa_PhD -- "Are you a Sellout if You Leave Academia After Your PhD?"
• Are You a Sellout if Y...
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[@sa-yn3xc]

I am as a faculty in engineering field can say: the opportunity cost for not going to industry is costing me double my annual income/year.

[@academic_exit]

That differential can be huge! It's worth talking about these differences in salary to allow folks to make informed choices. Thanks for your willingness to be honest here!

[@newpilgrim]

Quit after 15 years of tenure a year ago....actively toxic work environment..feel so much better! Thanks so much for this, greatly appreciate you!

[@academic_exit]

So happy you made the move away from toxicity, @newpilgrim! Congrats.

[@Dr_ahmadian1]

Excellent video. Thanks

[@academic_exit]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Indigolden]

Faculty dissatisfaction and the degradation of quality in higher education are related to the same root problem: the unchecked growth of administrative power.

[@academic_exit]

Whoah, fascinating observation there @indigolden! Many of these problems could be connected to that as a root source.

[@FromPhDtoLife]

RIP faculty governance!

[@Indigolden]

@@FromPhDtoLife Yup. That's a HUGE quality control issue.

[@kalenagy]

I love working in academic. However, it frustrates me to have. to do all this administrative and pastoral care when I have no experience doing it and no training available. and I have to do it and many times I'm unaware that I'm doing it incorrectly or not meeting the needs of the students. The university, who has not trained me, will penalize me for a complaint about something that I wasn't trained for. So academic stuff are peeved. newbie professors leave the system because of its failure to provide a nurturing and supportive environment. So, before you can do the things, they need you to do to make their students who are paying them comfortable. You must be prepped. Lawyers prep for their cases professors do not. We are just thrown into the deep mire.

[@academic_exit]

I hear you on this, @kalenagy! Folks can get asked for too much, and feel like they have no other options outside of academia. But you absolutely have a choice in where you want to spend your time and energy. Sending you strength in wrangling with these various challenges in the meantime.

[@newpilgrim]

🤗....you've been heard!

[@littlebrit]

You both covered all the points. Good tip to leave anytime. I usually think I will start to apply and look for other types of jobs when I finish the semester etc. Industry is not going to wait for semester's end.

[@academic_exit]

Great point here! Industry jobs do not typically hire on the academic calendar, so you can apply for jobs whenever you feel it's right to do so.

[@turimetok4709]

The most useful information on leaving academia I have seen. Thank you so much.

[@academic_exit]

Glad you found this helpful, Turi!

[@DollarBill1981]

Toxic environment in academia is bad for mental health. Some colleagues are hard to work with.

[@academic_exit]

So true!

[@BenClason]

I know how to fix some of the peoblems. How do I land an nterview as a academic advisor? Ive sent my app everywhere for two years now with a qualifying masters.

Only the masters degree holders are happy with working in academia because they don't need to publish at all.

[@TheRenaissanceAmazon]

“Why are some reasons?”…8 think you mean “what are some reasons?”

[@academic_exit]

Possible we misspoke for that particular phrasing. We are recording these as free-form conversations that aren't scripted, so they're not perfect!

[@JamesJoyce12]

It is useful to segment "professors" by academic discipline. The grievance faculties will never-ever get a job in the real world.... ever. Hard science and engineering Profs will be just fine.

[@tomlavelle8340]

They call it “dark academia” for a reason.

[@ShunyamNiketana]

Which "genocide" are you referring to -- which side of the Hamas-Israel war, if that is how you'd frame it? I left the humanities after several years of tending in that direction after job instability (i.e. in a huge college, my department was often teetering on the edge of austerity, which meant reduction in sections and instructors), and I went from being an instructor whose sections filled quickly to one who had to scramble to meet minimum enrollment thresholds. But the politics and unethical management styles (justified by politics--gender agendas, etc.) proved toxic in an ends-justify-means way that was appalling: woke students insisting on viewing history and all current events through their victimizer-victim prism regardless; colleagues wanting to "decolonize" the curriculum while calling Jews "white"; former department chairs -- both women -- mocking or even stopping my class during an evaluation rather than wait to discuss the issue afterwards, as per protocol; "anonymous" faculty surveys that weren't (all the better to root out the dissenter who sullies the otherwise glowing departmental lock-step position on a campus policy); trans students demanding special pronouns in English classes shared by second language students from traditional backgrounds who wanted to learn conventional English; rampant cheating thanks to translation programs and cut-and-paste internet information--nothing new there but Chat-GPT; and trans "women" having access to women's toilets while female faculty "bullies" couldn't defecate or micturate before that two-hour seminar, because a guy with a three-day beard and rouge on HIS cheeks was peaking over the stall door; and a female colleague cancelling committee work I'd done after she'd stood before the committee and solicited the help. After leaving once or twice in the past, I finally retired from all that. And it's their loss. (But it's mine, too, when I think of the classes I could be designing and teaching, lives I could be helping to shape, etc.)

[@akebjornblad9478]

doubt

And we need to be judged by rubbish students and reviewers as well. This sucks.