Why I Left Academia After Earning My PhD + Careers in Science Outside Academia

After I graduated with my PhD back in 2017, you may have noticed that I left academia completely and immediately joined the workforce. A large number of folks that have the desire to complete a doctoral degree do so because they have an interest in becoming a professor and/or a principal investigator (PI) of a major research project. I was one of the “oddballs” in my program that had no desire to become a professor. In grad school, I had a research assistantship; teaching assistantships were few and far between in my department, but I never did one because I didn’t plan on teaching. For those of you currently in grad school or thinking about grad school for the future, here are my reasons for leaving academia, and I also added a brief list of the types of careers in science you can have outside of academia. I specifically wrote from an atmospheric science lens since that’s what I know!

Why I Left Academia After My PhD

The traditional career path for PhD graduates is: PhD to postdoc to faculty position. I knew from pretty much the start of my grad school “career” that I was not looking to do a postdoc. My goal was eventually to work in weather in some capacity (behind the scenes and not on TV, much to the surprise of the majority of “regular” folks I talked to, haha). I went into grad school because I could not get the type of job I wanted with my Bachelor’s alone (it wasn’t in meteorology). I quickly learned that being faculty meant writing grant proposals constantly. (At least, my advisor wrote them what felt like constantly.) Nothing sounded less fun to me than writing proposals to secure money and not actually having the time to do any of the science. (This is why they have grad students: The grad students do the science with guidance from the advisor/faculty.)

For me, I wanted my work to be applied and not on the research side. If someone came to me with a question or a problem to solve, I wanted to find out the answer/solve the problem and then move on to the next, if that makes sense. I wanted to feel like my work “mattered”—not that researching doesn’t matter, of course. Research is groundbreaking work. I like feeling like my work is directly impacting everyday operations or policy or whatever it may be. At my current position, I was hired to do specific tasks, and I love being able to “check off” those tasks from the proverbial to-do list. Last year, I started doing some weather forecast support because I have that background, and I’m thrilled that I’m able to use more of my grad school knowledge in my work! As I mentioned above, it was always a goal of mine to work in weather in some capacity, and I love that it’s woven its way into what I do now. I forecast every day now (and yes, it’s nice to check that off the real to-do list).

There’s also this weird culture in academia where it seems like you’re should always be trying to work the hardest or one-up your colleagues or match/exceed the effort that other experts in your field put in. Some people think that if you don’t work 60 hours a week that you’re not a good academic. It starts to feel like, well, who can publish the most journal articles in a year? Are you in a prestigious program? How many of your grants did you get funded? How much funding did you secure? How many grad students do you have? How many of your grad students went on to become postdocs and faculty? (That’s a measure of success for some.) And don’t even get me started on the nit-picky journal article reviewers. It just felt like way too much competition in a world that really shouldn’t be like that. I think it might be slowly changing from what I can gather on Twitter, and I’ll be thrilled when that culture is less cutthroat. If you’re in academia now, please make sure you’re taking time for yourself!

CAREERS IN SCIENCE OUTSIDE ACADEMIA

If you’re feeling like academia maybe isn’t your thing, good news: You can have a career in any other sector! If you’re applying to jobs with a PhD, you likely won’t be required to have as much work experience as folks that only have a Bachelor’s and/or Master’s degree*. Yes, some employers will be impossible and want you to have the degree PLUS work experience, but I would encourage you to apply to any and all open positions that interest you, even if you don’t match their requirements exactly.

• Government
  Every level of government—from municipal to county to state to federal—has at least one department or agency that relates to science, specifically on the environmental side, and most have multiple departments/agencies that have some connection to science. If you’ve been wanting to work in one specific department/agency and nothing is open when you’re looking for jobs, look for similar jobs in other agencies in the same city/county/state/federal government that you want to work for. Once you’re in government, especially the U.S. federal government, it’s much easier to do an internal transfer when the job (or location) you do want opens up! Government jobs are generally more stable/secure than private industry jobs, but the pay is usually not as high (they try to make up for it with good benefits).

• Federally-funded research and development centers (FFRDC)
  If you love research side of grad school but don’t want to teach, there are numerous research labs across the country that are partnerships between a university or private company and the federal government. Some of them include Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Check out NSF’s full list.

• Private industry
  There are a number of consulting firms and private businesses that would love your expertise. However, not many of them will be looking specifically for atmospheric scientists, or biologists, or chemists, or whatever type of scientist you may be. Keep an eye out for the positions that need the skills you learned in school. Did you excel at programming? Apply for jobs that focus on programming experience. Did you love data analysis? Good news, companies probably want data analysts! There are so many opportunities in private industry beyond your niche that you are an excellent fit for simply because you learned the necessary skills in grad school!

If you end up wanting to stay in academia but only want to teach and not do any formal research, there are options for that! I believe it is more difficult to find faculty positions that do not require you to start your own lab/research program, but they are out there. And they also don’t require you to do a postdoc beforehand, either!

I hope this was helpful! Feel free to drop any other questions about post-PhD work life or anything related to grad school in the comments section below!

* I wanted to note that even though folks with Master’s degrees don’t typically work in academia, the career paths in this post also apply to those of you that want to get or are working on your Master’s degree and do not want to go on to a PhD. I personally know multiple Master’s graduates that now have fulfilling careers! I know that academia really pushes the PhD over Master’s narrative, so please don’t feel discouraged if a Master’s is your goal! I also know that the job market is increasingly more competitive, and it’s still possible to find careers without needing a PhD.

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