In an episode of the American television series "The Office",
the character Michael Scott becomes anxious about his massive
credit card debt, prompting him to declare dramatically while
standing amidst his colleagues, "I...declare...BANKRUPTCY!"
A sympathetic colleague later approaches him privately to say,
"You know, Michael, you can't just say the word 'bankruptcy' and
expect something to happen. That doesn't mean anything."
Similarly, postdocs and grad students cannot expect anything to
come of simply declaring, "I quit science!" (perhaps to a friend
or spouse, or to an advisor, or on an anonymous blog).
If you're really serious about finding a different way to make
a living, you need to start taking concrete steps in that direction.
I recommend taking the following steps, in this order:
- Stop
drinking the kool-aid.
Don't skip this step, otherwise you might as well not bother
with the rest. If you're still hanging on to the idea that
because of all your hard work, the world owes you a job
as a professor... or if at the deepest levels you still
think you will turn things around and become a famous scientist,
making all the personal sacrifice worthwhile...
you will continue to sabotage or ignore avenues
other than academic ones. You will amplify the problems of
non-academic jobs, seeing even minor problems as evidence that you
couldn't possibly succeed outside of academia, while you continue to
cope with massive problems within academia. Make sure you're really
prepared to leave the cult.
- Devote a specific time to job-searching.
No career-change strategy will work unless you do it.
After years in the academic pipeline,
it can be difficult to get started,
and the temptation to procrastinate can be strong.
To overcome this, budget a finite amount of time to your
non-academic career search, and stick to the plan.
Do this even if it comes at the expense of time at the lab bench
or working on that manuscript you need to finish.
Do it even if you're afraid your advisor will be upset.
You probably work hard enough on your science:
it's perfectly reasonable to set aside a couple of hours to develop
your career.
Find a time and place where you can concentrate,
and then glue yourself to the chair.
Push aside all distractions.
If you haven't been on the job market recently (or perhaps ever),
you will probably be at a loss for what to do, at first.
Just start with a blank page that says, "My Career Plan" at the
top, and try to think of what to do next.
If the page stays blank for your first session, don't worry.
The important thing at this stage is to avoid getting distracted
and discouraged. If you stick with it, the ideas will start to
come, I promise.
- Polish up your resume/CV.
Incredibly, some grad students (and even postdocs), despite being
highly skilled professionals, do not keep an up-to-date resume.
Some have the misconception that a resume isn't important or that
you don't need one until you have a specific job application in
mind.
In contrast, people in the private sector seem to understand
that the resume needs to be up-to-date at all times,
ready at a moment's notice when an opportunity presents itself.
The nice thing is, once you get your resume in good shape, it will
be relatively easy to keep it up-to-date.
Polishing your resume right now is a modest investment of time
and effort that will pay off nicely in the long run.
You can find plenty of free advice online about how
to write a resume, and there are sources of paid advice as well.
- Do a thorough self-evaluation.
Take stock of your skills, abilities, and accomplishments.
Most scientists-in-training tend to sell themselves short,
probably because completing a dissertation means
setting a very lofty long-term goal, such as, "prove the
existence of a new sub-Higgs Boson particle."
We tend to tie our sense of self-worth to our degree of
success in meeting that one lofty, esoteric goal, all the
while ignoring our more earthly accomplishments.
In the course of searching for that frustrating Higgs particle,
most scientists develop professional skills such as writing,
teaching, and data organization.
Though academic departments might not be too impressed by your
wizardry with Microsoft Excel, someone in the private sector just
might be.
As you recall your skills and accomplishments, add them to
your resume.
Don't worry about adding too much: the more you have, the
more easily you can selectively tailor your resume for each
position you apply for.
- Come up with an organization system.
When you have an idea, or an opportunity comes your way, you
need a ready-made system for keeping track of it so that you
can follow through.
It doesn't matter so much what your system is,
just that it works for you.
On my computer I have a folder for every job opening
or interesting company that I hear about,
containing a tailored resume, cover letter, and summary of any
correspondence.
I have another folder for each professionally-interesting person
I come in contact with, containing notes on whatever we discussed.
If you maintain such a system for keeping track of your progress,
your senses will be more keen to pick up opportunities that present
themselves.
- Prepare yourself to deal with frustration and failure.
Perhaps the hardest part of searching for a job is this:
you are going to be turned down, more than once.
Many academics have a long track record of passing every test
that comes their way. It's very difficult, then, not to take
it as personal failure when a job application is turned down.
Early in my process, I sent a resume and cover letter to a small
company I liked. I had already started fantasizing about what it
would be like to work there. I got no reply. It was hard not to
get discouraged. As it turns out, it probably didn't have much
to do with my qualifications: a few months later, that company
got into financial difficulty and announced layoffs.
The job market is a market, not a test.
The purpose of contacting a potential employer is to exchange
information: to see if there can be a trade (your money for
my time) that is worthwhile for both parties.
The sooner we figure out that no deal is possible at this time,
the sooner I can move on to the next opportunity.
One way to get in to this mindset is to make rejection your goal.
Set out this week or this month with the goal of
applying for three jobs, and being turned down for all of them.
No despair or complaining is allowed until you have those 3
(or 5 or 10) rejections.
This frees you from worrying so much about the outcome (getting a new
job) and allows you instead to focus on the process: how did you find
this opportunity? Using the same method, could you find another?
How did the application process go? Could you improve it?
Finding a new job will be a long-term process. In fact, it will
continue for the rest of your career.
In asking for a job, as in asking for other things in life,
it pays to develop the capability to handle "no" as an answer.
