You’re here because you’re curious about alt-ac jobs for PhDs.
Or maybe you have no idea what that means! Read on.
Across most academic disciplines and departments, faculty work or a career within academia (as an instructor, researcher, or professor on or off the tenure track) is still seen as the default or most desirable option. While we all wish that weren’t so, it is what it is.
But now, even more graduate students, recent PhDs, and even faculty members recognize they may want or need to broaden their horizons when it comes to what’s possible for them and their students. Leaving academia is increasingly common.
One place many PhDs find meaningful work is within higher (post-secondary) education, in staff or administrative positions. These are often termed “alternative-academic” — alt-ac for short — jobs, especially by folks in the humanities and social sciences, who are more likely to work within higher ed than STEM PhDs, generally speaking.
What are these jobs? Here’s my list of alt-ac jobs at universities!
The links on the list are to existing Transition Q & A posts either published on this site or on my University Affairs blog. See the full list of TQAs here.
Note that this isn’t an exhaustive list of all alt-ac positions, and that every college and university is organized differently. Job titles are frequently not standardized across fields, so use the ones provided here as a starting point. Some of these positions will recruit PhDs specifically; others may be filled by someone who happens to have a doctorate, though that experience and credential is not required. Some of these positions will suit new graduates or recent postdocs; others are more senior.
The term “alt-ac” (for short) or #altac on social media includes roles outside higher ed as well. This list only points to jobs at colleges and universities.
