Dear Reader,
The hardest part of leaving academia isn’t the job search itself.
Yep.
It’s the years of conditioning that make brilliant, passionate people feel like failures long after they’ve left.
You can get out on paper—land a good job, even one you enjoy—and still feel weighed down by academic culture.
That voice in your head whispers things like:
- I can’t be a real scholar or researcher because I don’t have a tenure-track job.
- I wasted years of my life on a useless degree.
- Everyone else has figured this out but me.
- If I leave academia, I’ll never respect myself, or earn the respect of others.
That’s the identity trap. And it really gums up the wheels of your job search.
It also makes living “your one wild and precious life” impossible.
This week I heard from PhDs at different stages of their careers about their struggles with this exact issue.
What they wrote really hit home for me, and I want to share some of what they said. (You can read all their comments on LinkedIn; link below.)
One of my former clients, Helen, put it this way:
“Getting a job was part of this process… but had I not done this work with you I would have stayed with the feelings of failure (that I didn’t make it as an academic and that I wasted my degree) and inadequacy (that I wasn’t doing ‘real’ intellectual work anymore) for a whole lot longer, maybe forever. Even with a job that I enjoyed, these feelings would have clouded my enjoyment of my new career.”
Feelings of failure and inadequacy, despite a successful (by all other accounts) job search!
And those negative thoughts and emotions don’t just cloud your perception of what’s actually going on once you leave.
They also makes the job search itself a lot more challenging than it needs to be.
It can prevent you from ever getting a better-for-you role, despite your very best efforts.
That’s why practical shifts matter too; those seemingly small mindset and strategy changes that suddenly make the whole process lighter, smoother, faster.
Here’s what Leah shared about our work together during her own job search:
“One valuable thing you taught me… don’t burn yourself out applying to jobs you do NOT want. Apply for the jobs you DO want. After a year of applications and rejections, it was a light bulb moment. Within months I landed my current job, which I am LOVING.”
That’s the kicker: when you do the inner work of figuring yourself out now—what you want, what matters, how you measure success—not only does the process feel way better, you job search much more effectively.
Finally, I loved hearing from Luna, who wrote that she’s found this process more enjoyable than you might expect:
“I’ve done the whole ‘look at everything you’re good at and everything you like’ exercise. But for some reason doing it with your program uncovered completely new areas for me. And dare I say… it’s been a little fun.”
All these comments have me reflecting about what it is that I do, and how to talk about it.
People sometimes think of me as a “job search coach.” And they’re not wrong.
But what actually matters most in my work, and what sets me apart from other coaches is this:
I help people free themselves from academic self-conceptions that never served them.
So they can finally see their skills, their options, and their futures in a much more positive light.
Whether they’re just starting to think about leaving, deep in the job search, or realizing after the fact that their new role isn’t the right fit.
And then act accordingly, with true confidence and trust in themselves, to get where they want to go.
👉 Have thoughts on all this?
Head over to LinkedIn and add them to the thread!
Or, if you prefer to share just with me, hit reply and let me know what’s on your mind. I’d love to hear from you.
Cheers,
Jen
P.S. Want to explore working with me? Visit my Services page to learn about options, or reply to this email and let me know what you want my help with!
