As Lauren mentioned in her post just a little while ago, we have exciting news to report from the postacademic blogosphere!
After months of ranting away on our own blogs, several of us (me, Lauren, Currer and Jet) have decided to move forward with a centralized website and e-book that will provide resources for folks who are contemplating leaving academia, as well as support for those who have already left.
The website won't be up and running for a little while, although we do have a URL and an outline, so it's definitely going to happen. :) The book will follow once the website is up and running, and once we get a sense for the type of information people seem to be looking for and how we can best complement what's on the site.
Our initial plan for the website is for it to provide concrete, tangible information about how to leave academia (how to tell your advisor, how to write a resume, how to deal with financial and other issues that might arise), as well as support and resources to help you make the decision that's best for you and to keep yourself emotionally on-track.
So! We have plans, and we're excited about them! And this is where you come in.
First, if any of you have any knowledge of web design and would like to volunteer some of your time and expertise to help us set up the website, we would be very grateful. Please email myself or Lauren (her email address can be found here).
Second, if there is anything in particular that you'd like to see us cover on the site or in the e-book, please email one of us or leave your idea in comments below. Is there some tidbit of information you've been looking for in the postacademic blogosphere that you haven't found yet? Something you wish you'd known before you left? Now's your chance to speak up.
Third ... if you, yourself, have an idea for something you'd like to write for the site? We'd like that too. We're organizing the site, but we have no intention of being the sole contributors of content. Email me or Lauren.
And fourth ... if there are articles or links or forums or anything else that you've found in your journey around the internet that postacademics might find interesting or useful, leave them in comments or send them in an email. The website is going to be full of links to other interesting and informative stuff, and we'd love to include the stuff that you've found helpful.
That's it for now. We hope you guys are as excited about this project as we are, and we hope some of you will be able to help us out! Have a great night...
I cannot wait for what you all put together. You are doing a great service to graduate students everywhere.
ReplyDeleteMaybe when I tell (soon to be former) colleagues about an awesome *website* they can go to when they feel as horrible as we all seem to, it will stick. Sad to say but telling people that I read a life-changing "blog post" has resulted in much less interest and enthusiasm than it honestly should! :/
Thanks for writing life-changing blog posts because they've corrected my thought processes tremendously.
Could you, perhaps, include interviews with people who tried TT employment and then left for the sake of comparison between the academic and non-academic world and develop the theme of how a person would know that they are ready to leave/have had enough of academia? Thank you for your great contribution to collective wisdom and life-changing service.
ReplyDeleteI would love to help!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I can't create a website or an actual e-book or any of the other technological stuff required to pull this off.
I CAN, however, contribute my story. I just registered with a temp agency yesterday and am going to another couple next week, plus, I'm going to start applying for regular full time positions. My job in the community college has become unbearable and students have turned into "customers". It's awful. My hope is that I will get full time employment (even if that means leaving my CC full time gig in the middle of the semester....don't care anymore) and be able to contribute my story. I would love to use a pseudonym for this, if possible. I think that would help everyone because it's really not about anyone's name, but what they did that's important.
I've been copying blog posts that I really enjoy and that inspire me (yours included) and created a folder on my computer called "leaving academia". I also have a matching folder for bookmarks on my browser, of places that inspire me to leave academia. I don't know exactly "what" part I will play in all of this, but I do know that I would love to tell my story. It would be my own little contribution to the bigger picture.
Web design isn't too hard to learn. Why don't you do it yourself and develop a new job skill at the same time?
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm unable to contribute any skills (no website design expertise) or stories (still a first year graduate student), I could suggest some ideas... Maybe the website could feature how the skills one learns in academia can be transferred to non-academic jobs? As in, how does one "sell" your skills in cover letters and resumes?
ReplyDeleteAlso, what can current graduate students who are looking at non-academic jobs do to boost their chances in non-academic jobs? (e.g., networking, doing part-time work.)
I'm sure you guys are already thinking of the above suggestions =) I'm excited and can't wait for the website to be up!