#Dispatches From the Frontlines series crowdsources questions to get a broad survey of how the academic community is coping with various challenges.
This week’s question is the same as last week’s: How has COVID impacted your career planning? We’ll continue on this for next week as well. Share your response here.
The responses are INTENSE. This is a generational collapse, and I can’t see how academia will recover.
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I’m much more strongly considering leaving academia; or at least transitioning away from a faculty role. my pay was bad (less than $42k on the tenure track), but there was a good chance for a significant raise after my mid-tenure review. Then the COVID raise freezes happened. My teaching and service take up so much of my time I don’t even know if I’ll have the scholarship for a good tenure file (even if I take the year extension). Maybe there’s nothing noble about keeping a job that pays badly. Maybe there are other things I could do, and maybe I should look into them. Once I started teaching I never thought I’d want to do anything else; when I took the job with the low pay, all the other good things about the job seemed to make up for that. All those good things are gone now, though. (Asst Prof, Hum)
My school terminated my program and I’ll be getting laid off after I finish teaching all the majors/minors (I’m the only one in my program). I’ve played the academic jobs game for so long and am just tired of rationalizing the worthiness of my own discipline. Organic chem did its job of weeding me out in undergrad, but I’ve always maintained an interest in health and wellness. I am thinking about nursing school, where I can live where I want, and my career will be understood and seen as worthy.(Asst Prof getting laid off, SS)
When I moved to the rural area for the job, I thought it would be okay. There was a mid-size city nearby and another university super close by. I just wanted a place that I could make a home. Now? I would jump in heartbeat for a job closer to home and to my family. This has been brutal being single and alone through this. A grad school advisor told me that academia was lonely, but I think this is reaching new depths. (Assistant Prof, SS)
While I’m still on the academic career path, the pandemic has set me back on publishing a major paper to help with job apps for this round. I’m in a tough position where I will soon have to either try to push for promotion at my institution or leave academia. My husband and I are wanting to start a family and so either I have to start this new venture of becoming faculty or taking a R&D job in industry. We simply can not afford it where we live. This change of thought has also opened my eyes to see how the family benefits and compensation are just so much better in industry and may be worth moving towards even with a potential position in academia which is far less family friendly and much more difficult to succeed as a woman with young children. (Postdoc STEM)
I was fortunate to shift into a non-academic analytic career. I am much happier, far less stressed out, and feel more secure than I have in the last 10 years. (Non-ac PhD, Hum)
Becoming more ok w idea of clinical position of this doesn’t work out. Academia seems a bit archaic and pointless when lots of horrible stuff is happening (Asst Prof, SS)
I have decided to retire before my job is cut. If I can retire with health insurance (after teaching college for 30 yrs but never able to get a tenure track position) I will retire in May. It scares me to death because I love to do research and always wanted to be tenured so I could do research and work with grad students. But it is clear this will never happen. So now I have to start to envision what my life will be in retirement. Will have time to finally write a book? Can I continue to publish with my wonderful collaborators without feeling the pressure to do so? Will I be able to withstand not having access to resources/articles/books? What will I do with my time (will I be one of those Hallmark junkies that I hear about)? (NTT, SS)
Unsure how the current contraction of the academic job market will shake out. Would be happy to look for non academic work if I thought that were possible. (NTT Professional PhD)
I landed a fellowship to complete my dissertation, busted my butt as hard as I could, helped unionize my fellow graduate workers, published an article, submitted a book proposal, and still haven’t gotten a bite from the handful of jobs in my field. Karen, you’re right. I’m reading the writing on the wall and it’s time to pack up my $130,000 in debt and try another industry. (Grad student, Hum)
staying out of academia, more adjunct positions and everything being in the air makes the career choice less inviting. gave up on a lot this year but the pandemic forced me to think more of working in industry, preferably away far away from a wet lab and other persons. (Grad student, STEM)
I took a full time job this year while on fellowship and I love it so much more than being a grad student, but I can’t quit my program because I don’t make enough to pay my student loans, much less save for a baby. So I’m just trying to force myself to start a dissertation and stay in good standing with the dept so I can continue to defer my loans while trying to figure out my career options. (Grad student SS)
I used to use language about the university as “home” and my colleagues as “family.” I plan to never do that again. (Asst Prof, Hum)
The pandemic has convinced me that grad programs are degree mills to support the academic way, not gateways to knowledge. I’m still being told to keep with the program and finish it even though the jobs I went into my program wanting to do no longer exist because of the budget crisis. There’s no real talk about what the future is like because it honestly all feels unsustainable. (Grad student, Hum)
I was supposed to move abroad to follow my advisor who changed institutions, but that has been delayed indefinitely due to COVID. I am also looking at probably an extra year of PhD before graduation. COVID has really affected my output, and I’m getting anxious about being able to find a good postdoc for after graduation, even a few years out. (Grad student, STEM)
I’m done looking for academic jobs. I’ve been saying “Just one more year!” for four years too many, and this is just the door closing behind me. Ordinarily I can get a few interviews and a campus visit or two in my field, which has kept me hanging on, but literally none of the jobs being advertised in the larger discipline right now are a plausible stretch for my subfield. I plan to teach the classes I have scheduled for the spring, but even if I could stay on as contingent faculty in the fall, I wouldn’t. I’ll use the winter break to make my hypothetical post-ac transition plans more realistic. I’m not very confident yet about what direction to take next, but I know can feel my shoulders relax when I think about not having to deal with this job market again. I used to feel a twinge of regret and anxiety when I considered leaving, but right now, that’s gone. (NTT, SS)
The pandemic has been a brutal awakening that has made me reflect on how I have been groomed by my grad program to accept abuse. To accept being disposable, to accept low pay or no pay for highly valuable work, to accept neglect and lack of leadership, to constantly be critiqued and never celebrated, to have your life absolutely not matter, to be taken from and never poured back into. I’m also exhausted from being told my advocacy work is “not scholarly” and that I should establish myself as a scholar before trying to help the community with my work. I am exiting academia the second I have a diploma in my hand, starting my own business, and making my own table, because I’m tired of fighting for a seat at a table with a bunch of clowns, just because I’m told it’s exclusive and coveted. Mic drop. I’m out!!! (Grad student, SS)
I was part of two active searches when the pandemic hit. Both moved forward and I made it to the semifinal stage of one and the final stage of the other. Both were canceled due to “these unprecedented times,” but one offered an adjunct line at reduced pay. I recently found out I had not been renewed next semester when they posted the course schedule and my name was not listed. This was the final straw for me, I give up on academia. I’ve decided I can make more money and be happier and healthier elsewhere. (NTT, SS)
I am a full prof and dept chair, considered mid-career. My SLAC, like so many others, is under pressure by the board to reduce faculty, and since I am in the performing arts we are extremely vulnerable. I had been thinking about moving into admin (and interviewed for such positions elsewhere over the last two years). Now? I don’t think you could pay me any amount to take on the problems that lie ahead in higher ed. I could be unemployed in the next few years, whether it’s involuntary separation or from the institution going under. If either of those happens I will just find some other random job here in the same town, where the cost of living is low, even though this is not where we would have chosen to live had it not been for my teaching position. We are racing to pay down our house and student loans while we can still count on the income. (Tenured, Arts/Music/Theater)
The 20-21 academic year has shattered my delusion that the university gives two shits about me. I‘ve repeatedly watched them prioritize student/parent concerns about in-person classes over campus community safety. When I transitioned to my role, I planned to complete my PhD. I’m ABD, but I have no desire to finish at this point. I worry that on the other side of this pandemic lies an increased reliance on adjuncts (since now schools have realized they can hire them from anywhere in the country) and even fewer full-time instructor lines. Frankly, the amount of earning potential I’ve sacrificed while working as a GTA and entry-level staff has become overwhelming. Even with cobbling together secret, online adjunct gigs, I’ve been going into more and more debt to manage my healthcare (which, admittedly, requires more money than is typical for someone my age due to my disability). It’s just not worth it anymore. I’ve also realized that my disability is tremendously easier to manage working from home, which the university will never allow me to do full time (because students’ desires to see me in person will trump my quality of life concerns). So…I’m looking for a fully remote position outside of the university where I can use the marketable skills from my master’s and time in higher ed to start making a living wage. I don’t know what, exactly comes next. But this academic year has certainly shown me what doesn’t, and I’m grateful for the taste of WFH that helped me see my quality of life could be so much better. (Full Time Academic Staff, STEM)
Switched the order of my career plans: industry is now plan A, academia a solidly behind plan B. And I’ve stopped feeling guilty about talking time to build my network and do professional development — since this PhD alone is extremely unlikely to land an academic job, I now know I have to take the responsibility on myself. (Grad student, STEM)
I think the major impact for me is the fact world is still (unfortunately) fully digitalized so when the pandemic hit, slow bureaucratic processes are made even more slow and complicated. I am saying as someone who started their PhD during a pandemic and is still struggling to move to the new place. (Grad student, STEM)
I see how my BIPOC and international colleagues and peers and students have struggled and been left out of relief responses. I’ve taken on more projects specifically to help them out and even though I’m treading water right now, am even more determined to keep playing the academia game. If I can even make a difference in one or two lives, then it will all be worth it. (Grad student, SS)
At the beginning I was very “academic or bust” – not that I didn’t realize how rare these jobs are and are becoming, but rather that I thought I’d rather have a crappy job I hate with a chance to stay in academia rather than resorting to other options. I’m on the market and I have had some academic interviews that made me realize that just GETTING an academic job – even if it’s somehow miraculously TT – is only part of the battle. (Grad student, STEM)
A new baby plus lack of consistent childcare that felt safe due to COVID delayed the completion of my dissertation by one year. I am about to defend and will graduate in Spring but am not excited and not actively seeking employment yet because it doesn’t seem possible. On the one hand I’m bitter that I’ve worked so hard for so long and tell myself it’s only temporary, while at the same time I’ve learned how much I love being with my child full time. It’s confusing and I guess I’m just ready for a break from scrambling to write during naps and weekends. (Grad student, SS)
I am leaving academia entirely to become a nurse. Academic jobs do not offer the stability nor promise of improvement. The pandemic has reaffirmed my decision given the especially bleak academic job market. I feel liberated by this decision. However, many others in the department do not consider leaving an r1 department. (Grad student, SS)
Gratitude to have escaped the University overwork/underpaid delusion (Chief Scientist Res. Center, STEM)
Honestly, I’m worried. I’m soft-money and R&A funding was cut this year to augment existing grants, which knee caps those of us who got jobs but don’t have our own funding yet. I have spent 2020 doing an MBA and coding classes in case I need to change careers. I can’t afford to be unemployed. I am applying for 1 academic position at my favorite Uni I ever worked for, but I realize this is a lateral move at best and may offer me even less security. Most days I feel so stressed, isolated, and overwhelmed that I’m not sure I’m making good choices. I tell myself that’s how everyone feels. I’m just keep prepping for all the potential outcomes and hoping for the best.(Non-ac PhD, STEM)
Well, I wasn’t planning on doing a masters until 2020 when I signed up to do a writers competition and found I adored it. With the extended time off (pandemic), I was able to spend hours learning as much as I could about creative writing, and then when that wasn’t enough I applied to do a masters, starting in September. My ambition hasn’t changed drastically in the academic year itself, if anything it has been solidified. If my masters was a test for whether I do enjoy writing, so far the results are: yes you do!! Keep going! (Grad student, Hum)
I had a lot of misgivings about academia early in my graduate career, but it’s been a long time since I felt like I wanted to leave. I was so lucky to get an offer this year of all years, but my university has just pummeled us into the mud. Most of us have to teach in person, and I’ve had significant trouble getting a doctor in town to approve an ADA accommodation. Our provost is “not giving concessions” for our tenure and promotion for this year, and admin is really rushed and condescending when faculty ask about the COVID response. I’m serving as a tutor to international students (I’m not TESOL certified), a therapist for domestic students (I’m not even remotely qualified), plus trying to fill in the gaps in resources for online teaching for our department. The hardest part has been the lack of relationship-building my department has engaged in with me. I really did get a job offer and then was asked to jump in the deep end to do my job without much help at all. It’s the loneliest I’ve ever been, due in no small part to being in the Deep South where even the way academics communicate is passive aggressively. There’s rules to who I can talk to and how, and no one has told me what those rules are. I can’t get good healthcare here, either, so there’s just not a lot that makes me feel positive, outside of my students who are so kind I can’t stand it some days. I lost my mentor to suicide this semester, and my students were the only ones who told me to take the time I needed to grieve, despite the fact that they didn’t have a drop of power to make that wish real. I sound like I’m venting, but it’s just building and building to a point that I don’t know if I’ll survive if I stay. (Asst Prof, Hum)
Along with all of the contextual chaos, this year was one of being tossed in the waves of a fruitless tenure track search and eventually being coughed onto the shores without any offers. The rejection was painful after almost 20 years of teaching in higher education. No pathways emerged, and I have found myself too burnt out with teaching to endure another year. As was said in a recent article you posted, teaching has no “academic currency,” and for me, without tenure status, it is a dead end. I am taking my shipwrecked dreams and casting out in an alt-ac direction. Feeling more hopeful and realizing that parting ways with the neoliberal dominance and destruction in higher ed may eventually be one of the greatest gifts in my professional journey. (NTT Professional Field)
Happy to work outside academia, can be productive and fruitful without it (Grad student, SS)
a pretty campus and inviting collegial culture are less appealing when you don’t actually go into campus and don’t hang out with colleagues lol. Part of me wishes I was at a “less desirable” school in a cooler town, on the coast somewhere…(Asst prof, SS)
I no longer see a path to permanent, non-contingent academic employment. I’m fortunate that I have viable non-academic prospects, but it is no longer realistic to devote time and energy to searching for jobs that just don’t exist or, when they do, have so many qualified applicants that its literally a lottery. (NTT, Hum)
Honestly, my thinking is this was a bad idea. The first couple of years things went well, and there were only a few students appealing grades or missing too much class to pass. This semester my nerves are stretched to breaking from the number of students who failed a class–only to appeal that to the Dean, who then came to me asking what happened. That process makes me second-guess myself and fell unsupported by my leadership. Also makes me aware how things have changed since I was an undergrad, in that it never would have occurred to me or friends then to go to the Dean to complain about a grade. Feel like I’m getting attacked from all sides with support from none, and it’s just not worth it when I’m risking my health at a campus that has continued in-person classes throughout the pandemic. (Asst prof, SS)
I would summarize my change in career thinking as follows: fuck this, I don’t care. The caring has ceased. Perhaps it is the pandemic-related depression, the closure of doors for advancement (or even a cost-of-living salary raise) in higher ed, or simply seeing so much suffering everywhere around me this year. But truly — screw careers. I want health, stability, and a happy family. I have to work a job to ensure those bigger-picture items, but I am moving on from a “career-ist” mindset where my self worth is tied up in distinguishing myself professionally. (Non-ac PhD, SS)
I left a stable (but miserable) job to pursue a PhD and hoped to work in academia, even knowing it was a long shot then. Now that I’m ABD, and given 2020, it’s become abundantly clear that there is no future in academia for me. This has been a major shift in my thinking over the past several months as the academic job market has collapsed. My motivation to do any academic work aside from finishing the dissertation has all but evaporated, because I feel that time is now better spent on other types of professional development. I have a sense of displacement and estrangement from the types of work that I have come to enjoy over the past several years, and intense trepidation about moving back into a corporate role (it’s not like jobs are plentiful in most industries right now, after all). I don’t want to wind up back in a job that I hate, but my program has also not prepared me for a return to industry work, and figuring out my next steps is contributing to my anxiety. (Grad student, Hum)
I used to think academia *needed* scholarship that has traditionally been marginalized or excluded. Now I’ve come around to thinking that academia doesn’t deserve any of that. Amazing, cutting-edge work, thought, and conversation can thrive outside the exploitative, white supremacist settler institution that is the American academy. (Grad student, Hum)
I went from unknown career path > other professional school > academic/TT path > industry > government. It’s been a rollercoaster of terrifying uncertainty. (Grad student, STEM)
I’ve become more invested in making sure my research reaches people outside academia. It’s hit home that there are many people out there who would enjoy and learn from humanities research and knowledge but there’s a huge barrier to entry. I’ve been in my hometown for the past year. I ordered a book from my local indie bookstore for research and the young guy behind the counter asked me all kinds of questions about it and was clearly into the subject (German Expressionist Film). In my area young people often work 3 jobs to keep things afloat, and not all go to college, let alone get graduate degrees. With the pandemic plus the election I’ve become very uncomfortable cloistering myself in the academic bubble when I believe what I do is interesting and important. I’m going to wait and see what my employment option (Grad student, STEM)
The job market seems unsustainable, and this career does not fit the type of academic I wish to be. (Postdoc, SS)
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