• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

  • Home
  • Courses & Events
    • How To …
    • The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
    • The Art of the Article
    • Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
    • On Demand Courses
    • Upcoming Live Webinars
    • Free Productivity Webinars
    • Gift Certificates
  • Personalized Job Help
    • Document Editing
    • Quick Reviews
    • Specials
    • Interview Prep
    • Personal Negotiating Assistance
    • One on One Career Consults
    • Testimonials
    • Interview Testimonials
    • Graduate School Application Assistance
  • Productivity
  • Coaching
    • Productivity Coaching
    • Private Coaching
    • Leaving Academia Coaching Group
  • The Professor Is Out
    • It’s OK to Quit
    • Our Art of Leaving Program
    • Prof Is OUT Services
    • Our Prof Is OUT Team
    • Prof is OUT Client Testimonials
    • Ex-Academics: A TPIO Support Community
  • Workshops
  • Blog
Ivory Towers in The Rearview Mirror: Lindsay Barone

Ivory Towers in The Rearview Mirror: Lindsay Barone

By Karen Kelsky | January 6, 2021

We continue with our new column, featuring interviews with PhDs who have charted a course unrelated to the tenure track, putting academia squarely in the rearview mirror.

Our hope is that seeing and hearing from a wide range of PhDs who are celebrating their careers rather than settling for them will inspire every grad student, ABD and PhD to add the road OFTEN traveled to their list of options.

We are excited to hear and share your stories. If you have a PhD and are working outside of the academy and would like to share your experience with TPII readers, we’d love to hear from you!

Share Your Post Ac Story Here

Today we are pleased to feature Dr. Lindsay Barone

PhD Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

When I started my Ph.D., the goal was never to get a traditional tenure-track job. From the moment I began my master’s, my plan was to develop a career in museum work. I took a year off after completing my M.S., worked in a small medical history museum, and then decided to return for my Ph.D. because I was, at the time, mostly interested in curatorial positions, I felt that having a Ph.D. would give me a leg up.

The Ph.D. did not change my goal. I still wanted a job in museums and informal education, I just became more interested in research & evaluation rather than curation.

At the time I started applying for jobs, 90% of them were in program and exhibit evaluation. Many of them were at museums, but some were for evaluation firms that did a lot of natural history and science-focused program evaluation.

When I graduated in 2015, I was hired to be program evaluator for the DNA Learning Center in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. They were looking for someone who had biology knowledge and social science research skills and I fit the bill. 

In December 2019, I left that job to start my own evaluation firm (Barone Research Services, www.baroneresearch.com). In addition to evaluation,  I also theoretically do other academic-type tasks (assisting with grant writing, course development, IRB submissions, etc.),  but all of my current clients have hired me to be the external evaluator on their grant-funded science education projects.

Because I was working for a science center based at a research laboratory, I was still doing a lot of “traditional” academic things (grant writing, publishing, occasionally teaching). Now, though, I am having to learn how to run a business and there are a lot of little things I had no idea about.

I wish I would have taken more practical, skill-building courses. Theory is great, but can only take you so far. I also don’t know that I necessarily needed the Ph.D. for my current job, but it did allow me to develop my research skills further and I’m glad I did it.

I think the most important thing for anyone considering a transition away from the academy is for them to figure out what their skills translate to in a non-academic setting. We’re all pretty good at conducting research by the time we’re done with a Ph.D., but learning how to take those academic skills and interpret them for a non-academic audience is the key to getting a job. It’s all in the framing!

Similar Posts:

  • Ivory Towers in the Rearview Mirror: Allison Yakel
  • From Science Researcher to Academic Writing Coach  – Guest Post
  • Always Have a Side Hustle, and Other Lessons I Learned from Academia – WOC Guest Post
  • Upcoming Coaching Events for Scholars in Crisis
  • The Question Is Not The Question, Postac Version – Langer

Filed Under: Goodbye Ivory Towers, Quitting--An Excellent Option, Rearview Mirror

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Buy My Book!

4.8 stars on Amazon!

The_Professor_Is_In.indd

Get Immediate Help

In addition to our blog and book, we have upcoming live webinars, pre-recorded webinars and other programs that you can get started on right away:

The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
The Art of the Article
Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
Quick Reviews
Free Productivity Webinars

Categories

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Academic Job Search
    • How To Choose and Manage Recommenders
    • How to Interview
    • How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters
    • How To Write CVs
    • Landing Your Tenure Track Job
    • Major Job Market Mistakes
    • Negotiating Offers
  • Adjunct Issues
  • Advising Advice
  • Alt-University Critique
  • Black Lives Matter
  • COVID19
  • Dispatches
  • Goodbye Ivory Towers
  • Graduate Student Concerns
    • Bad Advisors and Good Mentors
  • How To Do Conferences
  • How to Get Grants and Fellowships
  • International Perspectives
  • Intersectional Analyses
  • Makeup
  • Marginalized Voices
  • Mental Health and Academia
  • Ph.D. Poverty
  • Podcast
  • Post-Ac Free-Lancing and Small Business
  • Post-Ac Job Search
    • Careers Outside
  • Postdoc Issues
  • Productivity
    • Book Proposals and Contracts
    • Publishing Issues
    • Writing
  • Promote Yourself!
  • Quitting–An Excellent Option
  • Racism in the Academy
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Resumes & Postac Docs
  • Sexual Harassment in the Academy
  • Shame
  • Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student
  • Strategizing Your Success in Academia
  • Teaching and Research Statements
  • Teaching Demos
  • Teaching Portfolios
  • Tenure–How To Get It
    • How To Build Your Tenure File
    • Surviving Assistant Professorhood
  • The Campus Visit
  • Unstuck
  • Webinars
  • What Not To Wear
  • Women of Color in Academia
  • Work/Life Balance in Academia
  • Yes, You Can: Women in Academia
  • Your Second and Third Jobs

Footer

About Us

  • Who Is Dr. Karen?
  • Who Is On the TPII Team?
  • In The News
  • Contact Me
  • FAQs
    • Why Trust Me?
  • Testimonials

Community

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Peer Editing
  • PhD Debt Survey
  • Support Fund
  • I Help With Custody Cases for Academics

Copyright © 2023 The Professor Is In·

We Are Redefining Academic Community

That’s why we upgraded our private
Mighty Network.

We are committed to building a community with a focus on productivity support. Every day, in a dedicated space, we offer free coaching advice and encouragement. And the couple thousand people who have already joined are steadily building a supportive and interactive community devoted to that elusive idea of work-life balance.

Learn More

Get on Dr. Karen's Schedule

Get on my schedule to work on your tenure track job cover letter, CV, grant applications, book proposals, interview preparation, and more.  [si-contact-form form=’2′]