In light of the shit show of unprecedented proportions that is academia at the present moment, post-ac coach Kel Weinhold and I launched a 12 part series on leaving academia called, Twelve Steps To A New Job.
Kel Weinhold, career coach for The Professor Is In, works with postdocs and PhDs at every stage of their careers (including leaving the tenure track hustle), and if you’re interested in talking through your options with them, you can always reach out at postac@theprofessorisin.com.
Each week Kel and I offer 30 minutes of (free) coaching advice on all aspects of the PhD journey.
Below is the synopsis of final webinar in the series.
Step 12: Give Back and Live the Change
Leaving academia is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of a new way of living it.
You’ve made it to Step 12. Whether you attended all the sessions, dipped in and out, or are arriving here first—this is a step you’ll return to again and again.
In traditional AA, Step 12 is about awakening, service, and practicing the principles in all your affairs. Our translation, shaped by the realities of academia, precarity, and deep personal unlearning, is this:
Give back, and live the change.
This step is not about perfection, and it’s not purely reflection. It’s application. It’s taking everything you’ve learned—from admitting powerlessness, seeking support beyond yourself, setting boundaries, reclaiming identity, detoxing from productivity worship, letting go of scarcity, making amends with the parts of yourself that complied with systems that harmed you, and putting it into motion.
Step 12 invites you to do three things:
1. Live with Your Eyes Open
You now see academia (and work) with clearer eyes. You can see structural harm without personalizing it. You recognize when despair is designed, not accidental. You know burnout isn’t a personal failure; it’s a feature of extractive systems. You’re learning to locate your identity not in your title, or in your institution, but in your values, your skills, your dignity.
Your task now? Keep seeing. Keep naming. Stay awake.
2. Share What You’ve Learned (Yes, Out Loud)
Academia thrives on silence, especially silence around leaving, exhaustion, burnout, racism, exploitation, or simply, wanting something more.
Step 12 breaks that silence.
Tell your story. Share what you’re learning. Whether on The Professor Is Out, with your peers, in support groups, on LinkedIn, at coffee with a colleague, just speak it.
“This is what I learned.
This is where I struggled.
This is what I’m still figuring out.
And here’s what helped.”
Not as a success story. Not as a LinkedIn “I’m thrilled to announce…” but as real, messy, human truth.
When we share, we de-shame, we normalize, we invite others to imagine differently. We build the connective tissue academia told us we never needed: community, accountability, solidarity, and collective sanity.
3. Practice the Change, Every Day (Imperfectly)
Step 12 is not theoretical. It’s wildly, courageously practical.
It looks like:
- Saying: “Let me think about that and get back to you.”
Saying: “I’ll check my schedule.”
Saying: “No, that doesn’t align with my capacity or values.”
Catching yourself when urgency, perfectionism, or martyrdom creeps back in.
Taking a nap, and allowing yourself to celebrate that nap.
Asking for help before you think you’ve “earned” it.
Asking: Does this role, decision, or request align with my values and goals?
And then, adjusting accordingly.
This is how you build a new normal. Not by leaving academia, nor by staying, but by refusing to live as if your worth is measured by how much you sacrifice yourself.
Why Giving Back Matters (Especially in a Time of Despair)
- Service is not martyrdom.
- Helping is not over-functioning.
- Giving back is not resume padding.
Giving back can be as simple as:
- Volunteering one hour where your presence helps someone feel less alone.
- Posting one honest reflection that helps someone else name their truth.
- Telling a colleague: “You don’t have to do more to be enough.”
- Being the person who says, “No, you’re not broken—this system is.”
Giving back is a radical antidote to despair because it reminds us:
We are not alone, and we are not powerless.
Isolation breeds shame. Community breeds clarity.
And clarity is what sets us free.
Where Do You Go From Here?
You keep practicing.
- You hold your boundaries, even when they wobble.
- You imagine your life after academia, or a healthier relationship with it, before it’s clear how to make it happen.
- You share what you’ve learned, not because you’ve mastered it, but because you’re living it.
- You keep your eye on values, not titles.
- You keep practicing the small rebellions: rest, joy, refusal, community-building, truth-telling.
And you remind others:
You don’t leave academia to start your real life.
You start living your real life—and sometimes, that leads you out.
This series may end at twelve steps, but the work doesn’t.
We’ll continue gathering, just now on Thursdays. And we’ll keep talking about:boundaries, transitions, mental health, leaving academia, staying without losing yourself, and building new models of work that don’t require self-erasure.
Thank you for showing up—for yourself, and for each other.
Keep living it. Keep sharing it.
Step 12 never ends
Leave a Reply