‘The most compelling common denominator among people who have adopted the “alt-academic” moniker is that they tend to […] incorporate scholarly methods into the way that work is done. They engage in work with the same intellectual curiosity that fuelled the desire to go to graduate school in the first place.”
– Katina L. Rogers, Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (2020: 13)
If we’re going to have a competition for a winner in the ‘most-commonly-asked-PhD-careers-question-in-Holly’s-guidance-practice’ category… this question about the possibility of ‘coming back’ after ‘leaving’ academia would be up there, not too far behind ‘I don’t want to stay in academia, what else can I do?!’
Sometimes I feel it’s asked out of fear, like: ‘If I move into a different, uncharted career area and hate it, can I come back to my comfort zone?’
Other times, it’s curiosity: ‘If I fancy doing something different for a while, does that close the door if I then fancy pivoting back?’
Either way, I felt like there was only one way to approach this question, and that was… asking people who’ve done it. So, that’s what I did! So, let’s dive in and meet our first ‘returner,’ Fiona Schulz.
After her PhD in Metallurgy, Fiona worked in industry for two years before returning to academia for a postdoc in Sweden, followed by a further postdoc in Germany. As someone who had returned to academia after a few years away, I was eager to hear more about Fiona’s journey and her experience of ‘coming back.’
From the outset, Fiona was clear that several personal (as well as professional) reasons had shaped her career trajectory so far. Whilst her initial decision to stay in the UK and move into industry post-PhD was influenced by lack of postdoc funding and family illness, equally, the consequences of Brexit and organisational changes in her previous company impacted her choice to then move to academic research in the EU. I thought that was worth pausing on to begin, as it’s super-important to appreciate how ‘work’ has to fit with ‘life,’ and hence how our career decisions can often be led by factors beyond our control: health; family; finances; and the profound impact of questionable and irresponsible government policy… erm, I mean… a changing economic and political landscape.
The first thing I learned from speaking to Fiona was:
Takeaway 1: rather than always being a ‘hindrance,’ in some cases industry experience could actually ENABLE you to move back to academia
Fiona explains how this worked for her, both in terms of subject specialism and transferable skills:
My job in industry exposed me to a new technology: additive manufacturing of metals. It’s fascinating especially since it’s so multi-disciplinary. But, I kept asking more fundamental questions – not just “how can I make this work” but “why does this work, but not that?” So, I looked around for jobs quite broadly and saw a postdoc advert that matched my experience well and I went for it.’
Interesting. Rather than the usual reticence I hear around one’s ability to leave academia and then come back, it was Fiona’s industry experience that had actually exposed her to the discipline of additive manufacturing, sparked her passion in the field, and led to her seeking opportunities to immerse herself in it more deeply.
However, Fiona made it clear that it wasn’t just on the technical side that industry experience might actually facilitate, rather than factor out, a return to academic work.
Leaving academia has enabled me to learn how to connect both worlds, she pointed out. And a great point it is, too. Fiona continued: The skills learned ‘outside’ academia are absolutely applicable, if not outright beneficial, in academia. For example, it shouldn’t be underestimated how experience on both sides helps when it comes to funding applications and industry collaboration – it helps with understanding what both sides want and need, and knowing the needs of industry can help to generate relevant research ideas since not all academic work can be ‘blue sky’ research.
From Fiona’s comments here, I could see how plenty of skills and insights gained from working in industry could be ‘selling points’ to academic employers, especially given the growing emphasis on knowledge exchange, external collaboration, and impact beyond the academy. I regularly see academic job descriptions from UK universities include things like ‘you will contribute to knowledge exchange, enterprise, and business engagement,’ and ‘engaging in research and enterprise activities and participating in external networks.’ This week I even saw an advert for an Assistant Professor in Healthcare Technologies that said ‘industrial experience, either through working in or with industry, would be desirable.’ With activities like these increasingly high on the academic agenda, it’s clear that industry experience can, in some cases, be an asset for moving back into academia.
However, that said:
Takeaway 2: BUT… clear overlap between ‘industrial’ (whatever that means for you) and academic roles is important
When I asked Fiona how she found the experience of moving ‘out of’ then ‘back into academia,’ she admitted both moves felt fairly easy, but… the roles had a fair bit of overlap. The research centre I worked at in Sweden specialised in the development of metal additive manufacturing. My industry job was actually what qualified me for the postdoc there, as it was my first exposure to the field of additive manufacturing.
So, mobility between industry and academia is certainly possible as Fiona’s career so far shows… but the more your industry experience complements the focus of the academic positions for which you intend to apply, the better your chances are of moving ‘back in.’
Takeaway 3: It’s not always just about ‘leaving’ and ‘coming back…’ often, it’s about a more fluid evolution of your academic identity
Ok… what do I mean by this? To explain, I want to turn to a recent conversation with another PhD graduate. Following a PhD in Ancient History and Archaeology, Lisa Alberici applied for a number of lectureships within her subject area, but always seemed to come second. Lisa explains: After a few years of temporary teaching contracts, I moved into academic-related roles leading initiatives in widening participation and enhancing the student experience.
What interested me most about Lisa’s career to date was that after holding a range of what we might consider ‘academic-adjacent’ job titles including ‘Student Experience Manager’ and ‘Academic Developer,’ her current position is listed as ‘Senior Lecturer in Academic Practice.’ Not Senior Lecturer in Ancient History, or Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, but Senior Lecturer… in something that didn’t sound like her original academic discipline.
When I asked for the lowdown on her current role, Lisa explained that it involves managing an Academic Professional Programme: A masters-level professional development programme to help early-career Lecturers develop their academic practice, in areas such as session and module design, inclusive teaching practices, and research-teaching synergies. In addition, Lisa added, I have been a Director of Digital Learning as part of my current role, working on projects such as creating virtual escape rooms for use in learning and teaching.
Very cool. At face value then, it seemed to me that Lisa had ‘left’ her original academic discipline (Ancient History & Archaeology) and ‘re-entered’ academia through an entirely different field (Academic Practice). However, rather than adhering to this discourse of ‘leaving’ and ‘coming back,’ Lisa instead presents her career so far as an evolution of her academic identity.
During my PhD, she explained, I had the opportunity to find out what kind of academic I was and wanted to be. I was able to establish some of my core principles such as a commitment to inclusive practice, and an interest in active and emerging education. Lisa then went on to ping a big lightbulb, saying that being an academic was always a core part of my professional identity; whatever my contract said, I believe in and work towards rigorous, evidence-based practice and rigorous, ethical research. It was largely because of this that I felt able to apply for a Lecturer in Academic Practice role even though I had been in academic-related and professional services roles for nearly nine years.
What I took from Lisa’s observation here is that movement between academia and other sectors/ types of work isn’t just facilitated by the transferability of relevant subject knowledge, technical skills, and ‘people’ skills. Career moves ‘back into’ academia can also be facilitated by the transferability of a more general ‘academic mindset.’
Lisa’s comments highlight that whatever kind of work she was doing at any point post-PhD, she was approaching and accomplishing this work in an academic way. Being an ‘academic’ isn’t just about what you do, it’s about how you do it. This means that:
a) Even after time away from traditional academic research and teaching, there are opportunities to move into academic positions like Lisa’s, which focus on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of what it takes ‘be an academic’ (i.e. academic practice);
But what I also took from Lisa’s comments was:
b) It’s also possible to transition into a different line of work, and use your academic mindset and ‘researcher brain’ to move into the scholarly practice, research, and even the teaching of that new field.
I related to this in a big way: when I started working in the field of career guidance, I soon realised that I was bringing the same evidence-based approach to my careers work as I’d brought to my previous research in literature and cultural geography. A few years down the line, it therefore came as no surprise that I started applying for lecturing jobs teaching on Masters programmes in coaching and career guidance. So, even if you leave your original PhD discipline – or ‘leave academia’ entirely – contributing to the research, scholarship, and teaching/ training of your new field certainly remains an option through which to ‘return to’ academia. Could I now ‘go back’ and apply for an academic job in a literature department? Almost certainly not, as I haven’t stayed ‘current’ in that field. However, I do now still contribute to academic knowledge and scholarship… in my new field of careers guidance.
Overall then, talking to both Fiona and Lisa brought me to the following conclusion about this question of whether you can ‘return’ to academia after you’ve ‘left’:
If what you mean is ‘If I leave the field of Byzantine history/ cold atom physics/ contemporary British literature, and I go do something different for a while, can I then reapply for academic jobs back in Byzantine history/ cold atom physics/ contemporary British literature? … then the answer is going to be highly dependent on how active and up-to-date you’ve remained in your original field, and/or how relevant your other work experience has been.
However, if instead you ask ‘if I leave my original academic (PhD) discipline, can I still ‘be an academic?’ … then the evidence overwhelmingly suggests YES, YOU CAN.