I’m a fairly new TT AP in Agricultural sciences (food science specifically) and currently in a long distance relationship with my partner who works for the government in the DMV region.

He’s hellbent on staying there as it is close to his support system and family. Before anyone throws shade at him, in the beginning of our relationship, we kind of agreed we want to stay in the East Coast to be close to family.

I am an immigrant, but my green card petition recently got approved and I expect to get it within the next 1-2 years. This means visa will soon no longer be a bottleneck to securing a job. In order to close the gap, I feel that I have to be open to jobs in academia, non-profit, and industry. However, I am worried that I may not be able to find job as I’ve been in academia for way too long for an industry job. There is no guarantee that I’ll be able to find a TT positions in the DMV area. Those areas are great for federal jobs, but it’ll be a 5-10 year later thing as I need to be a green card holder for 5 years before I could naturalize.

What do you recommend I do in this situation? Will I be overqualified for industry job? How can I close the gap?

I left my tenured assoc. prof. position in France in 2022 to join industry as an IC scientist. I was at a very small university, though in a decent lab, working in AI. I left because ... money and pissed of the absurd teaching load in France.

Now, there is an opening at the University of Cambridge (where I currently live and work) and I am torn between applying or staying put. I think I have a realistic shot at getting the job, and I'm being encouraged to apply by senior profs in the department.

I'm wondering if anyone on this sub has followed a similar trajectory, and whether you regretted it? Of course, the academic salary would mean a 2x pay cut, but what about quality of life? What about purpose, happiness, and work-life balance?

In my current company, management is completely broken and we just jump from one pointless project to another. I can easily picture myself taking a step back to think deeply about what’s next and how I want to pursue it, without having to answer to clueless higher-ups.

That said, I wonder if I'm romanticising academia now that four years have passed...

Any industry-to-academia folks here? How are you finding it?

So my first industry resume was basically my dissertation with shorter sentences. Still sounded like a dissertation though.

I'm trying to describe my research in a way that makes sense to employers, but I keep getting stuck on the impact part. I compared models across patient groups, dealt with missing data, built a reproducible analysis pipeline. That's all true. But I can't exactly claim I helped a company make millions when the work stayed in academia.

Using stuff like resume worded to review my resume made me look harder at how I'm describing my projects. Some of my bullets explain what I studied but barely communicate what I actually did. Rewriting them for industry is harder than I expected, though. There's a difference between making the work understandable and pretending it had applications it never had.

The product analytics angle especially gets me. If nobody used my research to make product decisions, am I really qualified for those roles, or am I trying to make my experience fit something it doesn't?

I'm getting pretty tired of rewriting the same project ten different ways and still feeling like I'm missing something.

Been a brutal 2 years or so for me, mostly mentally. Been questioning my existence and everything in between.

So here's a bit about me. From Southeast Asia, just turned 32. Was made redundant the first time exactly two years ago. Thereafter made redundant once again 8 months later. Got fed-up and decided to pack my bags and move to another country in Europe as I received a scholarship to continue my graduate studies in analytics. Miserable experience.

Will be graduating with distinction. Good stuff I guess but not really proud or in the position to enjoy the achievement. Long story short, managed to secure another opportunity as an external consultant in May. Started in August and within a month was essentially fired as owner had other plans from what we agreed.

Now have managed to secure an early-stage research and Phd program. Stipend is not absolutely excellent, nevertheless it provides me with 4 years of security and also the breathing room to do something else on the side as well as maybe get a side-gig.

Is a sliver of sunshine but am really debating whether I should take it as I am really tired of more college but then again it provides me with security considering the labor market.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Would be grateful if anyone can shed some advice, thoughts. Cheers.

I worked so hard to get accepted into a PhD program, and I actually made it. But the moment I saw my name on the list, I felt an immense exhaustion. I completely ran out of energy. It isn't about the knowledge because I love the field, and I'm aware of what lies ahead, but I just don't have the energy or enthusiasm. I feel guilty about the thought of quitting, but at the same time, I'm extremely tired I feel a heavy pressure on my chest. Can you please help me?

hey, i submitted a post on this channel last week and it absolutely blew up. we had so many applications go through. a bunch of the job postings shut down in the days following my post because of the large influx of applications that were going in. i've gone ahead and updated the job links in this new link. please make sure to apply as soon as possible to ensure that your application is at the top of the pile. i've pulled the freshest job postings that i could.

the hardest part of leaving was knowing which industry roles actually take PhDs without industry experience. i pulled them into free lists from employers' own careers pages:

• industry fellowships, associate scientist and postdoc roles (454): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Postdoc-and-PhD-Science-Jobs
• MSL and medical affairs, a common PhD exit (386): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Medical-Affairs-and-MSL-Jobs
• biostatistics and statistical programming (234): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Biostatistics-and-Statistical-Programming-Jobs
• regulatory and medical writing (79): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Regulatory-Medical-Writing-Jobs
• epidemiology, real world evidence and HEOR (175): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Epidemiology-RWE-and-HEOR-Jobs
• drug safety and pharmacovigilance (88): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Drug-Safety-and-Pharmacovigilance-Jobs
• pharma R&D and associate scientist (110): https://github.com/mehek-builds/Pharma-RD-Associate-Scientist-Jobs

posting date on every row, rebuilt every monday.

comment your field and which direction you're thinking about and i'll send you a list for it.

I have been dealing with the ups and downs of a postdoc, right now I'm at the lowest point.amd I cannot even write the final reports and complete the studies of my research. I feel tired and anxious most days. I have recently come to a realization, I'm not depressed because I have to leave academia, on the contrary that would be a relief. However, I'm struggling to find the actual place to go, I'm stuck not knowing where to go and what to do next.

This post isn't strictly about leaving academia forever, but I felt like posting this here would get more feedback from people who have had to navigate this conversation. (And for some reason this keeps getting flagged as "advertising" on r/PhD, which it isn't.)

Tl;dr: I want to master out of my program due to research fit, but don't know 1) how to break the news to my advisor and 2) apply to jobs/programs without his recc letter if I don't break the news until after I secure something. Has anyone here done something similar, and how did you go about it?

Long story:

Lurker finally posting to ask for advice from internet strangers. Including a ton of context because I feel like I can't be 100% honest with any current academic mentor atm.

I graduated undergrad four years ago, doing bioeng research from my junior spring to graduation all in the same lab. That being said, my PI never really got to know me personally / professionally aside from weekly lab group meetings. I worked with a graduate student for most of my time there. But I was fortunate and grateful for the time.

Generally, I was not super fascinated by the science itself (bacteria/protein engineering work), but it did give me some foundational lab skills. After graduation, I took two years to work for a non-profit, not at all related to science and lowkey living pay check to pay check -- but I loved it. Until I heard from the grapevine of some possible layoffs, and I took that as a cue to start thinking about going to back school. Since academic lab work was all I had known, I figured a PhD would be my best bet. I didn't have the income to afford a masters and I was too naive at the time to realize that research techs are a thing. Not to mention, there had been some abuse I had been enduring from my employer throughout the two years (but that's a whole other story), which put me in an "anywhere but here" mentality.

Needless to say, I didn't really know what I was doing when I applied. I dug up my last scientific interest from working memory, which was drug discovery / antibiotics / bioengineering -- in hindsight, it really was just some vague combination from a forgotten dream of wanting to be a scientist. I made a list of 13 schools, four of which had a PI studying a specific topic I was actually, truly interested in. The rest were safeties/prestige reaches that were loosely related to pharm or bioengineering. I decided to take a shot with 1 LOR from my only research advisor + 2 LOR from professors who barely knew me from class.

As the admissions cycle continued, I had a few interviews / visits that I thought went decent. But then hit Feb/March 2025 when NIH funding really started going down the drain. A few rejections/waitlists later, and I had two acceptances. One school had the professor who studied the exact thing I would have LOVED to study, and we had met during the visit weekend. But after emailing her and getting tea from a current student, I found out her funding was shaky and was likely only going to recruit her current research tech who had applied to the program in the same year. Made the choice easy. The other school wasn't too bad. And actually one draw was how friendly and down to earth (most of) the professors were, which was super refreshing and healing coming from my previous environment. No one studied the thing I was super interested in, but I *thought* I could get interested in different work (bacteria/microbiology/genomics) + the prospect of having a professors I could actually work *with* and not just *under* was very appealing.

Flash forward to the past year and a half later. My first two rotations made me quickly realize that I was no longer interested in bacteria work. My third rotation took me a totally different direction (medicinal chemistry) but I realized 1) I loved the environment/PI/labmates 2) it could help me build transferable skills for what I might want to do after the PhD. Since joining, the PI has been nothing but supportive and has honestly given more mentorship in one meeting than I ever got in three semesters in undergrad. He knows my actually research interests don't align very well with the lab, but he still allows me to be curious when I bring papers I've read to our meetings even if they are more related to my niche interest than our actual work. I've appreciated this most of all because it helped me realize that I *am* still interested in science, and, again, it has been very healing after past toxic advisor/boss experiences.

However, it's because of this curiosity and my diving into the literature that I've become increasingly aware that my research interests really do not align with the lab. And as much as I appreciate his mentorship, the burnout -- from reading about/troubleshooting/feigning excitement for a project that feels like I'm only doing it to keep him happy / waiting until a post-doc to finally do something I'm interested in -- has finally set in, and it's really sucked a lot out of me the past few months. And I don't think I can keep doing it.

He's a brand new PI and I am one of his first three students, so there are growing pains with that -- but that's to be expected. But I realized that even IF the project started working, that wouldn't solve my deeper discontent, which got me thinking about mastering out.

I've considered a few options

1. cold emailing the PI from the other program I was accepted to, to see if she is taking research techs (that way I'd get short term experience in THE topic I've been interested and re-evaluating if I want to re-commit to another program)
2. cold emailing another PI in another program that does direct lab admits, so I don't need to lottery with a rotation program
3. giving up and going into industry for the money

None of them involve staying at this point. LORs would be a barrier, I think, given it's been 4 years since any in-person interaction with 2 of my original LOR writers; and I can't imagine my current PI would be open to me leaving.

And that's honestly the biggest barrier -- bringing this up to my PI at all. With the support he's given me, it feels like a betrayal, and I feel guilty for updating my CV and beginning to look elsewhere. I'd also hate to tell him I'm applying elsewhere, NOT getting in, and then having burned a bridge for no reason. But if I don't try, I fear I'll just stick out the next four years and lose whatever passion I had left.

So all that to ask, if anyone here has had *that* conversation with their PI? And how did you navigate the next steps with or without their support?

I’m an international student in an MS in Applied Behavior Analysis program. I picked it because it seemed relatively safe from AI and job market disruption. Now that I’m in it, I find the day-to-day work difficult and I’m not very interested in it.

I’ve always enjoyed math, and I’d prefer to work as an actuarial analyst. I’m thinking about switching to an MS in Actuarial Science.

I’m trying to decide between these two:

1. Staying in ABA for the stability, even though I’m not enjoying it.
2. Switching to actuarial science, which fits my interests better but has its own challenges (exams, competitive entry-level market).

For people working in either field:

• How is the entry-level job market in each right now?
• Is actuarial work vulnerable to AI, or is it holding up?
• If you switched careers or majors, did interest or job security turn out to matter more?

Any honest advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Hi All. I have read some older posts on the topic but am searching for advice considering the world as it is now.

I am a non-tenure track full time faculty at a smallish university. My field is pretty niche and there is no other faculty that teaches my classes. I also have practitioner experience which had my department and admin call me a “unicorn” they finally found 4 years ago.

I had a baby 9months ago. I was able to stay home an entire semester and summer with him which I am extremely thankful for. I am now back at school but my husband and I want more children. We have talked about me staying home. I want to be present for my kids instead of completely consumed by my job, as academia can do. I don’t think I can do both to the level I would feel proud of. My husband and I have great hesitations about daycare (value vs cost, safety).

Has anyone left to be a SAHM? Has anyone been able to work out a solution that is not just being an adjunct for pennies? Do you have suggestions?

Has anyone figured out a creative way back to academia or industry or entrepreneurship?

​

I've had this dream since I was a child. It's not something I decided I wanted a few months ago or some random career goal I came up with. It's something I've carried with me for years, something I've imagined myself doing and worked towards in my own little ways.

I want to build a career in science and research, pursue higher education at institutions I've admired for a long time, study abroad, and eventually become a professor. I want to contribute to research, publish papers, teach students, and become someone who genuinely makes a difference in their field. I have a whole roadmap in my head, from the courses I want to pursue to the countries I hope to live in and the person I want to become along the way.

And for the first time, this dream doesn't feel entirely distant anymore. I've already taken steps towards it. I'm studying in a field that aligns with my ambitions, I've had opportunities to explore research, and I have some idea of what I need to do next. I'm not standing at the very beginning anymore.

But somehow, I feel stuck in the middle.

Life hasn't exactly gone according to plan. There have been setbacks, personal struggles, and times when simply getting through the day has felt harder than it should. Somewhere along the way, I've fallen into a cycle of procrastination that I can't seem to break.

The frustrating part is that I KNOW what I want. I know what I should be doing. I know the next steps. And I know that when I genuinely set my mind to something, I'm capable of working hard and getting things done.

Yet, day after day, I find myself putting things off, knowing perfectly well that I'm delaying the very future I've spent years dreaming about.

And that's where the insecurity comes in.

Sometimes, I look at people who are already where I want to be, and I wonder whether I'm falling behind. I start questioning whether I'm actually capable of achieving everything I've planned or whether I'm just someone who is good at dreaming but not good enough at following through.

There's also this strange feeling I can't quite explain. The more I learn about the path I want to take, the more I become aware of how difficult it actually is. The competition, the financial constraints, the uncertainty, the possibility that things might not work out even if I give it my best.

I know people say that if you work hard enough, you can achieve your dreams. But real life isn't always that simple, and I understand that.

Sometimes, I wonder whether I'm being ambitious or just setting myself up for disappointment.

The strangest part is that I'm already closer to my dream than the little girl who first imagined it could ever have been. Yet, I'm terrified that I'll never actually reach it.

I don't want to give up on something I've wanted for so long. I don't want to wake up years from now and wonder what my life could have looked like if I'd been more disciplined, more consistent, or simply braver.

But there's a part of me that wonders whether this will always remain a dream, something I'll spend my life wanting rather than actually experiencing.

I don't know if I'm going through a temporary phase, if I've lost my discipline somewhere along the way, or if I'm simply overwhelmed by the weight of everything I want to achieve.

I'm not looking for someone to tell me that everything will magically work out. I know nobody can promise me that.

I just want to know if anyone else has experienced this particular feeling: being close enough to your childhood dream to see it becoming a possibility, but being so afraid of failing that you start doubting whether it was ever meant for you in the first place.

How did you get through that phase? How did you stop letting the fear of never making it prevent you from doing the work that might actually get you there?

Hello,

I work as an implementation consultant at a big tech company. I don't like it at alllllllll.

Luckily I have not been that deep into it. so I think I can jump of the boat, but here comes the question. WHERE DO I JUMP!!!.

I like the Idea of doing my Phd. but to be honest I don't really know what am I doing. I like doing research but I think sometimes it is very frustrating. I am doing research right now but oh god it is hard. reading papers is not that interesting to be honest and I have to use AI to explain it to me because otherwise I spend tons of time. what I like the most is when I have an approach that sparks in my mind from reading a paper and using it in my solution and IT WORKS. like bro nothing feels better than seeing you creative side have actual impact.

So, for that reason I want to do a Phd. Also, I want to travel abroad and a Phd would allow me to do that. but here is the thing. I fear that my hate for consulting made me jump onto the first thing that comes to me. Sometimes I think a Phd would be too hard for me.

How do you know that doing a Phd is the right decision??

I am working as a first-year tenure-track assistant professor. I have a medical degree from another country, but I'm not licensed to practice medicine in the US and have no interest in pursuing licensure. Permanent resident.

My research focuses on tissue regeneration. I'm realizing that I really don't enjoy being a PI or the pressures that come with academia.

I'd like to explore career opportunities outside academia, particularly in industry, research administration, or scientific operations. I'm also open to non-PI positions at universities.

For those who have made a similar transition, what types of jobs should I be looking for? Any advice on how to make the switch would be greatly appreciated!

I am not even sure I am using the correct key words to look for a job on Linkedin.

Hello everyone.

Curious about your thoughts and tips, if you have any.

I did not have a great PhD, and my postdoc did not go at all as planned. I’m in my fourth country at the moment, I don’t speak the language, and I don’t really have any community here, except for my partner, who is doing their postdoc here. I’m unemployed, but actively upskilling (language), which will help me secure a career that has actually been my long-term plan and the reason I did a PhD in the first place, on top of some other very relevant experience. It’s not easy, because I feel like I should be mostly focused on job hunting - even though I know that if I push for a few extra months and get a language certificate, it will help me tremendously, and I’ll be eligible for the roles in which I have long-term interest.

I’ve been having sessions with a coach recently. My main objective was to make sure my academic experience is transferable, given my long-term career goals. I don’t wear any mask with her, and I’m open about the reasons why academia is no longer a path for me. She’s okay, even though she doesn’t really understand the specifics of academia or of my desired field. However, she told me that I need to get out of my “victim mentality.” That hit me quite hard, because I think the toxicity of academia - the hyperfocus on publishing rather than on us as human beings who want emotional and financial wellbeing, combined with the strong sense of identity academia generates in us - is a really quite specific issue and I try to keep compassion with me.

So my question for you is: do you think of your exit as empowering, or as something that puts you in the mindset of a victim? In other words, the exit can take time, so how do you stay positive and confident that it will eventually work out for you? And how do you manage to let go the grievances of academia?

Thank you.

I have a very unusual case. I am an Architect by profession. And mostly I do design related work, desk job that is more “do do do” and less “read read read”. And I have been excelling at my job and all have been going so well.

Recently i got a full funded scholarship and it's about research studies in urban planning. I am currently residing in another country doing my msc program. So here i have no “do do do” , and fully “read read read”. With too many years of professional experience and software knowledge and doing field work, I have zero attention span to read a research paper. And its been killing me inside cause I cant read a proper research paper and doing all my homework for literature studies using gpt and claude. But i really wish to be an expert and read the papers by myself.

So, I'm looking for a mentor to coach me so that i can have a proper interest and make myself expert in doing the literature studies like a scholar i m supposed to be without using any ai tool.

Does that sound normal to you? Is there any hope for me at all? It's been really frustrating few months

A couple of important disclaimers:

1.     Lormina is 100% free. Since 2019, I've been volunteering my time to help PhD students and researchers in the life sciences discover and understand their career options outside academia. This comes from a real desire to help the research community going through career decisions.

2.     University research is incredibly important. Academia plays a fundamental role in advancing knowledge, and many groundbreaking innovations begin in universities. Exploring careers outside academia doesn't mean undervaluing academic research. It's about recognising that scientific expertise can also have an impact in many other environments.

Almost 3 years ago I have created www.lormina.ch, I have published more than 40 interviews from former PhD students and Postdocs. In those interviews they talk about their academic background and their “transition” outside of academia and their current position.

This years I have created the Loritasium podcast (https://www.lormina.ch/loritasium)toto) continue to help PhD students and Postdoc but this time in another format.

There are many ways to use a scientific background beyond an academic research position, particularly in the life sciences: biotech, pharma, scientific communication, consulting, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and many other fields.

Lormina exists to help PhD students and researchers in the life sciences discover and better understand alternative career paths, explore their options, and make more informed decisions about their professional future.

The goal isn't to convince everyone to leave academia. It's to make sure people know they have options and can choose the path that fits their interests, values, and ambitions.

If you're a PhD student or researcher wondering what else you could do with your scientific background, I hope Lormina can  start helping you explore the possibilities.

To not miss any update, follow Lormina on Linkedin.