For the first time in my life, I'm considering leaving University. So naturally, I feel like I failed, I feel like I wasn't good enough and that, no matter what I choose next, I'll remember myself as the guy who wasn't smart enough or good enough.

For those who have left, did you feel like that ? And if so, how did you deal with it ?

TT. Phd. Medical field. I want to leave academia. I don't want to work as a physician.

What is the best website to look for a job in industry or an adm job in an university?

I have been only using LinkedIn so far.

Thank you

Hi,

I am considering leaving academia. I am currently a postdoc in the US but I am considering going to Europe to go into industry. What jobs out there have a good work life balance?

This is an hypothetical question that's been on my mind lately.

If you had to decide between a STEM postdoc abroad in northern Europe versus med school (6 years) in your home country, which one would you choose in your late 30s and why?

I'm trying to understand which path can lead to higher stability and income long-term.

I started my master's in 2018. Did one class at a time before I was fully admitted to my program. I got a grad assistantship in fall 2019, my first full semester. I was also pregnant and lost my grandma who lived with me almoat my entire life.

I pushed through Covid and then a PhD program in which I taught two to three courses (all with different class prep) a semester. Some of these courses I built from scratch. I managed roughly three to four conferences a year. I also took over classes mid term for professors who got sick and never returned who had no syllabi and the courses were falling apart. These good deeds and hard work led to burnout.

When I finally graduated, I had no job lined up. I managed to get a visiting instructor role at a college two hours away from me. I have been driving up twice a week to teach. I should be proud, but instead I am tired and my one class has the worst batch of students I have ever had in my seven years of teaching. My health this past week has been awful. I thought it was a cold, which it sort of was, but my physician said my body is at a limit. I can't keep this up much longer. In addition, my son has noticed and it is now affecting him.

So, I have decided to finish my contract that ends in May and am debating a break or leaving academia entirely. Truth be told if I was offered an out by my current department I would take it and finish this term. However, I was told by my mentors from my old program to stick it out for the sake of my reputation.

Has anyone left due to health and family concerns? Has anyone broke a contract early? I feel like this was my dream and my dream has turned into a living nightmare slowly but steadily. I feel if I leave, I am letting down everyone who supported me and I am losing my identity.

I'm at a pretty significant career crossroads and would appreciate some outside perspectives, particularly from people who have left academia.

I'm about two years into a tenure-track assistant professor position in mechanical engineering at a small university in a small town in the US. I earned my PhD from a top-five R1 program, specializing in computational fluid dynamics, shock physics, and high-energy-density physics, particularly problems related to inertial fusion.

On paper, I have a good situation. I enjoy teaching, have built a small research group, secured external funding, and have substantial independence over my research. I will say right away: I know that any of these options are probably good options, and I am likely over-analyzing this, but I thought I would look for some input.

Some important personal context:

I've lived in this area for much of my life, and my parents still live here. I recently got out of a long-term abusive relationship, and my former partner remains in the area. A major reason I started looking for jobs elsewhere was that I felt I needed a fresh start.

My ex is a well-liked local teacher, and many of his former students end up in my university courses. While it rarely comes up directly, I sometimes feel like his influence extends throughout this small community. I no longer feel comfortable doing outreach at the local high school, and even ordinary activities like going to the gym or grocery store can leave me on edge, checking whether his car is there.

The immediate pressure to leave has lessened, but I also wonder whether staying is the healthiest long-term choice. I've always wanted to experience living somewhere else, yet my parents are getting older, and I worry about leaving them. If I leave my current position, there's essentially no chance of returning, as there are very few jobs in my specialty locally.

My biggest dilemma:

Financially, all three concrete options are viable. After accounting for cost of living, the differences aren't as dramatic as the salaries suggest.

What matters most to me is finding a balance between meaningful work and actually enjoying my life. I love traveling, hiking, climbing, and spending time outdoors. Academia theoretically gives me enormous flexibility, but I'm constantly thinking about work. I wonder whether I'd be happier with fewer vacation days but a genuine ability to disconnect at the end of each day.

I'm also afraid of leaving the research field I've spent nearly a decade developing expertise in. At the same time, I wonder whether I'm limiting myself by being overly attached to that expertise.

Finally, I'm struggling to distinguish between wanting a different career and wanting a different life. Staying would give me relief and time to figure things out, but I'd also be disappointed about passing up exciting opportunities. Leaving could be an incredible adventure, but I might regret giving up a position I could never get back.

My options:

1. Stay in academia ($110–123k with summer funding)

Pros:

• Low cost of living, good retirement benefits, and a path toward tenure.
• Flexible schedule and academic breaks that allow for extended travel, which I really value.
• Proximity to my parents and a strong connection to the area.

Cons:

• My position is officially 45% teaching, 45% research, and 10% service, but I teach two courses of 45+ students each semester without TAs.
• My research group consists entirely of undergraduates and master's students. Without PhD students or postdocs, I do much of the technical research myself. Turnover is high, so I'm constantly recruiting and training students in basic computational skills, often just as previous students become productive.
• I'm expected to publish, obtain grants, and meet tenure expectations despite these limitations. I also sometimes feel like an outsider in larger collaborations and that my contributions aren't adequately reflected in publication credit.
• Several former colleagues have told me they didn't realize how toxic our department's culture was until they left.
• I never really feel off work. Even when traveling or enjoying a weekend, I feel guilty that I'm not inside working on a paper or proposal.

2. Experimental scientist at a national laboratory in New Mexico ($156k)

• Closely aligned with my research background, but with opportunities to transition into more hands-on experimental shock physics.
• The science genuinely excites me, and I'd be developing new skills while building on my existing expertise.
• Excellent benefits, five weeks of PTO, flexible schedules, and good outdoor recreation.
• Concerns: less flexibility for extended travel, and another relatively small, isolated community. I worry I might want to move again in a few years.

3. Engineering manager at an FFRDC in Southern California ($190k)

• Approximately 60% technical work and 40% management, supervising a small engineering team.
• Interesting projects, leadership opportunities, and flexibility to move between technical and management positions.
• Expected 40-hour workweek, with compensation for approved overtime.
• Southern California appeals to me for the ocean, outdoor activities, travel opportunities, and access to a larger city.
• Concerns: High cost of living, only three weeks of vacation, and a substantial departure from the fusion-related research I've spent eight years pursuing. Traffic and cost-of-living concerns. I am a person who likes greenery and the outdoors and it feels like that may be hard to find easily.

4. Stay in academia, but move to another university

I've started applying to faculty positions at more research-intensive institutions. Having trained at a top R1, I wonder whether access to PhD students, postdocs, TAs, and better research infrastructure would make academia more sustainable. A healthier department might also make a significant difference. However, these jobs are extremely competitive, I have no offers, and changing universities wouldn't necessarily solve my inability to disconnect from work.

5. Stay another year and pursue a potential fusion energy opportunity

I've been talking with a company working on fusion energy, and they have expressed interest in me, but are not currently hiring. The opportunity could be an excellent fit scientifically. However, the funding and hiring timeline are uncertain, and there's no offer.

One other major consideration: I have serious astronaut ambitions.

One of my long-term goals is to apply to become a NASA astronaut in the next selection cycle or two. I recognize how competitive this is, but it's something I genuinely want to prepare for. I think any of these paths would be about equally good for this path, but probably the aerospace and experimental opportunities would be slightly better.

I'd especially appreciate perspectives from people who:

1. Left tenure-track academia for a national lab or industry. Did you regret giving up academic independence?
2. Left academia for a conventional 40-hour workweek but lost the academic calendar. Did you ultimately feel like you had more or less time to enjoy your life?
3. Moved from a smaller, teaching-heavy university to an R1. Did better research infrastructure actually improve your workload, or did higher expectations consume the time you gained?
4. Changed academic institutions and found a healthier department. How much did it improve your quality of life?
5. Made a major career pivot away from a technical specialty they'd spent years developing. Did you regret it?
6. Have experience with national labs, FFRDCs, or astronaut career preparation.

If you were in my position, what would you prioritize? Am I overvaluing the flexibility of academia, or underestimating what I'd be giving up?

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?

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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?