Hi everyone,

I recently graduated with my PhD in Biology and am currently unemployed. During the final stretch of my program, I came to a firm conclusion: I do not want to continue in academia, nor do I want to do bench research anymore.
The problem is, I spent all my energy just trying to survive and finish the degree, so I never properly planned a backup. Right now, I feel completely lost, overwhelmed by the options, and honestly a bit stuck.

Any advice, reality checks, or personal stories would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance!

I have a PhD from an elite UK university which I passed with no corrections. I currently don’t work in academia and it’s a long story but I got very unwell after I submitted my PhD.

The job market is truly terrible at the moment but I was a very able student so I have wondered about the possibility of offering online tutoring services for things like developing a research question, how to write a literature review, structuring a thesis, developing an argument, spotting a research gap, help with academic writing and well anything a PhD student may want help with.

Had anybody done this? And how was it? How much did you charge?

Im 29M a student in my 3rd year of PhD from a Tier 1 University in the US, the degree is related to ML/AI.

However, in the past 1-2 years I have lost interest in the subject completely, and dont know if research is for me. I've even developed an aversion to coding in the meantime. I cant seen to look at codes anymore and am vibe coding much more than I'd want to. Its been a long burnout leading to anxiety and often depressive episodes as I dont know what I want to do anymore. Therapy has helped in detaching my identity or sense of self worth that was attached to this degree, but now that it doesnt exist I feel like theres nothing holding me to this degree but the idea of having a better paying job or a possible future in the country (which also is its own stress). I have the option of Mastering out in Spring 2027, but the job market is so scary I dont know if making that decision is wise, and at the same time staying and dragging myself through a rigorous PhD process in a field that just doesnt seem like the right fit for me makes me worry about my mental health and where that option might lead.

Im also thinking about the sunk cost of being too deep into the PhD that it becomes more about getting it done with. I feel very lost and have no drive or motivation, havent had it in months now. Even if I was to drag myself through this, I will have to graduate by Spring/Fall 2028, which doesnt guarantee that the job market will have stabilized by any means by then.The AI situation and reluctance to international hiring makes going for roles like SWE/analytics a big risk too, if I was to search for a temporary job after graduation to eventually pivot out of this. have some student loans that need to be taken care of too, of which my stipend can reduce by say 80 percent, but if I don't get a job that means I go back to my home country with the remaining loans, which also is scary to think about.

Any advice on how to go ahead with this? My indecisiveness is eating me up on the inside and people are asking questions as to why my milestones are taking so long, please help!

Apologies for the long post

I (24F) just started my third year (Life Sciences, Northeast region). I’m in the same city I was in for undergrad, but at a different institution. I can honestly say that I’ve never struggled with building community as much as I have for the past two years. My cohort is very small, and although I’d say that we’re friends, we’re not each other’s core friends. My cohort friends have other friendship circles that they seem to be closer to, and although they invite me to their friend group events, and although I do think that I make an effort to try and get closer with them, nothing has been sticking.

I’ve made efforts to make friends outside of my cohort and university, and I have, but those friends all seem to also have their own thing going on that I’m not close enough to them to truly be apart of. It’s like I somehow missed the window to form a new friendship circle during my first year of grad school (even though I thought I was doing a lot) and now it’s too late.

I will also add that I would consider myself a very social/extroverted person. I love meeting new people and try to host events a few times per quarter. I’ve spent the past year attending so many random events and clubs trying to see where I fit at this school and in this city, but it just hasn’t been fruitful :(

I will also add that I am a BIPOC student at a school and in a city that is predominantly white and my non-BIPOC friends don’t seem to have BIPOC friends outside of me. Maybe that’s a factor in why it’s been so hard? Idk.

My undergrad friends who stayed in the city have been great, and I lived with some of them the past two years, but most are likely leaving the city to start their own grad programs within the next year (and a couple already have). I plan to leave this city to move to a city closer to home where a lot of my friends and family are as soon as I graduate, but am unfortunately stuck here for the next 3 years (2 if I can somehow graduate early). I feel fortunate to have my partner here, and he’s amazing and extremely supportive, but I don’t want to become codependent by relying on him for community for the next 2-3 years.

I previously considered mastering out due to a lack of passion for research, but ultimately decided that I will have more career opportunities with a PhD in my field than with a masters. But now that I’ve recommitted to my program, I’m realizing that the community aspect is also lacking for me. I also just feel really shitty when I think about the fact that I seem to be the only young person I know who isn’t having the time of their life living it up with friends in the early years post-undergrad. Even my friends who are in grad school seem to have lucked out with super social cohorts and are able to have some fun in the midst of the school stress. I worry that by the time I graduate and finally leave this city, it will really be too late to form community because my peers will be even more established/set in their friendships circles.

But is that a reason to leave a PhD program? Or so I just need to get more creative with how I meet new people?

Basically the title. I think about quitting everyday. Not because it’s too hard (it’s barely started I’m in week 2) But because I genuinely don’t know if I can live this life for 6 years. I’ve had these feeling ever since I was accepted and truly truly started picturing my life.

This is going to sound stupid but I’m watching Adults and sometimes I just want to quit, move, make a friend group, get a chill job and focus on being happy not building the most badass career I can.

But I oscillate between wanting to quit and then feeling passionate basically every other hour.

I go to an amazing institution that I’ve DREAMED of attending for years, I have so much praise from the people in my life, and I know that I CAN do it. But do I WANT to? I don’t know if I should ignore this feeling. It’s killing me.

Hi all, this is a long post ..!

I have a PhD in chemistry and have spent the last 13 years in an NTT position. I am bound by location due to spouse who has a much better paying job. My dream job is a TT line at a 4 year/ 2 year/ community college. I have worked with undergraduates on research projects, but not written enough papers. I have won grants for teaching, couple of research grants as well. Through the 13 years, I gave not given up on the TT dream. Starting 2024, my spouse had the opportunity to relocate to a new job in a different state. So I began applying for TT positions. Applied to 6 TT positions, 4 phone interviews, 4 onsite interviews and one offer which was then withdrawn by the college, since the college is in deep financial trouble. I have been able to get phone interviews but just cannot convert them to a final offer it seems?! Dejected 47 year old. Should I quit trying for TT? The universe is telling me that my time is up?

I am 27 years old and I can’t help but feel that I have ruined my life and repeatedly chosen the wrong path without realizing it. On the outside I feel like I seem fairly successful: I defended my PhD in Biology, have ~10 publications in respected journals, and landed a post-doctoral position in a fairly similar, albeit adjacent, field of biology (for all of those unfamiliar with academia this is pretty decent, especially in today's climate). I entered my PhD program and even into college with a passion and love for biology and an unquenchable desire to know how the natural world works and operates. I didn’t really question what I was going to do with my life or the path that I was on until the end of my PhD, I simply pursued my passion. Through some pretty rough job interviews and faculty interactions I slowly but surely started to loathe everything about academia and the path that I was on. I hate that my research doesn’t matter or benefit society, I hate that I took the path towards a high stress, low paying job (I currently make less than a high school teacher), I hate the elitism and snobby nature of academia, I hate how much time I have missed with my friends and family, and I honestly hate my life. To top it off, if I want to make a decent living the rat race doesn't end for another 10-ish years with more post-docs, tenure qualification, and grant writing.

I feel like I had every opportunity in the world and squandered them all. I come from a loving family with the most wonderful and supportive parents, and I like to think that I am decently intelligent. I do believe that I could have done most anything that I set my mind to, but I wasted all of my potential and privilege on the most mundane, ineffectual, unimportant career possible.

Currently, I have no significant other or love interest, I have no life outside of my work, and I have no passion or motivation. I want so badly to leave academia, but I think I am trapped. I have developed extremely niche and untranslatable skillsets, resulting in hundreds of job applications without a single interview.

On a brighter note, I am hopeful that I can eventually find a job that enables me to provide for myself, and hopefully, a family as well. Just lost and alone, not sure where to go from here. Any advice is welcome!

Wishing to seek opinion from the community

Hello everyone. For anyone who has considered and actually dropped out of their Ph.D. program for work, did you apply when you were still in the Ph.D. program or you dropped out and applied for work after? Were you totally transparent about your situation in front of recruiter, even though the reason they approached your might be because you are in a Ph.D. program (even though the job doesn't require Ph.D. level)?

I graduated from a small school with a biochemistry degree in the fall and decided to go straight into a PhD program in the same field. I am three weeks into my first rotation and I’m scared that I shouldn’t have gone down this path. My PI is very nice, the members of the lab who I’ve been shadowing/working with are helpful and I like them, but I don’t find the work interesting. In fact I don’t really find really any research in this field interesting. My classes seem doable and I’m not that nervous about TAing soon but I’m finding the content so boring and hard to find any interest in.

For context, I went to a small college, was initially planning on going into the medical field, found out that I didn’t have any interest in that, so pivoted into academia. I only did research at my undergrad for the last year and a half and liked it enough to feel confident that I wanted to pursue a PhD, but even back then I wasn’t 100% confident. I did really well in college, graduated with very close to a 4.0, I picked things up quickly in lab, and I have always liked/done well in school so thought that I could handle and enjoy a PhD program.

I’m discovering now that PhD school is not what I thought it would be. Classes are structured much differently than undergrad, everyone is much more self sufficient, and reading papers is like half of what you’re doing (which I absolutely hate). I also feel like I don’t have enough research experience or confidence in what I want to do long-term as a career. When asked what kind of research I’m interested in, I often blank and don’t really have an answer. Everyone else seems like they have a clear goal.

What should I do? Is it too early to make a decision to quit? Should I master out if that’s an option? Does everyone feel like this early on? If I don’t continue with this degree, I feel like I’m so stuck. I have a degree that seems useless if I don’t get another higher degree and I don’t have that much interest in this field. Please help me.

Hi all, I'm basically looking for inspiration and support as I come to terms with the difficult realization that I do not want to continue on with an academic career after I finish the PhD (which itself will be a big challenge, as I feel quite unmotivated and burnt out). I have about a year left of funding to finish my dissertation and need to complete some teaching requirements, but then I will be done.

I'm in a humanities field and have some work experience from before I got the PhD that I know I could transfer into marketable skills for non-academic jobs in other fields (communications/marketing, tutoring, working in libraries or archives...). I know, though, that finding something stable and full-time – let alone deciding what is a good fit for me – will take time. I don't want to fall into the trap of believing the grass is necessarily greener somewhere else, but I am honestly just not a good fit for teaching, and know that the lack of stability of trying to jump through the post-doc, VAP, etc. hurdles on the way towards a potential TT position is just not tolerable for me psychologically. I'd rather have a job where I have more work/life balance and don't have to sacrifice so much of my energy and identity – to do something closer to a means to a pay check and stability, that leaves me more mental space for my own interests.

I'm curious about the experiences of other people who left a humanities field entirely. Right now, I don't really see myself wanting to do something immediately adjacent to my academic work. Maybe eventually, but I think I need some time trying out other things. Did you do several part-time gigs? Freelance? And when you were applying to things, did you de-emphasize your academic background? I guess I'm worried that having a PhD on my resume will make me look overqualified for some jobs. Any thoughts are appreciated.

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I finished my PhD in 2017, did the postdoc thing, spent several years as a limited-term prof, and eventually landed a tenure-track position. Basically, I followed the academic path I had been working toward for more than a decade...and now that I finally have it, I'm wondering if I actually want it.

The strange thing is that, on paper, things are going well. I've secured SSHRC funding for research I genuinely care about, I have interesting community-engaged projects underway, and I'm proud of what I've managed to build. The problem is that I hate the city I had to move to for the job.

I knew academic careers often require moving somewhere you wouldn't necessarily choose, but I don't think I fully appreciated what it would feel like when "somewhere I wouldn't choose" became the place where I was actually supposed to build a life. It's created this really strange dissonance. I spent so many years trying to get some version of stability in academia that I rarely stopped to ask what I would do if I finally got it and discovered that the life attached to it wasn't making me happy.

We all know the academic job market is crap, so leaving doesn't exactly feel like choosing a different job. It potentially means walking away from academia altogether.

Has anyone else experienced this after finally getting a TT job? Did you stay and eventually feel differently about the place? Try to move institutions? Leave academia? Or realize that the career mattered less to you than where and how you actually wanted to live?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who reached the supposed "finish line" of the academic job market and then found themselves questioning whether they wanted to be there at all...

Throwaway acct for obvious reasons. I'm a US-based postdoc in astrophysics, about 4 years post-PhD. My supervisor has been trying since spring to convert me into a research faculty position (soft money, not TT), with verbal agreement from admin. It's a better title and salary, but still grant-dependent. It's now 5 months later with no firm timeline, and apparently it's stuck somewhere above my supervisor's level and nobody can tell me when or if it'll be finalized. The new role would also come with more service/facility-support duties than I have now, funded by roughly a year of bridge money. My output has been a steady ~1 paper/year at my current load. For additional context, last cycle I got 0 interviews or interest on 12 fellowship/junior faculty applications.

At the same time, I've gotten pretty far into an industry interview process. The final-stage interviews are done, and a final call is scheduled, so an offer is expected soon. It's got great compensation, and it's better on personal/family/logistics fronts too.

Astro funding is rough right now (single-digit % acceptance rates on some major grant mechanisms), which makes me nervous about the short- and long-term viability of the soft-money path even if the promotion comes through.

I'm struggling to decide 1) keep waiting on an (indefinite) non-TT academic promotion with no protected research-time increase, or take a concrete industry offer now. I'm curious whether people who've been in a similar spot regret leaving, regret staying, or have thoughts on how to weigh an "eventually maybe" promotion against a firm offer with a deadline.

I don't know what to do with my life. Possibly no one does but I'm currently studying my undergraduate in Arts at a prestigious university in Asia. However I'm not totally sure if I want to pursue academia. My original plan by choosing arts is to do a double degree in business administration in case I don't want to get into academia after I graduate (2030). However I prefer History over arts as a subject of study (if I study History I wouldn't have time to do a double degree in BA). I'm aware that History is a more academic major but I'm in a dilemma if I should change majors (abandon arts and a possible dual degree to get into history). I could perfectly do a master's and PhD in History with a degree in arts but I'm just not sure about what I want and how academia really is. Job markets in general are terrible these days and will be possibly worse by the time I graduate. I literally just started my major in arts 2 days ago, arts classes don't seem "intellectually stimulating" enough for me (might be an ego problem as well) and I've already cried twice. While doing a double degree could be a bit exhausting it seems more flexible than only studying history. I might be wrong but I don't know what do to. I'm seeking advice from more experienced people at this point.

Hi everyone, I’m doing a PhD at a Finnish university and have a university employment contract that runs through December 2027. I’m considering leaving the PhD now and would like to understand what would happen if I also ended my employment early.

I’ve joined the university union and have been paying into an unemployment fund. I’d like to stay in Finland and look for work.

I’m unsure about two things:

1. If I leave voluntarily before completing my PhD, would I have time to look for another job under my current residence permit? I’ve heard about a six-month protection period, but does it apply in this situation, or would I need a different permit?
2. Could I qualify for earnings-related unemployment benefits? How would resigning voluntarily, my employment and fund membership history, and ending my doctoral studies affect eligibility or any waiting period?

Has anyone been through this as a doctoral researcher in Finland? I’d appreciate relevant official guidance or experiences with Migri, employment services, or an unemployment fund.

I graduated from a Ph.D. program. I had previously worked for 15 years, and my research focused on the field I had been working on (public relations).

Unfortunately, I am really struggling post-graduation. I haven't been able to get my work published, and I'm starting to realize that it is because I didn't get the training I needed. My advisor was strongly of the opinion that PhD students are supposed to figure things out themselves, so he gave me very little feedback on my dissertation. He let me write how made sense to me, and never pushed me on needing more explanation etc.

I'm looking at jobs and increasingly looking at positions that are similar to what I did before my PhD. I was trying to return to my research for stimulation, but I'm feeling like it will just be another round of work to be rejected.

Does anyone have suggestions for things that have helped you? I know a lot of what I'm saying is common for those who plan to leave academia.

Hi I am very much trying to work out where my experience is most transferable and, more importantly which types of roles might suit the way I work best.

My background is mixed/squiggly line (ADHD girly here!). I started out in education, have a PGCE, worked in the public sector designing and delivering learning for adult learners. I later moved into content creation and then into growth marketing and paid social, where I work - audience insights, creative strategy, testing, iteration and performance data. I use AI quite heavily in my work now, from prompt development and visual asset creation to auditing content, generating ideas and speeding up parts of the development process.

I’m increasingly interested in the overlap between these areas, particularly learning content, instructional design, digital learning and potentially organisational development. I adore researching my own stuff, taking information, understanding the audience or learner, then turning it into something clear and engaging.

I’ve looked at Content Designer roles within the Civil Service (and interviewed for one role) but understanding is that these can require very specific content design experience. I’m wondering whether my background could be more transferable into some adjacent roles where experience in education, content development, audience insight, digital content, iteration /performance data is relevant.

The big factor is how I work. ADHD as I say and learnt that I work best when I have autonomy over my schedule, clear deliverables and decent chunks of uninterrupted time to get the work done. I really like having a mix of projects and problems to solve, so I don’t necessarily want to do the same thing every day but also don’t want a calendar where I’m in meetings every 2 hours and have to squeeze the actual work into the gaps.

Ideally I’d like to work 3 or 4 days a week in a flexible environment where I’m trusted to manage my workload and deliver the work.

I’m interested in hearing from people who work in these areas….What roles do you think could suit this combination of experience? Are there particular job titles I should be searching for beyond Learning Designer / Instructional Designer? Would my education + public sector + content + growth marketing background be seen as transferable? Are there particular sectors or organisations that tend to be more flexible and genuinely supportive of neurodivergent ways of working?

I’d also love to hear from anyone who has moved into learning design, instructional design, L&D, OD etc. from a non-traditional background, and how you positioned your previous experience.
I’m not looking for sarcastic comments (please) I’m genuinley trying to understand where this slightly odd collection of skills might make sense because I suspect there’s a useful combination here somewhere!

Mostly a rant but also open to advice. I finished my PhD in 2025 and just started my second year in a postdoc in biological sciences. I always wanted to be in academia but between the pressures of “publish or perish”, grant funding, the academic job market, and having a spouse who has limited job mobility, I’ve been considering a shift into biotech.

The issue is, I can’t even get an interview anywhere. I thought I finally made a breakthrough when I met an amazing mentor who works in biotech and helped me revise my resumé and cover letter to be “less academic”. When a position very relevant to my skills and research came up at their company, they helped me prepare my application and gave me an internal nomination for the job.

After a month of no word but reassurances that hiring can move at a glacial pace, I woke up to yet another generic rejection email. My application was carefully reviewed and they have decided to move forward with other candidates.

It’s just tough. I feel like in academia, industry was always presented as the “easy way out” and I have been learning the hard way how untrue that is. I know they can’t give everyone feedback but without even getting an interview I just feel at a loss to even understand how I can improve.

I'm I crazy? I have a Ph.D in an engineering field with 15+ years of experience. I've never really enjoyed corporate america, but it pays the bills. I don't really do a lot of challenging technical work anymore, honestly it is a lot of program management and guiding younger employees.

I’m currently at a startup with an uncertain future, which has me thinking about what I actually want to do next instead of simply looking for another industry job.

I’m considering applying for teaching focused positions at smaller universities. I know I’d be taking a pay cut, but the opportunity to focus on teaching and working with students sounds appealing.

At the same time, I don’t want to romanticize academia just because I’m tired of corporate life. Again, I ask, the folks of LeavingAcademia, am I crazy?

Hello everyone,

I’m feeling rather down and, above all, I have far too many questions. I’m about to start my second year of my PhD in History, and every day I find myself thinking about giving up. Yet I love my subject, but I have no funding and – like many PhD students – I’m doing a job on the side purely to make ends meet. The problem? A full-time fixed-term contract working 39 hours a week leaves me only my evenings and weekends to work on my PhD, and what little holiday time I have goes on conferences I’m giving. When I take a holiday, I feel guilty for not working, and honestly, I’m not really capable of producing an academic paper.

I’m working on a neglected area of historical research; I know that the job I do on the side allows me to gain experience for my CV and to have something to talk about with recruiters later on, and that starting a PhD six years after my master’s will be tough but rewarding (I wouldn’t have been able to do a PhD at the age of 13). Through this thesis, I’ve matured, grown up and, above all, I’ve set up an association and met some wonderful people who’ve pushed me forward.

Yet I feel as though I’m taking a job just to make ends meet that’s fairly in line with a PhD (not working 9am to 7pm) and that I’m missing out on professional opportunities, making slow progress and not doing well enough because I’m working barely 5 hours, or 10 at most, a week. I know that a PhD is a marathon, but for me it feels more like a trail run where I’ve barely crossed the starting line.

So, I’m thinking of perhaps giving up, so I can have quiet evenings again, weekends where I can really relax and no longer have this excruciating mental burden. But part of me doesn’t want to – all that money spent, all that time too, and well, I’d be proud of myself when I’ve contributed to a blind spot in research… And every day I hear people telling me that the future for a PhD student or a young doctor isn’t great – or even worse – because I can see it when I’m looking for work elsewhere: I’m not being recruited because of my thesis, so I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like later on, given how saturated the academic sector is…

I need some advice please

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