It’s Dangerous to Go Alone – Take This! (#106)

Planning a trip on the non-academic trail: If academia isn’t calling you, though, what are your options? How can you translate your degree into action in non-academic spaces?

The following essay is actually a talk I gave on Friday, April 12, 2024, as a keynote for the University of New Brunswick’s Student Psychology Studies Symposium. I thought it would be good to share with you, as it talks about alternative careers to academia - something I’ve touched on in the early days of the notebook. Let me know what you think in the comments!

I think one of the hardest decisions any of us has had to make, or will make in the not-too-distant future, is the decision of “what to do” with your life after school. 

I’ve always had empathy for those wrestling with that question. What a question: “What are you going to do with your life?”

And I think folks especially in this room can appreciate that that was, or is, an impossible question for most people - as if such a large part of our lives can be reduced to such a neat little box. 

Sometimes, that question does seem easier, because there are well-marked paths laid down by others to get to specific destinations. But if that destination doesn’t call to you, how do you find something that uses the mad skills you are honing through an education in research? 

Screenshot from The Legend of Zelda, 1986.

Hopefully, I can shed some light on what has worked well for me. That said, while I ascribe to a post-positivist epistemology, and believe in the value of qualitative methodologies, I am still only an n of 1, and not an expert by any means; there is, thankfully, far more written and shared online these days about the possibilities than twenty years ago. What I’ll do in the space we have today, though, is share a bit of my own background, and some of the tools that I’ve found helpful in forging a non-academic path for myself. 

The author in 8-bit.

Speaking of twenty-some years ago, it was an entirely different millennium when I first stepped on campus. Originally, my plan was to do the concurrent BA/BSc program, majoring in French and in chemistry. I wanted to be health-adjacent, but I quickly realized that this combination was not quite right for me. But I had fallen in love with this other course that I was taking on a whim, so I switched to arts, kept the French major, and added psychology as the other major.

What do I love about psychology?

Aside from learning about the inner workings of people on numerous planes of understanding - the biological, the social, the interpersonal - I love that it asks us to solve complex problems, and I love that it requires us to communicate that understanding in ways that are clear and approachable, because the solutions are applicable to so many people in numerous situations. 

I share that, because I think that’s an important question for you to answer, too, as you explore a possible non-academic path.

So, ask yourself: What about studying psychology makes you happy?

Knowing this answer is likely also the answer to what makes you do this work and thus part of what your future career will need to feed to keep you fulfilled. 

I got to test and reaffirm my own answers to that question when I took a year off. I was pretty sure I wanted to do my PhD, but understanding the commitment that lay ahead, I wanted to be absolutely sure. So I worked as a research assistant on a project that studied the different aspects of integrated aquaculture (the practice of farming different species together that feed off each other to mutual benefit of all species). And it was pretty cool and completely daunting; I was actually in charge of collecting data from communities about their opinions about the proposed practice. I realized I liked doing that: applying my toolbox to solve a problem and communicate it back to then build policy and practice. It reaffirmed my earlier hunch about what I loved, and my decision to fill up the toolbox more through graduate studies. 

In fact, I kept looking for those opportunities when I had the space to do so (and needed the extra cash). I did odd jobs that way in tourism, nursing, mental health - all strengthening the muscles or learning new ways of communicating to people who didn’t speak “research”. Learning to communicate is especially important - understand your audience and how they take in their information. What are their preferred formats? How much information and references do they need upfront (as opposed to tucked away in a folder for later consideration)? 

If you have space to do so - and I’ll keep prefacing my comments with that, because I’m a firm believer in work-life balance, even when in school - I would highly recommend it if you’re considering a non-academic path.

Ask yourself: Where can I get more non-academic street cred?

It could be little contracts that you get through word-of-mouth like me; it could be volunteering on committees and boards in the community, too. 

Those are especially helpful, because it introduces you to a whole other way of interacting and speaking; I learned so much about governance, oversight, and strategic planning while sitting on a local board, which proved to be helpful building blocks for my first jobs. 

When it came time to get that first job, it was challenging. I needed to learn to sell myself in a way that made sense to a business. They didn’t care how many publications I had. (They also didn’t care how many publications I didn’t have.) On this front, I would offer two pieces of advice.

First, create two CVs, but only ever use one.

One is the master document with everything you’ve ever done; this would likely be considered the academic CV. The other is a resume - one to two pages max that you curate from the master CV, specific to the job you’re seeking - with the goal of getting an interview. 

Second, learn to translate your skills from the master CV onto the resume.

People may not understand what goes into a research program, and they likely won’t care about your specific field of research, but they understand project management, time management, dedication and commitment, meeting deadlines and goals, and working together as a team. You know how to do all this already, but there may still be a mystical wizardry in some sectors about the academic training and life that you’ll need to dispel. I’ve been in a few different jobs now, and I can say that that’s becoming more the exception than the norm, but be aware that this may be easier in some places than in others.

This isn’t misleading, but rather speaking the language of the people you want to work with. So take some time and deconstruct your experience. There are helpful websites, too, to give you a jump on your translation. You can also dig around on their website to see how they word things in reports and presentations. (If you can, talk to people working there, too.)

If I have to say one more thing about finding your way along the non-academic path, it’s to make connections to other people and other opportunities.

I’m biased but relationships matter. Ask people questions and listen and be open to the possibilities. Keep in touch with your colleagues. Especially in this province, where there are only two degrees of separation. That person you meet on the board may become a research partner and co-host on your podcast later on when your paths cross again. 

Look, as much as we try to contain our life experiment and ensure the best and cleanest solution, it is a truth that we can never tell what will happen or what opportunity will present itself. There’s no way I would say this is where I’d be right now, looking back at myself 20 years ago. I think that that’s okay. Very few of us can plan out and execute exactly what we think we want to do. 

And honestly, you’re only just getting started and you’ll never stop learning and learning about yourself. It’s impossible to know. So deep breaths and just keep asking questions.

It’s what you’ve been trained to do, after all. 

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