switch from academic to non-academic job?

[Grog]

No advice to offer - I am more into the business of convincing PhD students that there are cool careers to explore outside of academia - but you may want to explore the Careers section of the Chronicle of Higher Education (chronicle.com). I am pretty sure that I recall that topic being discussed before...

Keep us posted!

[Melalvai]

Grog, that is a worthy pursuit. 90,000 postdocs in the US, and 24,000 tenure track faculty jobs. Too few people know this important fact and get their PhDs without knowing what they'll do with them.

lph, I think it's awesome that you're considering a career change, whether you go through with it or not. Something I learned recently is that it doesn't have to be a choice between this or that. Sometimes you can have both, and there's more than one way to skin a cat (isn't that a horrid saying?). For years I've secretly and guiltily dreamed of dropping out of academia and going into bicycle advocacy full time. (Guiltily because if I did that, why then did I get the PhD and endure so many years of postdoc servitude?) Then I started up the bike/ped advocacy group and realized that I'd rather be president of this group than executive director. My day job supports my bike advocacy habit.

In other words although my deep dark secret desire was to quit academia and go into bike/ped advocacy full time, my real desire is simply bike/ped advocacy and I can do that without quitting my day job. Which is nice on the family finances, and I love my new employer (which is not a Research I institution) and I enjoy research again, though I may never be as passionate about it as I was when I first began graduate school, such a naive young thing that I was.

Good luck finding the path that works for you!

[lph]

Thank you, everybody, for kind words and good ideas. I'm not going to quit my job any day soon even though I'm mightily frustrated sometimes, if anything I'm more likely to analyze things to death before I do anything...

I think I'm in the process of sieving it out exactly what it is that frustrates me most (whoever wrote "the mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding small" was thinking of governmental processes) and seeing how I can change that while keeping the parts I like. I don't think I really want to ditch the analytical, theoretical parts of my job, 'cause I could analyze the elements out of sheetrock, I just want to see more results, get more feedback, and work with something I find more meaningful.

Thanks again!

[Mr. Bloom]

Good for you! At least in the meantime, you live in the country with the world's happiest people!

[nscrbug]

No advice to offer, however I've been contemplating something similar. I've been at my job for 24 years now. I'm a computer operator at a small community college. I am 5 years away from early retirement. I need 30 years of service, but I can "buy" 1 year of service because I have accumulated enough sick days to do so...which brings me at 5 years before I'm eligible. I honestly don't know if I can make it there 5 more years. I'm extremely bored and unhappy with what I'm doing...and we are currently going through a major software/hardware conversion which may (or may not) end up eliminating my position altogether. I haven't been told anything yet, nor have I been trained on the new system (most of my colleagues I have already gone through some training). Lots of unknowns, for sure. I would LOVE to try something totally new and different...even if it's just part-time (w/benefits).

I admire anyone who is unhappy in their job and is contemplating a career change in a totally different direction. I'm too "chicken" to actually go through with it right now...but I guess if I'm forced to (if my job is eliminated) then I'd take that leap of faith and do it.

Linda

[malkin]

Of course you must "follow your bliss," but it is easier to be blissful when the bills are paid.

Best wishes for this transition!

[shootingstar]

Of course you must "follow your bliss," but it is easier to be blissful when the bills are paid.

Very true.

It feels wierd to be where I am ...a boomer who just recently joined an organization (govn't) while people close to my age are taking early retirement from the same organization.

Yes, true sometimes change can move more slowly in academia and govn't.
But as long as I'm learning something new on the job, I consider that a big plus. Some areas of govn't are changing where internal depts. are charging back their services to other internal depts.: it forces the dept. and clients not to take internal services for granted and controls (abit) on getting things done on time and on budget.