Review of Succeeding Outside the Academy

Over the holidays I had the pleasure of reading Succeeding Outside the Academy: Career Paths beyond the Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM edited by Joseph Fruscione and Kelly J. Baker. It is really great collection of essays published by the University Press of Kansas in an easy to carry volume (accessibility of the text I am reading is always a consideration).

                I was excited to read this book as soon as I saw it announced on Twitter for I was curious to see what suggestions and insights the authors would focus on especially in relation to the subtitle of the text.  I was pleasantly surprised at the Canadian connections in this collection from the start which makes it a valuable read for many contract-academic faculty or graduate students across North America. The collection starts with some rather sad statistics about the changes in non-tenure track positions both full-time and part-time as well as the decrease in tenure-track positions.  Also reinforced is the fact that 2 years out of finishing your doctorate seems to be the cut-off for viability on the job market for tenured positions. L. Maren Wood highlights the importance of networking if you are looking to move beyond academic positions and this is a thread that is carried throughout the articles in the collection. I was particularly inspired by Wood’s suggestion of “seven moments in your life- from your earliest memory to the present- when you felt energized, inspired, and successful” (28) as way of finding a path and to see what patterns emerge. I am definitely going to take the time to reflect and find my seven moments as a good awareness exercise. There was also an emphasis placed on the importance of having a good LinkedIn profile as one tries to network and think of alternative career pathways and this is something that I always stressed to my students as well (from a good photo down to a nice summary of who you are and what opportunities you are looking for).

                There are very rich articles in this collection. From Lisa Munro emphasizing the importance of finding a community to Rachel Neff discussing the realities of the economic and geographical restrictions to a job path, there is a lot to think about and explore in this volume. What I found the most valuable and insightful is Neff’s way of reframing traditional or typical academic practices for a job search outside of the academy in “How to Eat an Elephant; or There’s Life outside Academia.” It was really nice to see all the reading one does in academe as “you can read large amounts of text and synthesize complex information” (49) which is so very true. Framing is everything when looking for a new path. Neff also gives excellent clues into what to think about for interview questions when one is used to academic interviews.

                Cathy Hannabach’s statement “[o]ne concrete way to see this in language: academic CVs use nouns […] whereas résumés use verbs” (60) is an excellent way of reassessing what you have done for a new audience. What this collection does that I have not seen in other “alt-ac” pieces is that it goes beyond academic adjacent paths like publishing and editing to even include careers in real estate. There is also a lot of access and accessibility present in the text which is nice to see, for example Rachel Leventhal- Weiner’s discussion of ADA and the negotiation of buildings when pregnant.

                Lee Skallerup Bessette’s “Faculty Development: The (Unnecessarily) Long and Winding Road” was a very astute piece on the paths taken in academia, how rewards are often for research and not teaching, and more importantly how a lot of the skill sets developed in grad school and by teaching are very valuable in faculty development positions. She provides great resources for those who are working in teaching and learning centres and I learned a lot from her article. Abby Bajuniemi’s reminder to pay it forward once employed and Joseph P. Fisher’s perceptive statement “the need to work stopped me from doing the work that I needed to do” (171) are beneficial prompts when thinking of a career change.

Though there was seemingly a lot about the two body problem in this collection, which is an important problem to explore, I would have liked to seen more instances in the articles of those who did not have a financial other while transitioning to a different position. Nevertheless, Succeeding Outside the Academy is an important read especially for anyone thinking about moving out of academic employment that is becoming more and more precarious. It is also recommended reading for graduate programs and those in faculty development to help centre the conversation around skills and competencies that would suit positions in corporate, not for profit, or the public sector.