Getting Started: Framing Job Search Language For Humanists

Getting started on anything can be hard. And, if it means abandoning your dream of being a professor in higher education, it can be even harder. But whether you’re facing the possibility of leaving academia or have already chosen to leave, it is never too early to start preparing. 

Outside of academia, there’s a saying that you’re always looking for your next job (even if you choose to decline it). One of the best ways to prepare is (yes, you guessed it): networking. 

“Networking?” you groan. Networking is not about figuring out the slickest way to extract something from a new contact. It’s a not a thin veneer of friendship that masks an entirely transactional relationship. 

It’s building professional community. 

Coming from an academic background in the humanities, language of this sort takes some getting used to. 

If you’re looking for practical advice on networking, informational interviews, and the like, there’s no shortage of great advice out there that’s definitely worth checking out, from Chris Caterine’s book Leaving Academia, to the many free resources of Free the PhD, Beyond the Professoriate, and The Muse, among many others.

But, if you’ve read these sources, you know what you need to do, and you have a good idea of how to do it, and yet you’re still struggling to just get started, reframing some of these concepts might help. 

“Informational Interview”

“Informational interview”? What a dry name, for such a (potentially) beautiful thing. 

To put it simply: an informational interview is an interview conducted in order to attain professional information and build a professional relationship. But the dullness of the name shouldn’t throw you off.

At its best, an informational interview can be an interpersonal, empathic, and imaginative connection that helps you dream up a new life. The only way to set boundaries on what is possible is by learning where they are. There are few ways better to do this than by talking to folks who have drawn them themselves.

Informational interviews can help humanities PhDs think bigger about what’s out there. I’ve met ghostwriters, grant writers, and content strategists who make a great living working for themselves and on their own schedule in ways that seem intellectually and creatively fulfilling. 

I had never even considered jobs like this before and many certainly seem a lot better to me than teaching an overload at a small liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere for a lot less money than I deserve. 

For PhDs in the humanities who have dreaded exiting academia, this can be life-affirming and profound. You may find out that the world contains more possibilities than you realized. The best informational interviews that I’ve had alert me to questions that I did not even think to ask. 

And few questions are as worthwhile as: what do you want to do with your time? How do you want to spend your days?

Perhaps you’ll find something greater than what you thought was possible. Don’t let the dryness of the name fool you into thinking that these conversations aren’t fun, life-affirming, and worthwhile. You’ll also be surprised at just how generous and helpful complete strangers will be.

And, more pragmatically, you’ll be making contacts who want to help you succeed in finding a new career. 

“Networking”

“Networking” is another horrible name for another beautiful thing. 

What is more necessary than human connection at a moment like this? What is more uplifting than meeting total strangers who sincerely want to help you simply because others have helped them? I, for one, am relieved to converse with someone that’s not my parents’ cat. Moreover, networking is easier than ever in the Age of Zoom. 

Hearing the stories of how people from similar backgrounds found success and fulfilment is genuinely uplifting. You might consider joining LinkedIn groups for PhD Career Networking or specifically for PhDs in the Humanities to make connections with other humanities PhDs who’ve made it successfully to the other side.

Connecting with folks on LinkedIn, messaging, setting up Zoom or phone calls all help forge connections at a time when they are particularly necessary.

And when the pandemic eventually, hopefully, subsides, you’ll have an array of contacts in various cities with whom you’d be delighted to have lunch or get a drink. 

All these benefits come in addition to those of knowing people in the sectors in which you might want to work and all the useful information folks are willing to provide if you ask the right questions.

“Alt-Ac”

Don’t get me started on “alt-ac.” Ugh. 

“Alternative,” a word neutral, at best, and at worst summoning memories of stale rock music of a bygone era or health food stores stocking questionable remedies, combined with “ac(k)” an expression of fright or disgust, dangerously close to “hack,” denoting chop, cough, digital break-in, or unoriginal.

Even I can’t quite get over my aversion to this term. I move that we find a better name. While less common in humanities circles, perhaps “industry” or “non-academic jobs” might be better. I’m open to suggestions… any suggestions… please… for the love of God…

Moreover, most PhDs aren’t going into academia. How is the path that the majority are taking “alternative”? The chauvinism of academia is built into the name. 

Instead, think of “alt-ac” as possibilities for financial well-being and professional fulfillment that you could have never imagined. Think of greater pay, better work-life balance, greater geographic flexibility, possibilities for greater creative fulfillment, possibilities to connect with brilliant, interesting people, the chance to work for more functional organizations, etc. 

Repeat after me: alt-ac = new, exciting opportunities.

To conclude, if you’ve been dragging your heels out of a cultural aversion to these terms, then I hope this article has helped you reframe them so you can get started, and keep going. Don’t let the sound of this language keep you from pursuing opportunities for a better life, starting now!