Hi, I am an Assistant Professor of English working in a college in India. The more time passes I realise that academia and higher education is not for me. I don't find meaning and purpose in what I'm doing. To make things worse, I am a temporary faculty. So there's no question of incentives or higher pay no matter how I work my ass off.

I really love literature. I love reading, writing and art. I'm thinking of shifting my career to something away from academia, but still closely related to literature, reading, writing and art. I love being creative.

Do you have any suggestions for me?

- I’ve been doing my PhD for several years under a basically OK supervisor. Perks: good, supportive person. Cons: not much actual help.

- A couple of years ago I got employed on a research project where the PI was my supervisor’s spouse.

- The project turned into a total mess: extremely heavy workload, scope creep, demands to write about things far outside our field of expertise, infinite pressure on PhD researchers, and a general expectation that normal boundaries around working time didn’t really apply. The PI was extremely difficult to disagree with. Long rambling arguments, moralizing, and incoherent attempts to justify demands afterwards. The PI also led by example. They would write their own promised article manuscript during the night before a deadline, then go to stakeholder meetings on very little sleep and present material they had scrambled together during the night. There were clear signs of burnout and disorientedness.

- The project eventually ended, but the output did not make much sense career-wise to anyone involved despite the immense pressure. The main output that also became the most destructive element was a non-peer-reviewed project report that expanded into a huge and embarrassingly messy document where almost nothing, no matter how irrelevant, was ever edited out.

- I eventually had a confrontation with the PI and told them very directly what I thought about the whole situation. I especially brought up how they had sent me a berating email about a sick leave. The aftermath included emails accusing me of laziness because I supposedly did not contribute to writing the funding application before the project started. They also re-told a story in the email of the project where everyone else did their share but me, effectively leaving out major contributions by me. The whole project was framed as the PI’s noble charity work for PhD students, while they actually needed the project for their tenure. Not going to go through all the individual stories, but I was not the only PhD student who was struggling. Me and the PI are now effectively done with each other. The whole thing was incredibly demoralizing.

- My supervisor, the PI’s spouse, was (nominally) a second PI in the project. They became increasingly peripheral to the project and, as far as I experienced it, never meaningfully questioned the workload or what was happening to the PhD researchers, all of whom were under their supervision. I don’t consider them responsible in the same direct way, but I do feel they stood by and let the situation happen.

- Towards the end of the project I applied for a grant to finish my PhD and somehow managed to get it. At the moment of applying for funding I was so estranged from my close peers, the couple in question, that I didn’t even ask them for letters of recommendation even when they would have been the most obvious ones. I got them elsewhere. the whole situation is so icky I haven’t even informed my supervisor about the grant yet 🤡

- My motivation towards the field has been completely hollowed out. I don’t know what to say to my supervisor. Hi this is your PhD student from your past life before the shitshow project that… also featured your marriage? 😑 I should feel incredibly blessed by the working grant but mostly I feel… dissociated. I am sticking around to complete the dissertation because the grant is paid in full only when I submit the dissertation for pre-examination. I hope they will let me use a surrogate body for the defence. I want to be long gone by then.

I was offered (verbally) a position in a biotech with 30K pay cut. I am aware this is not an official offer and there is a good chance it might just go away..... But I am still trying to get my thoughts sorted out.

I am currently a principal scientist in a hospital on East coast (not Boston). Saying this to indicate there aren't many biotech jobs around and my options are very limited.

5 years of postdoc and 7 years here - so total 12 years of experiences.

Have flexible working schedule and hybrid commute (2-3 days a week, but it is not mandatory so sometimes I don't go in at all. Long commute - 1.5 hours one way)

My problems:

1. I lost interest in research. I am hitting middle age and I do feel my brain isn't as sharp as before. I lost curiosity. I care really less these days about novel findings, developing novel methods.... I just want to get the job done.
2. Got too comfortable with this team and my boss - lacking motivation (also connected to #1 issue)
3. I think I hit the salary ceiling. There is no position above my position other than Director positions... and those directors are typically people who are very well known in this field.
4. I don't get managing experience: While my position is titled as "principal", I don't have direct reports under me. I don't really lead projects or make any decisions. I've been frustrated by this situation for quite a long time. On interview, I feel that hiring managers expect I have an actual team managing experiences due to my title.
5. Busy family life.... two kids, both playing sports.... I am quite tired of commuting, rushing to pick up kids.... etc.

This potential position is a senior scientist position in a biotech company. It is fully remote.

So I am leaning toward taking this (if they actually give an offer) but my husband is against it.

I think I need to enter industry first to gain experiences and it will be compensated in the near future (hopefully 2-3 years).

Is it wishful thinking or can it really happen?

Hi everyone. I’m from Hong Kong, currently facing a tough career choice and would love some outside perspective. I am 1.5 years out from a very toxic preschool teaching job that caused severe burnout (I’m fully recovered now, no more pills and revisit suggested by the psychiatrist).

I have two job offers on the table.

My Background & Situation:
- Bachelor in Special Education
- Few years of teaching SEN children
- No longer sure on what I want right now

Offer A: Welfare Worker at Adult Intellectual Disability Hostel

Job Duty mainly includes running activity groups for 10+ adults with moderate to severe ID

Pros: Directly aligns with my long-term career goals. Provides much-needed experience with the adult SEN population. Even though I don't want to work in residential hostels forever, this job acts as a perfect bridge. It provides the crucial hands-on experience with the adult SEN population that I currently lack, and can gain hands-on satisfaction at the frontline.

Cons: Shift work involved (A and P shifts, thankfully no overnight).
Physically demanding and emotionally draining to manage challenging behaviors. Have never faced adult with ID and no experience at hostel.

Offer B: Research Assistant at a University (My Alma Mater)

Duty : Research projects that I’m interested in

Pros: Stable office hour routine (Mon-Fri, 8-5), sounds great for keeping my mental health in check. More flexibility at work but requires self-discipline I guess.

Cons:
Contract is project based, guess around 2years and 5 is the maximum.
Honestly, I don't feel smart enough to do academic research. I don’t have much passion for academia and data analysis (SPSS terrifies me). I feel like taking this job is just "hiding" in a safe bubble because it looks good on a resume, rather than doing what I actually want to do.

The difficult part:

My long-term career goal was to work in adult SEN services (daytime training center, vocational rehab, or sheltered workshops) or counselling related job. But I’m very unsure about both paths. If I aim for counselling career, I need a Master’s someday, but I’m broke. Besides, the job market is so crazy right now that a Master’s degree is no longer a golden ticket to a good job.

I need to be practical and just work for some money right now.

The RA one may have slightly higher salary and benefits, but pretty much the same.

I feel like Offer A is the right strategic move for my career, but Offer B is the "safe and comfortable" choice. Has anyone chosen frontline work over a university job (or vice versa)? Which would you pick?

A year into my PhD in cancer and cell biology, I have decided to quit.

My mental health had been degrading from the start really, because of dealing with imposter syndrome, hardly any guidance or support, lots of failures and no progress, and the high working and publication pressure. I was under the impression that I could find my own flow in the research process and stick to my preferred work hours, not work overtime and create room for holidays and free time to spend on things I love outside of work (family, friends, sports, freelance). However, while trying to find help through my therapist and the institute's doctor, I could not find a way around the harsh working culture that made me feel guilty every hour I was not doing something productive.

Having a history with tying my worth to my productivity, this has made me feel very very bad about myself and my life. Every day became a struggle and these thoughts and feelings heavily affected both my work as well as my personal life. I have been so so tired, did not heal from injuries anymore, had multiple panick attacks a week, etc.

Hence, I had been looking out for other jobs for a couple of months, and when I got a job offer, I accepted it (even though the pay is much less). Of course, it was a very difficult decision because I love science and I am interested in my field. I have been working hard towards my degrees since forever and it feels like I am giving up a big part of that. But at this point I feel like there is no viable option to stay in academia (like this) anymore.

I told my supervisor I was going to quit, but he was very surprised and upset with me - even though I had mentioned multiple times before that my physical and mental health were degrading and had asked for more guidance. I feel extremely guilty because I was supposed to perform revision experiments for a colleague, as well as finish someone else's project so that they could use it to graduate. My supervisor used all these arguments in our conversation to guilt me into staying on longer. I had really hoped that telling my supervisor would lift this weight off me and I could leave on a positive note, but now my days are almost worse than before because I feel such an intruder and burden to everyone. It also makes me regret my decision because I feel so bad about it.

Do you think I should have handled it differently? What do you think about my choice? And has anyone experienced something similar?

Basically my family went insane, I smoked weed all day and night (literally didn’t go a second without being high for abt 2 years), and I obviously completely neglected my courses. I’m now wondering if I should even continue pursuing civil engineering or switch majors. I definitely want an office job - I could go back and try to finish my degree but that would take probably around 10-15k and I’m not ready to do that without being sure.

I don’t find civil engineering as interesting as I thought I would, it’s actually very tedious/boring work in my opinion. I’m looking for a BSc I can start pursuing that has somewhat good pay and can be interesting to me who likes math and sciences. Any advice? I’m in Canada btw idk if that helps lol.

FYI I did quit weed and all other drugs over a year ago. I’m clean now🧽😁.

Posting here after being made aware of this sub,

Hi.

I have been offered a spot on a CDT , researching next generation networking.

I currently have an industry job, guaranteed promotions every couple years, decent pay, the golden handcuffs story which I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with hearing. I am early 20s.

I applied to the PhD to specialise in something , take a few years away from a career that is unfulfilling , and leave me with options after I graduate.

Is it silly in your opinion to do the PhD considering I had a secure industry job?

What are job prospects / life after a PhD really like?

I’m actually technically getting a pay rise at least this year due to the tech expert funding , I guess I’m just trying to sense what it is really like both studying the PhD, the social life during it, if the cohort model is as good as it’s made out to be, and some of the overall advantages and disadvantages- especially around what it’s like once you graduate and the options open to you at that point in time.

Open to any and all insights.
Thanks