“You didn’t lose the gameshow. You just found a different way to win.” ScienceCareers
Experimental Error is a column about the quirky, comical, and sometimes bizarre world of scientific training and careers, written by scientist and comedian Adam Ruben.As I was finishing my Ph.D., I decided my next career step would be outside academia. Many factors influenced that decision; let’s just say that academia wasn’t a good fit for me and I felt I would thrive elsewhere.
Growing up in the 1980s and ’90s, I watched a lot of gameshows. There was always a moment, just before the winner would be whisked off for their bonus game, when the camera would linger on the losing contestants—whom, unfortunately, we need to say goodbye to.
I hadn’t gone into my Ph.D. with my heart set on a long-term academic career, dreams of tea kettles and elbow patches and eventually authoring an expensive textbook I’d force my students to buy. I enrolled in a Ph.D. program in part because I was a person who loved school, and this was more school. It just felt right, and hey, I’d have several years to figure out my next step.
Ultimately, it was probably my disappointment in my research that gave me comfort in my decision. I tried to remind myself that scientists left academia all the time——and were just as talented, lauded, and useful to society as those who remained. When guest speakers would tell us about their nonacademic careers, I’d think, “See, this is a thing people do, and apparently it’s fine.
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