How to know if it’s time to quit academia

welcome welcome I'm Kathy mazak and this is academic writing Amplified I am so excited to get into our topic for today which is how do you know that it's time to quit Academia now we have noticed in our programs that we are getting more and more people that are joining because they're trying to figure out if Academia is even still right for them and we offer programs to people who are professors so it's not like we're talking about people who don't have the prestigious 10-year track job they have that job and they are asking themselves the question is this right for me or maybe should I quit so this video is directed to you if you are a professor whether you are in a 10-year track institution like those in like many who have positions in North America or whether you don't use the words tenure track but you are full-time and permanent you know which is kind of the language used in Europe and other places this video is for you maybe you're feeling like what did I get myself into to I'm not sure if this is right for me and you're thinking about quitting so I'm going to talk today about a process for figuring out kind of diagnosing what's really going on and whether it's a situation that you should quit or not I mean sometimes it is I left Academia so um so yeah like let's get into it so before we get started though I want to let you know that today's episode is brought to you by our navigate your writing roadmap program navigate to 12-week program that opens for enrollment three times a year and applications are now open we have an application process which includes everybody who goes to the application process is going to have a phone a pre-enrollment phone call with me so applications are now open you can go to scholarsvoice.org navigate find the pink button and apply today if you're not watching or listening in real time don't worry that same button will get you on the wait list for the next round okay I'm looking at my notes how do you know it's time to quit Academia this is going to take some journaling okay so I'm walking and thinking some sitting and writing you really gotta dig into it because that's a pretty big decision so I'm going to help you figure it out today so the first thing that you need to do if you're considering quitting Academia is you need to really reflect on what is making you have the thoughts of quitting so many of you are like between semesters now if you're watching or listening in real time so this is actually a great time to think about this you're going to need to get very specific okay so really writing down what is what are the kind of the things that are happening right now that are giving you those feelings of I think this might not be for me so I'll give you a bunch of examples right like some people get to this um get to this point when they are feeling like completely overwhelmed with the amount of work they have to do like they can't get above water they can't even get above water like to do the most important things and actually this is a really important distinction they can only do urgent things they're not like you can't get above water to do the actual important things like writing and Publishing and what this creates is a cycle that is a increasingly stressful cycle right where you have very urgent things that you need to do that you're kind of like those putting out fires kind of things like you need to get you need to teach your classes you need to get your grades in um you need to collect data you're on a timeline for a grant you know those kinds of things um maybe you have a lot of service work and there's a bunch of dates and deadlines that are like tied up in that service work that you need to that you need to hit and then at the same time what's happening while you are hitting all of those urgent deadlines is that you are not doing the important work for your career the career that's gonna the the work that's gonna get be able that's going to help you to keep getting grants the work that's going to be able to get you promoted the work that's going to be able to make that career something that you know is a is a long career and those important things are often writing and Publishing right so you don't have Publications because you don't have time to write because all you're doing is urgent stuff so a lot of people are in that cycle and they say to themselves okay what it you know is this sustainable is something that I can continue to do long term because it feels like it's not okay so again like this is just like possibility like so that might be something you write down like you're in an unsustainable cycle that you can't figure out how to get out of all right another thing that might be getting you down right and making you think about quitting is dealing with the bureaucracy of your institution or maybe um you know you got your tenor track job or your permanent job and you know that not everybody gets 10 10-year tracker permanent jobs and so you're like well here I am and I have what everybody wants and it's not it doesn't feel good like I don't fit in my department I don't um I'm having trouble navigating the bureaucracy and what I need to do um the attitude of the people here doesn't seem to match mine maybe it's a values mismatch like I have different values than this institution maybe you got a job maybe you were educated at an R1 and your your job is out of slack or an R2 and you kind of don't know how to be in that culture um that's very different from where you were like academically raised so those are all just examples of of reasons that people kind of start to feel like maybe this isn't for me another one right is quality of your family and home life right so many people um who have children while they're on the tenure track start to question like is this really sustainable with these children maybe you're a caretaker for an older family member you're in a sandwich generation right where you're taking care of an older family member or a partner or somebody and also um taking care of children and that can be really really stressful and can make you think like well this isn't the kind of job that goes with the lifestyle outside of work that I currently have or that I current that I want right you could also be a single person just trying to care for yourself right or maybe of a partner just you and a partner regardless that caring for others or caring for self keeps not happening because you are constantly overworked and stressed out in the job and so that makes us have the thought maybe this type of work is not the work for me okay so what but basically though those are just ideas to like get you started or to give you an example um but what you really need to do is figure out for you and be very very specific like you can even write down like certain things that have happened recently or that continue to happen or happened in the past that have made you have that thought like maybe this is not the job for me and I have to think about a different line of work or a different type of job okay so that's the first part is listing out like what are those kind of triggering events or things that are happening that make you have the thought about quitting Academia and then the second part of course is what are the things that you love about Academia like what are the parts of your job that absolutely like light you up and make you remind you that you have like a vocation for what you're doing like what are those things maybe they are those moments in the class where there's students are having a breakthrough where you're all coming together in a great conversation maybe there are those scientific breakthrough moments right in the lab that happen when you're like oh wow like look look at these results I got or look how this experiment is going I feel like so you know invigorated by it maybe they are the writing moments and Publishing moments that you don't get enough of right um but that you love uh maybe they're the presenting and the conferences where you're like with colleagues exchange of ideas what is it for you that you're like what are those moments that light you up that you're like yes this is the career for me so we want to both get very specific about what makes you have those thoughts of quitting and then what makes you have those thoughts of staying right of like this is for me this is what I was called to do or this is this is something that really like lights me up and excites me and seems like a good career for me okay so you need both of those lists then what you need to do is with those lists you want to reflect on whether the things you wrote on the list are characteristics of what I'm going to call the container and then I'll explain that in a minute or not okay so let me kind of explain the container so what I mean by the container and this is like kind of a phrase that you'll hear me say in other places or on the podcast and on the in the YouTube videos um something I'm very I feel very strong about is that that you are not the container so if you are in a professorial job the container is like professorship um at a university that is the container and you are doing your work in the world through that container that is the container that kind of like facilitates your work in the world that is never the only container through which you could do the work so just to give like a very simple example um if you have a PhD in um in gender studies right like you could be a professor of gender studies and you're doing your work in the world through that container and everything that is a part of that teaching research service Publications contributions to the field Grant getting all of those things and that is your container you could also be doing your work in the world through a non-profit you could be doing it through um teaching High School potentially like there are many different containers maybe you have a consultancy maybe you have your own business maybe you're a motivational speaker right there's many many different containers through which you can do the work and some people this is what I did right like you kind of have work that you want to do in the world and and you create your own container and that's what I did as an entrepreneur creating the business that is bringing you this content okay so the container though a lot of times as professors and of course like when we say what like you say I'm a professor right you say I am and you say the container right but you're not right like the container is not equal to you like this is not the only option and your work is still worthy in the world without this particular container of professorship okay so that's what I want you to start to see I want you to start to be able to separate yourself from the container and look at it from the outside perspective rather than just being so close to it and almost one with it in a way that you can't separate like the characteristics of the container from the characteristics of your work do you see what I'm saying okay hopefully so um so now what yeah you have your lists and you start to look at each one of these things on the list is this a characteristic of the container through which I am doing the work or is it a characteristic of my particular um job right like for example the container is professorship but my job is I'm a professor at a certain rank at a certain University in a certain position okay that's when you start to kind of tease those things out you can start to see like you can start to take them and make some analytic choices about like what you can actually do because there are things that you can do like it's not like you just have to accept the glorification of busy and the Reliance on overwork and all of these things that you think are like um just part of being an academic if if those are the things that are making you have thoughts about quitting those kinds of things can actually be engineered to be better and that's like exactly what we do in our programs like we we job craft we we figure out ways and I I you get coached on ways to make those features of the container you're in right now sustainable okay so for example if you are like oh like that kind of first example I did at the beginning that you might be wanting to quit because you feel like you're overwhelmed with urgency you're not getting to the important stuff that problem is a problem that we can solve that's a problem that you can solve through self-coaching through reflection uh through skill building and if you want help with that that's what our navigate program is about um and so those are those are solvable problems if you are in a specific job though like if you're in a specific University and you find you have a real values mismatch with the University harder problem to solve either like you're going to have to compromise your values or the university is going to have to like change values you don't have to have exactly the same set of values but there needs to be like enough overlap that it makes sense okay so again like looking getting all these like what are the reasons that I'm thinking of quitting are these characteristics that I need to live with or can they be re-engineered by me can I if if I'm like again that same problem of like I'm overwhelmed I have a lot to do I have a lot to say and I'm not getting my Publications out that is a problem that you can get build skills around to solve if you are like but if but then like I don't know what's on your list right you have to figure out like like you have to look at your list and and think like is this something that is something that I could actually work on and get better at or not okay so that will help you in that decision to if you want to quit or not again A lot of people are coming to us recently with like this idea of like I am just not willing to work 60 or 80 hour weeks you know I I am unwilling to do that so what can I do um so so I need to figure out a sustainable way to do this job within a 40-hour work week um or I can't continue down this path that's a solvable problem like for most people in most places some places it's not and then you would need to go on the market and potentially find another job but do you have to leave Academia completely maybe not you know um then I want you to you know in terms of the list of things that you are looking at that are like these are the things that make me want to stay these are the things I love about this job just starting to kind of think creatively about possible other containers through which to do the work can also be like really really helpful in terms of getting of calming those thoughts around quitting because it's not that you shouldn't have thoughts of quitting like obviously like entertain I'm telling you a whole process right to entertain those thoughts but it can be very stressful to be like constantly thinking maybe this job isn't for me and not having like a path to figure it out okay so that's why that's why I'm I'm you know kind of giving you these ideas of how you might figure it out if you start to imagine different containers through which to do the work then you can start to say like oh is that a container that's like available for me now do I need to build towards it does it sound more appealing than where I am and you again you just start to open your mind you start to get to think about like you know what might I do and those are and that's putting yourself back in that like agentive place like I have agency over my career um and I can act on that agency to make my career better all right that is exactly kind of where we want your head space to be so I guess I will just end by saying we have coached literally hundreds of academics and actually most of the time the problems that are making people feel like they want to quit are solvable problems they are problems that you can address through skill building and coaching um they are not you know so professional development they are not you know quit your job and do something completely different types of most people do not need to do that they just don't know that there is a way to make Academia sustainable for them they don't know that so if you're one of those people that you're like wow it's kind of like that it's almost all or nothing thinking right it's like either I have to subscribe to this culture of Academia that tells me I have to work 60 or 80 hour weeks it tells me that I have to you know be isolated it tells me I have to do the Urgent not the important even that even though that's to my detriment it tells me I have to live stressed out and always busy like if you think there's either that or quitting Academia and doing a different career what I'm here to tell you is that there actually is a way to make Academia sustainable and the only way that we are going to make this scholarly life a viable option for the future which I frankly believe it needs to be because we need scientists and humanists and thinkers and writers and we need these people as Humanity like we need scholarship if you are on if you believe that as well that that that that that Humanity that that scholarship is part of what we need to continue to kind of move forward as humans then you we have to start creating a different culture inside of Academia we have to create a different way to do it we're seeing now especially post pandemic especially in this historical moment we're seeing people rejecting the idea of overwork of glorification of busy of 80 hour weeks like we are seeing people say like this is just that's what we're seeing in our programs we're seeing people say like well I gotta figure out how to do this sustainably or I'm not gonna do it and it didn't used to be like that it used to be I need to figure out how to do this sustainably because I don't have another choice that's not what we're seeing people saying now what we're seeing people saying now is I'll figure out something else if this isn't going to be sustainable if this doesn't give me not just the career that I want but the life that I want right the lifestyle and the life that I want so I encourage you to think about this exercise if this is you if you're trying to figure out how to know you know when or if it's time to quit I encourage you to do this exercise I also encourage you that if you have resonated with something I've said today if you've seen some of my other videos and you thought wow I would really like to learn some of these skills and get coached by Kathy and her team at Scholars voice then I encourage you to consider applying for our navigate program so if you're listening or watching in real time applications for our next round of navigate our next cohort they open today July 11th and they close on August 3rd and then our next cohort starts August 14th and runs until November 3rd so it's a 12-week program that wraps before the holidays which I think is really nice before you know grade turning in time and and and Thanksgiving in uh in the states and all of that um and if you really are thinking about if you're questioning whether your career can be sustainable um I believe that a sustainable career starts with putting writing at the center since writing and Publishing well since publishing Publications are the currency of Academia in order to take control of our careers and really create something sustainable we need to Center our careers around writing navigate is a writing and publication program you're going to learn how to map out your publication pipeline how to project manage your writing how to create an academic mission statement and then align your calendar and the things you do and your pipeline so it supports that academic Mission and you are going to learn how to develop a sustainable and regular Writing Practice we call it a relationship-based Writing Practice because it's all about nurturing the relationship between you and your writing so applications are open we do have like a three-part application process the first part is the application three-part enrollment process let's say the first part is the application if your application is approved then we will have a pre-enrollment call that's me and you on a 45 minute pre-enrollment call and what you're going to do the third part the of the process is before our call you're going to take our navigate Benchmark assessment and that is a an assessment that um helps you to really see like kind of where you are right now it's based on our navigate framework I'll explain all about it if you apply and your application is approved and um we will be discussing that assessment on our pre-enrollment call for navigate and we are looking for about 20 people to form the next cohort we're very excited if you know to reach you if you are one of those 20 we can't wait to work with you so go to scholarsvoice.org navigate find the pink button and apply also in the show notes or in the description of this video you will find a link to a simple Google doc where we I have like written out all of the details including the price of the program in court including the date the dates of the calls because there are live coaching calls weekly for 12 weeks so you'll find out that information first day last day of the program all of that you will find out in the document that I have linked up here so um so yeah thank you so much and don't quit before you've really thought thought it through and and done this exercise all right have a great day bye

Channel: Cathy Mazak at Scholar's Voice™

Views: 5,106

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Id: ht841ljWOE8

Length: 26min 15sec (1575 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 11 2023