Episode 24. Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide (Book overview)

So today I want to talk to you about this book, Leaving Academia, A Practical Guide by Christopher Katerin.

This book is so important because frankly there is a glut of PhDs on the market.

Every year approximately 55,000 PhDs are minted in the United States.

About 34,000 of those are from American citizens and permanent residents and approximately 18,000 of those are from temporary visa holders.

While in academia, most PhDs are groomed to become academic professors, although perhaps a lot of STEM degrees can really go into industry and be applied, only 13% of all PhDs will actually land a tenure track and full-time academic job.

13%.

So the vast, vast super majority of PhDs will never ever land academic job.

Furthermore, the attrition rate of PhD students, those who enter and those who drop out, ranges across the disciplines between 36 and 51 percent.

When I was in graduate school, I always heard the percentage is 50-50.

Of course, I'm in the liberal arts and social sciences, so 50% of graduate students will drop out.

And you can imagine that they're accruing debt while they're in there, and they might spend many years of their life that they can't get back.

And now they drop out.

And so they didn't get the degree, they didn't go into that profession, but they still lost that time and they still have those student loan debts to pay off.

And the vast majority of all college classes taught in the United States are taught by adjuncts, by part-time people.

that are making just a few thousand dollars per class.

So the reality is, and I love this quote that I heard from someone that said, actually getting your PhD is at the point when most people leave the profession of academia.

And then they have to figure out, wow, what happened? Like I was lied to, and now what am I gonna do with my life? So this is a practical guide.

This is specifically for people that entered the profession and want to leave, but it's very useful for graduate students who might be getting a PhD and realize that they need a plan B, a plan C, a plan D of what else are you going to do with this PhD.