"I made it seem like I was in this role for the long haul. Typically, someone stays in my position for a good amount of years, about four or five, before moving on to a professorship. But the thing is, this is never what I really wanted! I always wanted to find a job outside of the academic space in order to start making more and have a better work-life balance."
"You don't have to apologize for leaving academia. Most people in academia leave academia. It's a bit of a pyramid scheme, anyway. Graduate students compete for a smaller number of postdoctoral positions; postdocs compete for a smaller number of professorships, and professors compete for a vanishingly small number of tenured professorships. The ones who succeed mentor additional junior people who build the base of the pyramid."
An early-career academic presented long-term commitment to a mentor despite intending to leave for industry to improve pay and work-life balance. The role was accepted because it was the only available option at the time, and the person has been searching for other jobs since. The person values the mentor's guidance and fears that revealing the job search will feel like deception and damage future support. Leaving academia does not require apology. Academic careers function as a pyramid with intense competition for shrinking positions. Mentorship relationships are mutually beneficial symbioses in which established and junior scholars build reputations, networks, and scholarly contributions.
Read at Slate Magazine
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