Some of you may know that I have fallen out of love with academic science. This is hardly a new break up and there are lots of reasons for the cooling of my passions. But lest this post become an indictment of all the things wrong with academia, I’ll refrain from bitching. I kind of knew that the academic life wasn’t for me about four years into my Ph.D., but at that point you just finish things up – no sense wasting that much time. The easiest thing to do after finishing a Ph.D. is a post-doc, and being a fairly lazy man I took the path of least resistance. And I gave my post-doc a good go, but the academic life requires a real passion and real drive and I realized after a while that it just wasn’t going to happen. But, with a family on the way, no right to work in Britain other than for Oxford University and the incredible cost of living in Britain, I needed to keep working. Fortunately I’ve got a good boss and when it became clear that the academic life wasn’t for me, she gave me options rather than just showing me the door. We came to some understandings – my role became more technical and the expectations shifted. I really shouldn’t bitch about my job as much as I do.

And that’s the thing. While academic science has lots of flaws – long hours, poor pay, an inherent narcissism, poor job security, etc. – it’s also a pretty good way to make a poor living. The university atmosphere is dynamic, there’s no dress code, hours are inherently flexible and eccentricities of all sorts are tolerated, if not encouraged. The latter is one big reason that I got as far as I did. I’m on the verge of joining the real world and I think after so long in academia it could be a real shock. There’s a lot of fear as well, after 8 years wrapped in academic cotton wool, I’m not sure that I’m competent to take on the pace and rigors of a “city job”.

I think that fear is starting to lift. I met up with a friend yesterday who made a transition in his life from doing things that he had to do to make a living to doing what he wanted to do and making a living at it. These days, he spends part of his time trying to help other people to make the same kind of transition. It was great to talk to him about it because, while I’ve been thinking of making a change for quite some time, this is the first time that I’ve had someone talk me through it step by step. And for the first time, I can see how it could work. Taking simple actions while always bearing the greater goal in mind. He assured me that I don’t have to do anything to put my livelihood at risk.

I know it all sounds a little “airy-fairy” as Dr. O’C likes to say. But it’s really just a change in attitude. From being afraid and saying “I can’t” to being confident and saying “I’ll try”. And its up to me – I can be unhappy doing something I dislike or take some steps to finding a job that I love. Misery is optional.

Oh and yes, I do realize that I haven’t said what my plans are.

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