What do you do if you’re currently feeling stuck in your faculty position, and are considering some sort of pivot?
But you have no idea where to start.
You’re not interested in doing something drastic, like leaving academia.
You are starting to feel, however, that your current situation is not tenable. And that you need to start making some changes. Or at least exploring some of your options.
How do you do this in a meaningful way? And how do you start to take some first steps in this new direction?
In this 63rd episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’m going to share some ideas with you on how to explore doing a possible career pivot within higher education. This will be Part 1 of a Career Pivot series that focuses on how to move forward on exploring some career pivots within and beyond academia.
Tune in next month for Part 2 of the series, when I talk about exploring career pivots outside of academia.
First of all, I want to acknowledge that a lot of you are currently dealing with so many significant challenges right now:
• burnout,
• austerity measures at your institution,
• state and federal policies impacting your research and funding situations,
• frustration or dislike of AI,
• threats to academic freedom, and
• declining enrollment that may lead to closures of departments or even institutions.
This can be further exacerbated if you are on the tenure track or if you’re a lecturer, where you don’t have security of employment.
This is a tough time to be a professor. It feels pretty different from when I first started out teaching in 2012.
I can understand why some of you may be considering some kind of pivot—either within higher ed or beyond it. Or perhaps you may be thinking about preparing for a Plan B, C, or D in the distant future.
So, how do you begin this process of exploring a possible career pivot?
First of all, I think it’s useful for you to be able to articulate what your core values are, especially as they relate to your work.
What is really important to you?
What lights you up as a professor?
What are your deal breakers and your non-negotiables?
I’ve talked about core values in relation to your work in Episode 37 of this podcast, so please have a listen to that.
Once you have a clear sense of what your core values are, you’ll have more clarity on your next steps.
But it is okay if you’ve never actually gone through this self-reflective exercise. This could be something that you do in combination with your pivot exploration.
And I want to mention here that a pivot does not necessarily entail making a drastic career move. The idea is to move into something that builds on your experience, your skills, and your interests.
I like this definition of “pivoting” from Jenny Blake, which is a “methodical shift in a new, related direction based on a foundation of your strengths and what is already working.”
But before we get into any practical steps, let’s talk first about the different kinds of pivots that you can explore, with the intention that you plan to stay in higher education.
5 Types of Career Pivots You Can Make in Higher Education
The first one is keeping the same role, but at a different institution.
Now this one is pretty common. You see a job posting for a faculty position that is similar to yours, but at a different university.
You’re intrigued by this job posting b/c it’s in an area or a state where you’d like to live and because the position described more closely aligns with your strengths and interests. Plus, your spouse would have an easier time of finding a job in this new location.
The second kind of pivot would be to stay at your current institution, but take on a different role.
Maybe your interests have shifted from teaching to administration. Perhaps you have already served as chair of your department.
The idea of moving into a deanship, however, doesn’t really appeal to you. You could see yourself moving into becoming the director of a Humanities Center or an Institute of Research on campus. The announcement for a position comes internally and you decide to put your hat into the ring. You hope to shift your time from teaching intensively to leadership and administrative duties with this career pivot.
A third kind of pivot might be to continue working at the same institution for now and upskilling in a new area or intentionally deciding to shift into working with a different type of population. This is all with the hopes of eventually pivoting to a different institution later on down the road. An example of this could be stepping away from teaching students to working with faculty.
You become involved with working on a campus-wide Faculty Mentoring Program, maybe as an Assistant Director. Later on, you consider applying for positions at a Center for Teaching and Learning or a Faculty Development Center at a different university in the future.
A fourth kind of pivot would be to move from full-time to part-time status at your current institution. This could be for a variety of reasons:
1) you are faced with intense elder caregiving duties;
2) you have current health challenges and are focusing on rehabilitation;
3) you want to pursue your dream side hustle; and
4) you want to still be affiliated with your university, but you simply cannot work in the same capacity anymore.
Lastly, a fifth kind of pivot would be to imagine how to redefine your current duties at your institution. If your real love is pursuing research and writing, is there a way to lean into this by developing a research-based initiative that you can establish at your university? Can you apply for seed money to help nurture this initiative or partner with a center on campus to get this rolling?
So those are just some examples for you. Obviously, there are other possibilities that I haven’t mentioned.
But I’d like to ask you:
What else can you imagine that is gives you a sense of curiosity or inspiration with this kind of pivot?
I think one of the first steps to pursuing any kind of career pivot is being curious and open to exploring a little outside of your comfort zone. So, in that spirit, I would like to leave you with some questions for self-reflection.
5 Reflective Questions for You
- What is working well for you right now?
- What would you like to continue doing?
- What would you not like to continue doing?
- What do you want to learn in the next chapter of your career?
- What are you ready to carry forward and what you are okay with leaving behind in this career pivot?
Stay tuned for my next podcast episode, where I will be speaking about making a career pivot outside of academia. And I’ll also offer some practical steps on how to navigate this transition.
If you’re currently going through a career pivot within higher ed and would like a confidential thinking partner, do feel free to reach out to me anytime. I offer 90-minute strategy sessions where we could brainstorm what 1 or 2 pivots could look like for you.
You can learn more about these strategy sessions at my website, RisewithClarity.com.
I’m also happy to point you in the direction of many career coaches who help specifically on the topic of leaving academia.