Who is going to employ a 40-something, burnt out academic?

[NoWorkInProgress]

How have I ended up with almost no work? My days are so dull and dire. I feel I’m wasting my life away. There must SOMEONE out there who would employ me?

I have a degree & PhD in Psychology. I drifted into it, and ended up as in a senior position as a lecturer in a good university after a few years as a postdoc. I struggled a lot in academia. My ex worked full time, too, and I was juggling kids. Plus I have ASD, it was a difficult environment. So I quit my post and reconceptualised it - did freelance work. This was successful for several years and the short term contracts suited me well. I gave a lot of tutorials, ran courses on a short term contracts, taught online, and even got involved in some creative projects involving various charities. It was great while the DCs were growing up.

Fast forward a few years. I’m divorced, my DCs are teens, and I’m left with the online work only. I am too worn out to give lectures. I can’t keep up with the new research, and it feels like a performance art that I can’t do any more. My online work is not fulfilling any more. It’s the same thing every term. I run it with my eyes shut.

How do I get out of this? I am panicking. I did a counselling course a few years ago, but it’s not for me. I can’t afford to retrain. I’ve applied for non research posts at local universities but get nowhere with those.

I am now pretty distressed! Who is going to employ a 40-something, burnt out academic of yesteryear?!!

Has anyone else been in my position? I’m so scared.

Following. My daughter is autistic, and my dad ... so Im wondering about joining those dots.

I was not as high powered as you, but I had amazing degrees, wanted to become a psych but taught instead for reasons. I am only doing a little teaching now but thoroughly overwhelmed and exhausted by the small bit I do, and completely unable to see a new career at 40+. I would love a new "passion" but I know teaching isnt it.

(I also discovered I was faceblind which went some way to explain why teaching in a large school was hard)

Consider,
Social impact researcher
Evaluation and monitoring roles.

Museum curator?

I think there needs to be a little bit of caution about assuring the OP that she can leap across into well-paid senior roles in a completely different field. I find that employers these days are increasingly specific about what they want - often wanting several years of experience in an identikit post! I also think it is quite hard for people to transfer between the public, corporate and third sector - often due to prejudice about what the work involves.

I am on my third reinvention, by the way, so I do understand what the OP is saying. I am mid forties. Each time I have really needed to put in the groundwork, commit to retraining and I have still found that some doors are closed to me. But no learning is ever wasted and I am pretty happy with my place/direction.

OP, something I would tell my students before they'd graduate into the big wide world is:

Yes think of the things you love to do and are interested in

BUT also!

Think about the things you hate! Or are naturally terrible at stay with me - I am terrible at maths, aweful at science (I have an arty brain not an academic one) and so the field that I work in, I know never to touch careers with maths or science involved as its just not 'me' so whats the point?

Narrowing down what you'd like to do can help if you are honest with yourself about what you DONT like (like you were with saying you dont fancy working with animals) as sometimes the choices and opportunities in the world can almost seem TOO much to consider!

For example, i'd love to be a vet! I love animals! But my lack if science-y ways would make me a terrible vet, so i've never pursued it

@NoWorkInProgress

This is so incredibly kind, wheresmymojo If you don’t mind, I would like to not “come out” for now, but I will give your offer something serious thought. I am very grateful for your generosity! HUGE thanks

That's fine OP, the offer remains open if you want to take me up on it at some future point

@noworkinprogress The Civil Service accepts that in order to reflect and work better for the people it serves - ie, the whole of our diverse society - its staff need to be taken from across society and be truly inclusive, more diverse etc. There is a huge focus on this right now in recruitment terms. You couldn't pick a better time. Plus political drive for more scientific savvy and know-how. So no, ASD absolutely no barrier (as long as you were comfortable with the thought of the role/duties you would be doing obvs IYSWIM).

Also there are jobs moving away from London/SE and ability to work remotely and do zooooooom. Whereabouts are you based, roughly?

Hi OP, I’m also an ex academic and struggling with similar issues. My eldest son was very poorly as a baby and I ended up leaving my job to look after him for a while, then I couldn’t get re-hired. I don’t have the money to retrain and can’t get another student loan.

My experience of applying for jobs has been that employers are reluctant to employ someone like me/you. Because:

-Too academic and not experienced in a commercial profit driven environment (I’ve said I can learn but was told my academic viewpoint is too ingrained after so many years)

-Wouldn’t fit in with a team of less qualified non academic employees (I fit in with people every day in my private life but ok)
-Wouldn’t take orders from a less qualified manager and would think I knew best (assumptions!)
-Would make the manager feel uncomfortable by being more qualified (worried I’ll take his job or show him up?)
-Would obviously want a better career because I’m highly qualified so wouldn’t stick around (again, assumptions)

They also questioned WHY I’d want to leave a field I’d worked in for so long. There’s still a general belief that academia is well paid and cushy. When I said I can’t get a job because I’ve been out of academia too long due to having children, they said “Oh ok, so you don’t WANT to change careers - you’re being forced to! That doesn’t work for us, we want someone who is enthusiastic about the role”. On multiple occasions I’ve been told to “go back to teaching, it suits your personality and qualifications better”.

I also have some ASD type traits (I am not diagnosed) and I’m a chubby bespectacled woman with mad red hair and a hunched posture. Unfortunately that didn’t go down well with employers. Academia was very tolerant and I guess I was what they expected an eccentric professor to be like. But employers repeatedly criticised me for not being chatty enough, not smiling enough, not making eye contact enough, appearing nervous, and told me it felt awkward to interact with me and I didn’t reflect the image they wanted their company to portray - apparently I look, sound and behave like a professor.

Anyway the result is that I’ve been doing temp work for a few years now because nobody will offer me a permanent role. I guess I’m able to get employment via a temp agency because the employer doesn’t have to commit to me or keep me around; I’m just there temporarily to fill a gap. In the longer term I’ve concluded that the only way I’ll get a job is if I create one for myself, so I’m looking at starting a small business once my youngest goes to school.

I think there needs to be a little bit of caution about assuring the OP that she can leap across into well-paid senior roles in a completely different field. I find that employers these days are increasingly specific about what they want - often wanting several years of experience in an identikit post! I also think it is quite hard for people to transfer between the public, corporate and third sector - often due to prejudice about what the work involves.

I agree with this. As I said in a previous post, a lot of people were very well-meaningly but also quite frustratingly over-optimistic about how easy it would be for me to use my academic experience elsewhere. People often aren't interested in transferrable skills, and they're also often pretty sceptical of the value of, say, management or project experience when it comes from within an educational setting. A lot of people think academics are just people who carried out doing what they remembered doing at university, forever (I know quite a few teachers who have had the same issue when trying to change career).

I think there's also an over-optimistic idea that employers must really want 'clever' people; the problem is that the stereotype is that anyone over-qualified for the job will be socially difficult. As I said, I've found most of this less of an issue in a university professional services setting, but even there I was complimented - with some surprise - by my boss's boss about the fact I didn't 'show off' about my academic past soon after I started, so I guess that had been a real fear they'd had when employing me.

I think it would be a helpful exercise to take a blank Word document and try to rewrite sections of your CV.

For example, imagine you were going for a project coordinator role:

You were not 'a lead researcher' you were 'delivering a fixed term project as part of a team'.

You weren't 'managing a research dataset', you were 'using your spreadsheet and database skills'.

What do you end up with?

I'd really reiterate what @testingtesting101 said so eloquently - dont underestimate the sheer effort it takes to mask as a high-functioning and obviously successful professional . I can imagine you might be burned out, not just professionally but also from the sheer effort of modifying behaviour each day.

Counselling with someone experienced with female ASD might be beneficial - to help you work out what you need, what you like and some achievable ways to get to that place .

Just popped into my head - wedding planner?! OR - as you like travelling - if it ever happens again - a guide for a company running those exclusive, expensive guided tours of places such as India, South America etc? That would be fun!

@NoWorkInProgress

Octopus37

I’m sorry you are going through the same. I suspect there are quite a few of us out here with “-ologies” who have ended up in these freelance roles. It sounds like you really have had a struggle. Sorry to hear about this. I imagine that the face blindness doesn’t help much, either. I wish you all the best

Thank you. Hopefully we will all get sorted in time, all so difficult. Wish you all the very best. Lots of ideas on this thread.

Not sure that these would be useful geographically but maybe research some kinds of organisation similar to the Anna Freud Centre (N. London) and its projects, or Red Balloon in the Air learner centres (support to school aged pupils who are affected by trauma or anxiety). They could be a good start.

Otherwise I'd second keeping an eagle eye on temp opportunities and especially maternity leave cover. This gives long enough, when I've done it, to be able to work out whether a team is a good fit, and often also to be able to see whether anything is closely in the pipe line such as restructures or big change which has happened twice when I've done cover and offers a useful bit of foresight. In terms of temps, ask around about good agencies - fortunately I have a friend quite similar to me who had the contact for one I then approached.

Find and take a couple of cheap online courses, some are about £10-£30 (and are often a bit useless and multiple choice but at least worth what you have paid). I would recommend: something on remote working, possibly something on central emerging IT systems such as SharePoint, a really good rummage around the latest Outlook, calendar stuff and so on. Project management is a bit more of a commitment and can be specific to the organisation (e.g. not all that many places I know of work with Prince2 even though it is popular).

Google and probably other big tech companies have positions for User Experience researchers. Some ask for recent experience in the industry plus programming skills, others are more open-minded. Worth a look?

There is also academic publishing but you may find it a bit boring.

In your situation I'd look for opportunities internationally. A fresh start in another country may be just what you need to re-invent yourself (as you said you like to travel).