I have a Ph.D…Employers won’t hire me
Is a college professor useless in other industries?
I got the call last May that my college wouldn’t be renewing my and my colleague’s contracts. Yes, we were victims of post-COVID budget cuts in higher education. I can’t say I was upset because I had been applying for jobs outside academia for several years. I took my layoff as a sign that I needed to be more aggressive in my job search.
I figured I had time to find a new job since I’d still get paid until August. I’d devote my summer to looking for a new job rather than preparing for the fall semester like I used to. I wasn’t worried. After all, I had my Ph.D. and more than 20 years of experience in higher education. I also had 10 years of experience in television news. Surely someone would hire me in three months.
Nope.
I applied for e-learning jobs since I knew how to assemble online courses according to learning theories. I applied for marketing communication jobs since I got a Coursera/Meta certification in social media marketing. I applied for jobs as a scientific writer since I knew how to read research and simplify it for public audiences. Do I have project management experience? Anyone who’s been a college professor knows that answer.
