Below is an edited version of my own success story. Enjoy!
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Early
in the spring of 2011, my first year of a two year MA program, I began to have
serious doubts about entering into a teaching career and continuing on into a
PhD program in Philosophy. I became more aware of the job market and what lay ahead of
me if I wished to continue studying philosophy at the professional level. Faced with the prospect of many years of
graduate study, followed by a long struggle to find a tenure-track position
with little financial incentive, even at the peak of my career, I began to doubt
whether this was the right path for my career to take.
I started to discuss my situation with professors and classmates. Fortunately, the professors I talked with
were understanding and sympathetic. They
affirmed that my concerns were legitimate and discussed their own experiences
of struggle in obtaining secure teaching positions, the pressure to publish, the
challenge of teaching unmotivated students, leftover debt, and the lack of
choice of where to live. Why then did
they continue to teach? Simply put, my
professors were so passionate about philosophy that they could not imagine
doing anything else. They would
sacrifice money, drive long distances to teach, and move away from friends and
family, all so that they could continue to study and teach philosophy for a
living. In other words, doing philosophy
was their highest priority. Like my
professors, many of my classmates felt the same way. I recall that one of my classmate’s idea of
taking a break from writing a metaphysics paper was to read an epistemology
book. He, like many others, could not
get enough philosophy and didn’t want to do anything else.
Given the sacrifices and choices I would have to make, I realized that,
unless I was also passionate about and fully committed to studying and teaching
philosophy, I should not do it professionally.
That is, unless I could not conceive of doing anything else as a career
besides philosophy, I should choose to do something else. If I could conceive of alternatives, it was
probably better for me to pursue those. Consequently,
later that spring, I chose to stop looking into prospective PhD programs and
began to look into alternative career paths.
Generally, my professors and classmates were supportive of my decision to
not apply for PhD programs and to pursue other options. Some professors were a little disappointed as
they recognized that I could have placed well and been successful. And some classmates, when I voiced my reasons
for not continuing on to the PhD level, pushed back and tried to persuade me to
stick with philosophy. Nevertheless, I
mostly received support for my decision as the best decision for me. My department head even told me that his view
of success for graduating MA students was not that they would necessarily go
into top ranked PhD programs and teach in philosophy. Instead, it was that each student would graduate
with valuable skills in writing, reasoning, and analysis that would make him or
her successful in whatever career path the student chose. Thus, I largely had
support to move forward in pursuing other options.
Having come to peace with my
decision to leave academia after completing my MA, I needed an alternative
career path. But what would I do
now? Discussing my situation with a
close college friend, he suggested I intern with his dad’s database consulting
company, over the summer. As I began my internship, I discovered that many
technical skills were simply applied philosophy skills I had already
learned. For example, object oriented
programming was simply applied logic, and SQL querying was simply applied set
theory. I had a BA in Mathematics and a logic background from my philosophy
training, so the transition to learning SQL and understanding database design
and technology was relatively smooth.
The internship went well and I decided to continue on in that
direction. When I returned for my second
year of graduate study in philosophy, I took introductory C++ programming,
advanced computer programming, and continued to read about database design,
programming, and SQL querying on my own.
As such, upon graduation with my MA in spring 2012, I was
immediately marketable as an entry level database administrator.
I continued on as an intern with my
previous company that summer until I could be placed on a project. I worked on internal projects, met with
prospective clients, helped my coworkers, and continued to study and develop
the skills I would need for this line of work.
Meanwhile, my boss continued to look for opportunities to place me on a
project. In July 2012, one of my
friend’s network connections let him know of an available contract position on
his team at Microsoft. My friend then
let me know about the position and suggested I consider it and meet
with the client for an interview later that day, which I did.
The interview went very well. The client knew of me from several of my
friends and had no concern about my ability to do the work. Our commonality in having an MA in philosophy
probably cemented the deal as he knew I would be able to think intelligently
and creatively in dealing with the day to day work requirements. And, thanks to my internship, classes, and
independent study, I had the technical expertise to actually do the work. In any case, I was offered the job and I
accepted.
While continuing to develop my skills on the job, I enrolled in a
certificate program in Data Science through the University of Washington.
Through this program I learned more about database design and administration,
Business Intelligence, data mining, and predictive analytics. Now, having
graduated from the program and through my experience on the job and continued
learning off the job for over a three years, I have become marketable as a
database administrator, business intelligence consultant, and data
scientist. Thankfully, and in great
contrast to academic teaching at the college and university level, these
positions are widely available and those that can fill them are greatly in
demand. As such, I continue to consult
in the Seattle area as part of a consulting firm, working in these areas of
data management and data analysis.
Some specific practical
advice for getting a nonacademic job.
First, you need to prepare yourself technically. My experience, and the experience of others I
know, is that in the business and technology world you don’t need a degree in
something to be hired to do it. You just need to know how to do it.
So continue your education by reading books, taking continuing education
courses, doing certificate programs, and taking classes outside your degree
while still doing your degree. Tailor
your independent study towards the set of skills needed for the sorts of jobs
you are interested in. And continue your
studies at least until you have acquired all of these needed skills.
Second, network. Most
people I know that work in the business and technology world that don’t
originally have that background are in these positions because they knew
someone who knew someone else who knew someone else… who needed someone like us
for a job. A personal recommendation from an intermediary that knows both
the employer and potential employee is incredibly valuable in terms of securing
a position. Talk to your parent’s friends, your friend’s parents, and
your friend’s friends that work in fields you are interested in. Learn
how they got to be where they are and get to know them personally. Ask
them what you need to do to get into that field. And ask them to keep an eye open for an
opening wherever they work. Very likely,
your first nonacademic job will come from this sort of connection.
