The academic job market is famously protracted. Job postings started appearing last summer for positions beginning this fall; we’re in March now, and new postings are still popping up. But we’ve reached a point in the semester when many PhDs and postdocs are facing down a difficult truth: “I may not receive a faculty job offer this year.”
First things first: if you haven’t received an offer yet, it’s okay to be disappointed. You’ve invested a tremendous amount of time and effort into preparing for a faculty career; it’s only natural to feel dejected, anxious, or even angry if those plans haven’t come to fruition. For many PhDs and postdocs, being a scholar is more than just a job; it’s a fundamental part of their identity. Thus, you should give yourself the time and space to process your emotions rather than trying to avoid them. The key is to look for small ways to keep moving forward, rather than letting disappointment rob you of all momentum.
Confronting rejection—or even worse, silence—is never easy. But if your employment plans for the coming year are feeling precarious, this article will offer some advice on how to assess your options, plan immediate next steps, and formulate long-term career plans that align with your goals and values.
1. Explore options for extending your time at Penn
Once you’ve had time to grieve the results of your job search, the next step is to weigh your immediate needs against your long-term career goals. It’s quite common to go on the academic job market more than once; according to a 2023 survey of over 1,000 PhDs and postdocs, 39% of candidates who secured faculty positions went through the job cycle multiple times. However, you’ll need a plan for how to support yourself in the interim. If you intend to go on the market again, here are some questions to be asking now:
- Can your department or lab afford to fund you for another year? Talk to your PI, advisor, grad chair, and/or department chair about available funding.
- Are there additional fellowships, grants, or jobs you can apply for that would allow you to stay at Penn? Keep an eye out for dissertation completion fellowships, federal research grants, teaching opportunities, etc. The Graduate Student Center maintains a database of both internal and external funding options.
Sticking around for another year is often the least disruptive path—but you should also prepare for the possibility that there won’t be enough funding to keep everyone in their current position.
2. Explore limited-term faculty positions
If you’re not able to stay at Penn, you may want to look for short-term opportunities at other universities. Can you secure a position as an adjunct, lecturer, postdoc, or Visiting Assistant Professor to sustain you while you go on the market again? Many of these limited-term roles are posted later than tenure-track positions, so you should see opportunities pop up throughout the spring and into the summer. In addition to setting up alerts on academic job boards (e.g., The Chronicle of Higher Education, Higher Ed Jobs, Inside Higher Ed), consider reaching out to faculty contacts at other local universities to inquire about their staffing needs.
Keep in mind that some of these roles are only part-time and may not offer benefits. And if you’re an international student or scholar, you’ll need to verify whether the position offers sponsorship. In short, limited-term appointments may not be appropriate or appealing for all scholars. But if your goal is to remain in academia, these roles will allow you to retain an institutional affiliation, gain additional teaching experience, and hopefully make progress on your research and publications, thus improving your profile for next year.
3. Explore careers beyond the academy
For some PhDs and postdocs, now may be a good time to reevaluate your professional goals. Have you already been on the market multiple times and are wondering if it’s worth it to repeat the cycle? Are you feeling disenchanted with academia? Do you even want to be a faculty member? If not, it may be time to start exploring non-faculty career paths.
When considering a career change, my best advice is: don’t go it alone! Connect with advisors on campus, as well as peers going through the same process. Make an appointment at Career Services to receive an overview of relevant resources and help with formulating a game plan. If you’re an international student, schedule an appointment with your ISSS advisor to understand any limitations, timelines, or requirements for your visa.
If you’ve been single-mindedly pursuing academia for a significant portion of your adult life, it can be difficult to imagine anything else. But know that countless PhDs have found engaging and energizing work outside of the academy—work that allows them to leverage their research expertise to create real impact (I’m one of them!). In other words, pursuing a non-faculty career doesn’t have to mean abandoning your dreams or wasting your specialized skills and knowledge.
I encourage you to talk to other PhDs who have built careers in industry, government, or nonprofits to learn more about the diverse forms that work can take and identify opportunities aligned with your skills, interests, and values. Review our Career Plan Surveys, which show where recent Penn PhD alumni are working now, divided by school/program. This can help with brainstorming potential career fields, job titles, and employers. You can also use career exploration tools like ImaginePhD or myIDP to see the wide range of paths other PhDs have forged and assess what might be a good fit for you.
Once you’ve done some initial brainstorming, the next step is to leverage your network to learn more about career fields of interest. You can use MyPenn (the Penn alumni database) or the alumni search function on LinkedIn to find professionals with a similar background to you or who are working in industries or roles that interest you. Try scheduling some informational interviews with those contacts to learn more about the kinds of employers who value PhDs and how to market yourself effectively for those roles.
Keep in mind that networking isn’t automatically beneficial; the quality of the conversation will depend on how well you prepare for the interaction. Be sure to research the person you’re meeting with ahead of time and brainstorm specific questions. For more detailed advice on how to approach networking conversations, see our Guide to Informational Interviews or review some of our networking workshops on the Career Services YouTube channel.
If you’re one of the many people who find networking awkward or exhausting, I recommend prioritizing quality over quantity. Try breaking up the networking process into small, manageable tasks, and dedicate just a few minutes a day to tackling your to-do list (see our Networking Best Practices resource for more tips and tricks). Most alumni enjoy helping others and like to pay it forward, so don’t be afraid to ask for advice or introductions. As long as you approach informational interviews with genuine interest and a sense of purpose, you’ll gather actionable information you can use to move forward in your job search.
When you’re pressed for time and anxious to land any job, it can be tempting to skip the networking stage and go straight to applications. Unfortunately, cold applying online is rarely a successful job search strategy. In a competitive market, networking is the number one way people find jobs, especially when you’re pivoting to a new career field. Your job search will feel more focused, structured, and efficient if you start with some exploratory conversations.
4. Embrace the unknown
Every job search is different, and your career exploration process will look different depending on how urgently you need to secure a position. If your funding is up soon and you’re concerned about financial obligations or visa issues, you may need to accept a less-than-ideal position to start, just to buy yourself some time. Rest assured that your first job out of Penn won’t dictate the rest of your professional life. The vast majority of PhDs follow non-linear career paths, changing positions, employers, and even whole industries multiple times over the course of their professional life. For now, focus on opportunities that will help you build marketable skills and set yourself up for success in your next job.
Right now you may be feeling demoralized or lost, but remember that you have options—and support. Failing to land a role this year doesn’t mean you won’t secure a faculty job in the future. And if you do end up pivoting to another career, know that I speak to PhD alumni every day who were able to achieve their professional goals—including research and teaching goals—outside of academia. Your education has prepared you to contribute in all kinds of ways, some of which you may have never even heard of, so I encourage you to think creatively and expansively about how to build a fulfilling career.
