This is a book about how coming to a better understanding of yourself will help you make a choice about what to do after you graduate that you can be confident in. Specifically, how to navigate the increasingly confusing and daunting task many undergraduate and graduate students face when deciding what their “next step” will be after graduation. Finding a path to success will require some self exploration because we all have different notions of what a life well spent means. One of the key elements to developing this understanding is deciding what kind of life you would call the “good life.” The good life is more than a description of the perfect, perpetual vacation where you will spend the rest of your days disconnected from the world. Instead it is a version of your possible future where you can be confident that you have spent your time well. The good life is the kind that if someone lived it and you attended their funeral you would say, “This person navigated the challenges of life and balanced it’s many ambiguities well and I think what they did is commendable.”
The ideas presented in this book will guide to understanding what you find valuable and then using this information will help you form a conception of your own good life which enriches the world in a way consistent with your value system. This good life you will articulate will also be one that is reasonable to achieve. The statement of the good life you desire for yourself will become the foundation upon which you can rest your decisions about what to do after your schooling years.
A defining feature of the end of your life spent in school is that you are compelled to make a sharp transition to something new. Usually, there is no option to continue the status quo. You might consider starting a different degree, however wasn’t the pursuit of your first degree intended to help you achieve your next step? But the pressure to make the best choice can often make it difficult to make a decision in the first place. Moreover, what are we supposed to do when we don’t even know what a possible next step looks like? When stuck in a difficult situation like this, self reflection can lead to clarity about your desires which in turn will help you make progress on your difficult choices you have to make. The process of finding yourself will help you start down a path to a life which you desire and the journey to your destination will be a reward unto itself. That’s the sales pitch of this book at least!
My Perspective
One day about two years from the end of my Ph.D. work, I looked up from reading a research paper and a thought struck like a flash of lightning. “I don’t know what I want to do after I graduate.” I couldn’t even find good way to articulate the struggle I was having when discussing with my peers. However, though these discussions, it became clear that many of them were also facing similar feelings of uncertainty. Since then I’ve talked with more graduate and undergraduate students who are feeling uncertainty about their next step. This is to be expected. It is hard! There are no guide books or clear road maps that are guaranteed to take us from the steps of the graduation stage to our first job or our first faculty position.
The main choices I considered for my next step were to leave academia and join industry or to continue toward the goal of a faculty position. As I delved into the details of what each life path would entail, it became clear that this choice involves balancing what I desire for myself and what each of these paths can offer to a life. First I observed the post doctorate works around me. They led lives that I wasn’t sure I wanted for myself. That is not to say I didn’t think what they were doing was interesting or that they appeared to live miserable lives. In fact, I thought most of what they were doing was quite valuable. When I asked them how they were feeling some of them said they deeply enjoyed their research and liked their current lifestyle. The insight I gained about myself was that I am not energized or enlivened by the tasks that filled the days of a post doc. Of course, I knew no life can be lived without some drudgery. Similarly, when I thought about life as an employee in a corporation, there were more than handful of things I was worried about weighing me down. To make sense of these things requires us to find resonance between our desires and our options.
After wrestling with the problem for a few years, I made the choice to pursue a life outside academia, but it is very important that you know that this book is not about trying to convince you to make the same decision as me. In fact, I hope that I will present a framework that will help you make a decision that is best for you.
What’s inside the chapters?
This book presents some thought experiments, suggested actions, and ideas which you can use to help you deepen your understanding about how you will feel given certain choices. But there is no teacher like experience, so it is also encouraged that you to try things out when good opportunities present themselves. I made the choice to leave academia and pursue a career in software and believe this is a better alignment between my desires than if I had pursued a career in academia. However, it is a core belief of mine that a good life is possible either in industry or academia for most people and I want to help you achieve your vision regardless if our decisions or opinions differ. It is my desire that after engaging with this book you will great a deeper understanding of yourself and that this deepened understanding will allow you more confidence in choosing your next step.
For a list of the available chapters see the section for this book.
Who is this book for?
My experience as a student throughout my 20s and as a person who has transitioned to working jobs in a corporate environment will inform how I see the world. I expect that much of what is discussed in these pages will be most relevant to those who are making choices between continuing their education after an undergraduate degree or those who are making a choice to pursue a faculty position or break into one of the industries required specialized thought work. I don’t claim to know all the possibilities but I think I claim to have a framework that will help you navigate these kinds of decisions.
While I am more confident about helping those facing issues I myself faced, I think the framework presented for decision making might be helpful in situations I haven’t encountered myself. Some of the chapters deal directly with specific comparisons of “Academia vs Industry.” However, I think many characteristics of the comparison of these two systems are likely helpful for other systems. Certainly, the feelings of being overwhelmed by a difficult decision are not unique to students trying to find their next step.
How to use this book
This book is structured into chapters each of which can be easily consumed during a single day. One way I envision this book being used is that you read one chapter a day. Some of the sections will have thought experiments or writing topics which you can engage with. I expect that you will get the most out of this book if you engage with these tasks, but there is still value in reading and not doing the tasks.
The chapters are presented in an order that I think makes sense but if you are mostly interested in one over another you should be able to read them in any order and obtain the benefit.
I do not claim whatsoever that by reading this book you’ll have your entire life figured out. Absolutely not! Only you can do the work to find a life path you are happy with. However, if you are like the way I was at the end of my degree, you may feel stuck. It might not be obvious at all how to make a choice that feels so gargantuan. This book will help you chip away at this seemingly large task and give you concrete objectives which will set you on a path toward solving your large problem of choosing what to do next.
Many popular viewpoints today veer toward cynicism. While caution and realism have their place, I believe faith in a positive outcome is necessary to make meaningful changes in our lives. If you start with the assumption that a fulfilling path is possible, you’ll be more motivated to find it. I encourage you to read these pages with an open mind, ready to envision how your life can go wonderfully right.
Good luck
Regardless if you read this book or not, I wish you luck in your way finding to the good life. I faced and still continue to face anxiety and uncertainty in many important parts of my life. However, I know that each time I have spent serious effort understanding new parts of myself, I have become more at peace. I hope this same for you.
Making the right choice can feel like an impossible task. Even little choices when framed as affecting your whole life can start the anxiety spiral spinning. Although I benefited from thinking through many of the thought exercises and ideas presented here, your lived experience will be the best guide to balancing the various parameters you have access to. The random happenstances that seem unrelated and by chance we sometimes come to notice how these affect us. I wish you luck and insight to notice how it all fits together for your puzzle.