On Your Third (or First) Round of the Academic Job Market? Create a Non-Academic Career Plan Now

If you’re heading into your third or fourth round of the academic job market, chances are you’re feeling worn thin by the cycle. The endless applications, the deadlines, the rollercoaster of waiting and hoping. Even if you’re in your very first round, it’s worth hearing this now: having a back-up plan outside of academia is not optional. It’s essential.

Why It Matters—No Matter Your Stage

Every cycle carries a cost. Financial, emotional, psychological. For many, it’s pretty feasible the first or second time. But by the third or fourth round, those costs stack. Even if you’re still holding onto the tenure-track dream (and it’s valid to do so), you also owe your future self the protection of a Plan B. If you’re brand new to this process, the same applies: safeguard yourself now, before you’ve had to weather years of uncertainty.

You Already Have the Tools

PhDs bring more to the table than academia likes to admit. Think about what you’ve done:

• Project management. Running a multi-year dissertation is leadership in action. You planned timelines, managed competing priorities, and adapted when things didn’t go as expected.

• Teaching and facilitation. Designing a syllabus is instructional design, whether anyone called it that or not. You created learning goals, built engagement strategies, and assessed outcomes.

• Analysis and communication. You know how to take data and turn it into meaning people can actually use. You translate complex ideas into accessible insights for various audiences.

• Stakeholder management. You’ve balanced the needs and expectations of advisors, committee members, research participants, and institutional partners—skills that transfer directly to managing teams, clients, and collaborators.

• Fundraising and resource development. Securing grants or fellowships is fundraising. You identified funders, crafted persuasive narratives, and aligned your project with broader institutional or social goals.

The skills are there. The work is in translation: shifting your language so that nonprofits, policy groups, or companies can recognize what you’ve been doing all along.

The Rhythm of the Market & Timing Your Pivot

The academic job market tends to have its busiest season once the new academic year begins. For the U.S., that’s usually in the fall. However, in many other parts of the world — especially across Europe and Asia — the cycle varies, with hiring happening throughout the year or concentrated in winter or spring.

During those busy stretches, the demands can feel relentless—applications, interviews or job talks, and the constant tracking of deadlines. It’s understandable if applying for non-academic roles feels unrealistic during that time.

Instead, think of your career planning as cyclical rather than linear. When the intensity of hiring or teaching eases—whether that’s winter, spring, or early summer in your part of the world—you can use that breathing space to focus on a parallel track: refining your résumé, scheduling informational interviews, or exploring job postings beyond academia.

Protecting Your Future Self

Whether this is your first or your fourth year in, the core message doesn’t change: the academic job market is unpredictable. Building a back-up plan gives you agency in a system designed around scarcity. It lets you stay open to the possibility of a tenure-track role, while also refusing to let your future hinge on a single gatekeeper.

© 2025 Marya T. Mtshali. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the author.