You mention that "doesn't really seem like there are any other humanities people who've transitioned into industry," and we've talked about this, and you got a great response. That's a good move there, to get them talking.
I think we both know this, but it's worth saying explicitly. There either is little *literature* on humanities peeps transitioning to industry, or it has little visibility. I've been looking for years, and I've seen very little. On the flip side, I know a lot of people who've made that transition.
My concern is that, of the people who've made the transition, most floundered for years until they made a lucky break or had some friends who all but handed them jobs. I haven't seen any natural transitions other than the occassional move into a non-profit.
So, I propose that there definitely needs to be some literature on this.
As it happens, I just spoke with Joe Stubenrauch yesterday. Joe is a former History professor at Baylor. He transitioned to instructional design and then to UX research. He will be my first humanities guest, but I have more than a year's worth of other leads from that LinkedIn post, so there will assuredly be more to come! Hoping to get Joe's story out on Friday as a member-only post.
He mentions several useful resources, including Devlin Peck's tutorials, and I love his example of how to create a short e-portfolio as proof of hard skills. His ICU Soft Skills Tutorial is especially helpful: https://www.joestuben.com/portfolio
I think one of the keys is thinking about what *skills* someone in the humanities learned during their training rather that was specific *set of knowledge* they may have acquired, because the former is often widely desirable, while the latter usually enjoys niche appeal. I have a good friend from my hometown who got a PhD in sociology and wanted out of academia. He ended up working for a pharmaceutical company. He is not exploring any of the specific themes he did his dissertation on, but they were looking for people who could craft patient surveys, analyze data, and do all kinds of things he became an expert at. Just an n=1 example, but I think a lot of people in the weeds of grad school or early career feel trapped because they don't think anyone wants to hire someone who knows everything about one piece of Geoffrey Chaucer's inspiration, but many many companies want people who can write well, analyze complex topics, and communicate in a way their MBAs can't
That is true in the abstract, and I think PhDs often can show their true value once they're invited through the gate, but the challenge is to frame those skills in such a way that a hiring manager will take a risk on an unconventional applicant. I'm still learning on this front, but I think it's useful to at least state the challenge clearly. Having the skills is one thing. Communicating them persuasively is the challenge.
That is a great point! I have encountered a version of this as I pivoted from my last corporate role to a broader job search. People in sectors ranging from consulting to pharma didn't always know what to make of my wandering CV since I didn't have the specific titles they're used to looking for. As you say, it's all in how you frame and sell it!
I'm still an infant when it comes to framing and selling skills efficiently. There seems to be a sweet spot of specificity and generality. I'm still prone to being too specific, I think. Abstracting core practices, versus overdescribing specific tasks, is something I understand more in theory than in practice.
I love the idea of a book that all faculties would discuss with students during orientation week. As a thought experiment I considered what book I would have liked to discuss with advanced level students in school across all subjects, and I think it would be Antifragile by Taleb. That would be quite a challenge to some students though.
It's a delicate business choosing a book that will challenge students appropriately without turning off a large swath of them. The task is made more complicated when students are reading the book alone, in their homes, with no structured guidance. The book had to be accessible enough that students could read it independently and consider a one-page guide to prepare for the discussion during orientation week. I'll share some of the titles that worked well in response to Randall's post below.
I spent several years working on a similar "campus read" committee at an HBCU, trying to choose books that were of broad interest and rich enough to serve the curriculum in multiple disciplines. Rebecca Skloot's THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS was undoubtedly the most popular, though her author visit was snowed out. The one that had the most effect on my teaching was SALT SUGAR FAT by Michael Moss, because it inspired personal health poster projects by the students. I was surprised that students found Obama's DREAMS OF MY FATHER "boring," and despite support from other committee members, I was never able to get the graphic novel CAPTAIN AMERICA: TRUTH - RED, WHITE & BLACK past the chair.
Thanks for sharing some of your titles, Randall! There was a bias toward nonfiction, I found. The books were chosen by committee, as it seems that yours were, and most folks seemed to gravitate toward inspirational memoirs. But some of those, like Conor Grennan's LITTLE PRINCES, were so self-explanatory that there was little left to unpack. The best titles were those that were accessible yet rich with potential for discussion and research.
The runaway favorite for our series was Chitra Divakaruni's ONE AMAZING THING. A diverse group of people is trapped by an earthquake in an underground passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. They have to work together to survive, and in the process they each share one amazing thing about their lives with the others. There was all kinds of scientific content in the book relating to earthquakes, chemical contamination, air quality, and physical survival that my STEM colleagues incorporated into their courses. Those from the social sciences had a lot to work with in terms of culture, personality types, racism, and psychology. And those in the arts and humanities could adapt the core premise of the book to creative writing or art prompts that allowed students to tell one amazing thing about their lives.
Other popular titles: Sonia Nazario's ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, Kelsey Timmerman's WHERE AM I EATING?, Mona Hanna-Attisha's WHAT THE EYES DON'T SEE, and Emmi Itäranta's MEMORY OF WATER.
As a scientist myself, Matteo's story really resonated with me. Joshua - thank you SO much for doing this series! I loved your questions and insightful probing as well - appreciate you both!
Josh,
You mention that "doesn't really seem like there are any other humanities people who've transitioned into industry," and we've talked about this, and you got a great response. That's a good move there, to get them talking.
I think we both know this, but it's worth saying explicitly. There either is little *literature* on humanities peeps transitioning to industry, or it has little visibility. I've been looking for years, and I've seen very little. On the flip side, I know a lot of people who've made that transition.
My concern is that, of the people who've made the transition, most floundered for years until they made a lucky break or had some friends who all but handed them jobs. I haven't seen any natural transitions other than the occassional move into a non-profit.
So, I propose that there definitely needs to be some literature on this.
As it happens, I just spoke with Joe Stubenrauch yesterday. Joe is a former History professor at Baylor. He transitioned to instructional design and then to UX research. He will be my first humanities guest, but I have more than a year's worth of other leads from that LinkedIn post, so there will assuredly be more to come! Hoping to get Joe's story out on Friday as a member-only post.
Check out his website here: https://www.joestuben.com/
He mentions several useful resources, including Devlin Peck's tutorials, and I love his example of how to create a short e-portfolio as proof of hard skills. His ICU Soft Skills Tutorial is especially helpful: https://www.joestuben.com/portfolio
The idea of portfolios is something I've only come upon in the last few days.
But then, I'm currently pursuing going back into software engineering, where such portfolios of working programs are highly recommended.
I think one of the keys is thinking about what *skills* someone in the humanities learned during their training rather that was specific *set of knowledge* they may have acquired, because the former is often widely desirable, while the latter usually enjoys niche appeal. I have a good friend from my hometown who got a PhD in sociology and wanted out of academia. He ended up working for a pharmaceutical company. He is not exploring any of the specific themes he did his dissertation on, but they were looking for people who could craft patient surveys, analyze data, and do all kinds of things he became an expert at. Just an n=1 example, but I think a lot of people in the weeds of grad school or early career feel trapped because they don't think anyone wants to hire someone who knows everything about one piece of Geoffrey Chaucer's inspiration, but many many companies want people who can write well, analyze complex topics, and communicate in a way their MBAs can't
That is true in the abstract, and I think PhDs often can show their true value once they're invited through the gate, but the challenge is to frame those skills in such a way that a hiring manager will take a risk on an unconventional applicant. I'm still learning on this front, but I think it's useful to at least state the challenge clearly. Having the skills is one thing. Communicating them persuasively is the challenge.
That is a great point! I have encountered a version of this as I pivoted from my last corporate role to a broader job search. People in sectors ranging from consulting to pharma didn't always know what to make of my wandering CV since I didn't have the specific titles they're used to looking for. As you say, it's all in how you frame and sell it!
I'm still an infant when it comes to framing and selling skills efficiently. There seems to be a sweet spot of specificity and generality. I'm still prone to being too specific, I think. Abstracting core practices, versus overdescribing specific tasks, is something I understand more in theory than in practice.
The Salmon Leap idea sounds very helpful for people in academia trying to transition out of the academy. Good stuff 👍
Thanks! I'll rotate in some thought pieces again eventually, I promise 😊
Thanks for mentioning my article.
I love the idea of a book that all faculties would discuss with students during orientation week. As a thought experiment I considered what book I would have liked to discuss with advanced level students in school across all subjects, and I think it would be Antifragile by Taleb. That would be quite a challenge to some students though.
It's a delicate business choosing a book that will challenge students appropriately without turning off a large swath of them. The task is made more complicated when students are reading the book alone, in their homes, with no structured guidance. The book had to be accessible enough that students could read it independently and consider a one-page guide to prepare for the discussion during orientation week. I'll share some of the titles that worked well in response to Randall's post below.
I spent several years working on a similar "campus read" committee at an HBCU, trying to choose books that were of broad interest and rich enough to serve the curriculum in multiple disciplines. Rebecca Skloot's THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS was undoubtedly the most popular, though her author visit was snowed out. The one that had the most effect on my teaching was SALT SUGAR FAT by Michael Moss, because it inspired personal health poster projects by the students. I was surprised that students found Obama's DREAMS OF MY FATHER "boring," and despite support from other committee members, I was never able to get the graphic novel CAPTAIN AMERICA: TRUTH - RED, WHITE & BLACK past the chair.
Thanks for sharing some of your titles, Randall! There was a bias toward nonfiction, I found. The books were chosen by committee, as it seems that yours were, and most folks seemed to gravitate toward inspirational memoirs. But some of those, like Conor Grennan's LITTLE PRINCES, were so self-explanatory that there was little left to unpack. The best titles were those that were accessible yet rich with potential for discussion and research.
The runaway favorite for our series was Chitra Divakaruni's ONE AMAZING THING. A diverse group of people is trapped by an earthquake in an underground passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. They have to work together to survive, and in the process they each share one amazing thing about their lives with the others. There was all kinds of scientific content in the book relating to earthquakes, chemical contamination, air quality, and physical survival that my STEM colleagues incorporated into their courses. Those from the social sciences had a lot to work with in terms of culture, personality types, racism, and psychology. And those in the arts and humanities could adapt the core premise of the book to creative writing or art prompts that allowed students to tell one amazing thing about their lives.
Other popular titles: Sonia Nazario's ENRIQUE'S JOURNEY, Kelsey Timmerman's WHERE AM I EATING?, Mona Hanna-Attisha's WHAT THE EYES DON'T SEE, and Emmi Itäranta's MEMORY OF WATER.
As a scientist myself, Matteo's story really resonated with me. Joshua - thank you SO much for doing this series! I loved your questions and insightful probing as well - appreciate you both!
Thanks Aditya! Enjoying your series, as well. We ought to touch base one of these days and see if we might collaborate somehow!