Working an Industry Job with a PhD

In today’s dwindling job market, many people who wish to do PhDs may find themselves questioning if the time they spend on the degree is justified given the decreasing likelihood of finding a teaching job in the field. Indeed, across all fields, the percentage of PhD-holders going into academic jobs is less than 30% [1]. Many go into post-doctoral positions after PhDs.

A PhD is an arduous 7-year journey for most that may not bring returns. There is also elitism in academic hiring, where it is shown that 80% of academics hold degrees from 20% of institutions [2]. In the United States and the United Kingdom, academic hiring in the humanities has become focused on giving preference to ethnic minorities or those with disabilities conducting research with a liberal spin, but many people that end up getting hired are able-bodied, and privileged white women who benefit most from affirmative action [3]. In other words, these HR-ified hiring processes aim to uphold equity but really end up preserving racial exclusivity. While tenure-track faculty make high incomes of over $100,000 USD in America, the average salary for permanent lecturers in the UK is sometimes only about £35,000 a year.

Indeed, I hold a PhD in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought myself, but I am not a full-time academic. I have built a career as a senior UI/UX designer in the field of technology. I began freelancing as a self-taught web designer while writing my PhD dissertation in 2018, and eventually built a design portfolio that landed me jobs at large companies. However, I still keep up with my academic peers by publishing book chapters in psychoanalysis and philosophy in edited volumes and translating books of philosophy.

If you hold a PhD but also wish to transition to academia, one of the most viable and lucrative fields that will allow you to crossover your research skills is being a UX Researcher or Writer. UX stands for ‘user experience’ and is the implementation of social, cognitive, and behavioral psychology principles into the design of digital products geared toward user and customer needs. Many mid- to large-size tech companies such as Meta, Google, and Uber have a UX team and the UX research field is saturated with jobs.

I was lucky that I held skills that allowed me to transition to an industry job easily, but if you want to do additional training, Coursera/Google and CourseCareers have self-paced courses in UX Design and Research that will allow you to brush up on core skills.

Sources

[1] PhDs by the Numbers. PhD Source. https://www.phdsource.com/blog/phds-by-the-numbers-important-stats-for-current-and-job-seeking-phds

[2] Prestige Hiring Across Academe. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/09/23/new-study-finds-80-faculty-trained-20-institutions

[3] White women benefit most from affirmative action — and are among its fiercest opponents. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2016/5/25/11682950/fisher-supreme-court-white-women-affirmative-action