How to find your ideal post-PhD career when you have lots of interests (Part 2)
This is a follow-up to a previous article on how to find your ideal non-academic career, which you can read here.
In my last post, I covered three questions you can ask yourself to find your ideal non-academic career, which included finding the overlap between the things you’re good at, the things you enjoy doing, and the things you could get paid money for.
But what do you do if there isn’t clear overlap amongst these categories?! Don’t stress! If you have a lot of different interests you could see yourself making a career out of, you might be what author Emilie Wapnick has called a “multipotentialite” – someone who works towards and pursues a variety of interests and activities.
For multipotentialites, the most important things to have in a career are meaning, money, and variety – but (importantly!) those don’t all need to be satisfied by one singular job! A multipotentialite may find fulfillment in a day job that fulfills their need for money and variety, but seek meaning through their work with a volunteer organization. Or, a multipotentialite might work several different part-time jobs to fulfill all three needs.
Here are some examples of how this might look for someone with a PhD:
A PhD uses their psychology training to teach part-time at a community college, but also works part-time with a non-profit organization that’s meaningful to them and uses some of their therapy skills. As a passionate yogi, they also teaches yoga classes part-time. Together, these experiences provide meaning, variety, and money.
A tenure-track professor derives meaning and money from their academic position, but seeks more variety. They decided to begin consulting with various different external organizations to meet that need.
A PhD works full time as a data analyst for a major corporation, which provides money, variety, and most importantly work-life balance. This balance leaves them with the time and energy to pursue creative writing outside of their work hours.
A former instructor now owns a business that provides them with meaning, money, and variety. They have the flexibility to shape their business depending on their interests and learns lots of new things along the way.
A PhD owns a dog-walking business and periodically writes articles for popular media in their area of specialization. This also gives them the flexibility to spend their free time helping to care for their aging parents and conducting baking experiments.
There are as many possible post-PhD careers as there are PhDs. When considering how to build a career outside of academia, think outside the box! You can create your career and your life in whatever way works for you. If you’re a multipotentialite, that might mean deriving money, meaning, and variety through multiple different ventures.
Want to learn more about how you can apply this in your own post-PhD journey? My course - Post-Grad Pathfinders - has an entire lesson dedicated to this concept! Learn more about the course here!
