June 27, 2003

What Else Can I Do?

By MARY DILLON JOHNSON

A graduate career counselor answers that and other frequent questions on nonacademic careers

QUESTION: I have decided I don't want to stay in academe, but what else can I do?

ANSWER: The first thing to do is to rephrase your question to, "What do I want to do?"

Implicit in your question is the fear that your graduate education has been little more than narrow training for a career as a professor. The most important single thing for you to realize -- no matter what