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Risks of publicly preparing for a “Plan B”?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

This is very much related to the posts on having a Plan B given the chaos of the market, but figured it deserved its own thread.

There may have been a time when investing in building up alt-ac skills or having a website advertising yourself as more than a philosopher would have been seen as not being fully committed to philosophy, and could have been a mark against someone applying for a TT job

I would *hope* that these days are over. However, over the years I have been disappointed time and time again to learn that the attitudes of philosophers are often not as accommodating/flexible/understanding as I expected them to be. I have also heard some people say or imply that only those who can imagine *nothing else* but doing philosophy should pursue a job in it (which, in my mind, is quite a toxic mindset, but still might be operating within some departments).

So, I am curious as to whether there are any risks to publicly preparing for an alt-ac job while also being on the academic job market. Should one have two websites? Obviously one should have a CV and a resume, but is it risky to have both in the same place? Should one pursue their alt-ac Plan B in private? Should one wait until after the TT cycle in the fall to add their alt-ac materials? etc.

I am not talking about whether it *should* be risky re: academic jobs (it clearly shouldn't be), but I would love to know if anyone knows of people in their department who would look down on someone who has built up a strong alt-ac resume, is clearly open to leaving academia, appears to be looking for alt-ac jobs, etc.

Interesting query. Do any readers have any experience with this? Is it better to plan for a "Plan B" privately?

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5 responses to “Risks of publicly preparing for a “Plan B”?”

  1. Trevor Hedberg

    I think the worry of a hiring department that saw a person openly advertising their willingness to leave academia is that the person would vacate their position if things didn’t go well or they didn’t enjoy the job. It’s a different variation of the “flight risk” concern. They’ll wonder how seriously the candidate really wants a job at their university.
    But I also don’t see why a candidate can’t avoid this. If you’re on the academic job market, that’s a tremendously time-consuming process. Is the OP applying for non-academic jobs at the same time? I cannot imagine doing that. My recommendation would be to go all-in on Plan A and then have a ready pivot to Plan B if that doesn’t work out: keep the academic search and the non-academic search separate. These searches are going to emphasize different skills, values, and interests anyway, so I think trying to do both types at the same time could make it more likely that neither of them pans out.

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  2. mostly shameless side hustler

    I agree with Trevor. I have shamelessly and strategically changed my LinkedIn headline depending on whether I’m awaiting news for an academic job or a side hustle gig (throughout my grad school). This means you can’t go all-in on your Plan B in a way that it wouldn’t disappear from the Internet. For example, one of my side hustles throughout grad school appears on my LinkedIn, but it isn’t super obvious that it isn’t related to what I do in philosophy. I haven’t worried about this much given that philosophers don’t seem to spend much time on LinkedIn.
    I do think having two websites isn’t a bad idea depending on what you’re trying to communicate in your Plan B, and especially if it isn’t very easily traced to your academic “brand” online.
    The bottom line is that there are ways to be stealthy and strategic about it without involving total secrecy.

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  3. another perspective

    I think some supervisors would be put off knowing that their PhD student is preparing for plan B. In some countries, a faculty member’s chances of promotion etc. are affected by their success at placing their student in good academic jobs. Plan B students do not help here.

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  4. Assistant Professor

    I’m less convinced than Trevor that you can’t be on multiple job markets at the same time, if you are well prepared for them (i.e., probably not while also trying to still write large chunks of a dissertation). There is some benefit to doing them concurrently because the process of applying to jobs and interviewing for them can be incredibly instructive in determining what kind of job you want to have, rather than what kind of job you think you want to have. That said, a big downside of doing multiple markets concurrently is that they do not actually run on concurrent timelines. Non-academic jobs tend to move much quicker than the academic process that unfolds over months, often with few updates along the way.

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  5. Knievel Deceiver

    OP is right IMO that many philosophers are, unfortunately, not as understanding as we would expect them to be about things like this. I have seen a kind of mentality in some programs where if you signal at all that you are not looking solely for an academic job you may be seen as not taking the search or your career seriously. This might impact the support you get and may make it such that your Plan B becomes your Plan A through lack of support.
    I also think there is still a (tired) attitude among some that you should be doing philosophy for the intrinsic benefit of it even if you won’t get a job – ignoring that all of this advice comes from folks who got a job, and that the situation is more abysmal presently than it has been in the past.
    I recommend focusing on building translatable skills and knowledge bases in topics outside of philosophy, and when the time comes, investing in some help with how to frame all of the experience you are getting at a PhD student into experience that non-academic hiring folks will appreciate.

    Reply

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