18 people. 18 people have messaged me about wanting to talk about leaving Higher Ed. I left the field one year ago (in fact I had to change this number while writing this - twice). Sorry if we haven’t connected but 18 people is a lot. I want to help everyone, share insight, but phew! It is not meant to bash or devalue education administrators, but instead this post is an attempt at helping others make sense of their own career journey.

One year ago today I started a new job in corporate learning and development, leaving student affairs work in higher education. Call me cynical, call me a sell-out, or call me crazy (well lots of people do) - I literally have zero regrets. I’ve been asked – do you miss it? Nope. It sounds like I hated it – well kind of – but more just over it. Don't get me wrong I did love it - I have some of the best professional memories, best friends, mentors and learning from it - it just wasn't what I needed at this point in my life and career development. My career in Higher Ed became more about gratification, praise, seeking affirmation and asserting my value based on how much students liked me or needed me (which isn’t necessarily bad if you need this from it – just not what I was looking for anymore). Moreover, I was changing, evolving, growing, and could not handle the lifestyle any longer.

The lifestyle implications became especially clear after moving back to San Francisco (I did an almost two-year stint in Clemson, South Carolina – which I have nothing but love for, Go Tigers!). In South Carolina, my friends were primarily connected to Clemson/work. Which again, love them, but we all worked a lot, spent a lot of time on campus, invested a lot in our students (again love y’all too), but work was number one. Which, if you’re saying ‘well what did you expect?!’ I knew and expected it, and, was ok with at the time. When I moved back to California (I’m from San Diego so this is home), I was surrounded by my college and “city friends” who did not work in higher education. My 9/10pm curtain calls became draining. My weekend event attendance became painstaking. My interactions with students mostly became just a job. The things I wanted to be doing outside of work were compromised because I usually had a work commitment. I did make it a point to come in later when possible and not respond to email at night/weekends when possible as a means to create space. It just wasn’t enough.

Somewhere along the way, the work changed too. In grad school I was asked to write a statement that describes my professional identity: “I am an individual who values creativity, excels at team and relationship building, expects myself, colleagues, supervisors and students to execute tasks with passion and dedication to our work, and thrives in student-driven/owned learning environments.” I wasn’t sure the environment to thrive existed for me anymore within my current role. The landscape was/is shifting. Requirements, legalities, student-demanding rather than student-driven made it a tough space to thrive in. Various small interactions, events, and conversations contributed to my eventual disillusionment.

Additionally, new interests and passions sparked a refresh of my professional identity. The opportunity to create, build relationships, and empower people to take ownership of their own professional identity and experience was much more interesting. In fact, as I read through this post again, I realized that’s what I was trying to do with students – empower them to take ownership of their leadership/college experience – so more so than the work shifting, my audience shifted. At Cal (my last job before leaving higher ed), I was given an opportunity to hold a fellowship within the Student Affairs Learning and Development department. I got to be a part of a team that was highly motivated, engaged, hardworking, and focused on staff driven development. Projects like employee engagement, culture change, and employee onboarding all got my wheels turning. And turns out the work in Learning and Development aligned with the work I had been doing and was always reading about (see: Design Thinking, Ideo, leadership development). Also turns out, I was excelling in that type of work.

If you’ve worked in higher education and have sat through any number of search committee interviews (or interviewed yourself) you are familiar with the statement, “Well – I actually didn’t even know student affairs was a career until my advisor mentioned it to me/I started hanging out in the student life office.” The same is true for learning and development. Surprise: there is a big, big, world of corporate learning and development/organizational development/organizational effectiveness/employee engagement/leadership development/Insert any combination of the above phrases. It just takes some searching and effort on your part.

Formula to get out:

1 part disillusionment + 1 part straw-that-breaks-the-camels-back-experience + 2 parts gumption + 1 part you need to make more f****** money to live in the bay area than higher ed will allow for + 1 part finding the right gig/team + 1 part fixing your resume to strip all higher ed lingo + 1 part believing you can get out = Job outside of higher ed

So I started looking for an out opportunity. For me, I needed a really good fit. I wasn’t going to jump ship just to get out – it wasn’t that bad for me. Luckily, I found a position that sparked my interests right away and got to work hustling. Got to work with my networks at the company, got to work refreshing my resume to align my experience with the job description, got to work doing my research, and got to work getting my head around leaving higher ed.

The surprising part was – I felt prepared for every part of the interview. I also credit that to me finding a role that was a good fit for my experience level and had the right amount of stretch in it to challenge myself. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had the same experience. My graduate program was awesome in that we talked about general leadership development, organizational effectiveness in addition to higher ed work. This was also helpful – but not required. You can read, take courses in the business school, attend webinars, etc. etc to fill in the gaps.

People ask me what they should do to make the leap – like any job you are aspiring to hold, take a look at some job descriptions/postings/jobs above you and see where the gaps are (if you aren’t doing this currently, you should be – it’s a great way to set development goals for yourself). Then get to work finding committees, fellowships, classes, or ways to weave that missing responsibility in your work – get creative people.

You might have to articulate why the jump makes sense, why a professional sorority woman should get hired working at a video game company – but wouldn’t you do this in any job interview?

If you know me, you’ll know my tone of voice writing this. If you don’t, you might think I’m someone with a RBF that is annoyed people keep asking her for advice. If I was being the later than I surely wouldn’t be working towards my ‘refreshed’ professional identity, now would I? I want people to be their best professionally - friends, colleagues, followers, bus-mates, and even that girl who refuses to say hi to me even though I see her literally every day. Your best might mean leaving higher ed to work in recruiting to steal the brightest and best-est away from that sorority leadership consultant role, it might mean you are killing it with your man-bun game at the coolest hipster coffee shop, it might mean you are travelling the world delivering learning programs to your colleagues. Your best might be staying in higher ed. It looks different, it feels different, and it’s going to be different for all of you. Take some of your own advice you are probably dishing to your students and take a step back, deep breath and try something new, or not. It’s up to you.