Click on the following link to download your copy of the PowerPoint Presentation of Moving on, dealing with the emotional aspects of leaving academia.

When you decide to leave academia, one of the first emotions you will have to deal with is grief.

Most people who decide to leave academia, whether before they finish a Ph.D. or afterward, have usually invested an enormous amount of time and energy into this process. For example, you may have been studying ethics since you were an undergraduate, taken coursework and written papers on this in graduate school, given papers at conferences, and argued your position in a doctoral defense. You may have spent as many as ten years and thousands of dollars getting your degree. You are now being told you need to “let it all go” to leave academia behind. I don’t believe you have to let it ALL go, but you may have to let go of your dream. Part of that is allowing yourself to grieve leaving your old dream and identity behind.