Wisdom offered to humanists in their professional transition often begins with “skills translation”, as if simply using a different jargon makes the many kinds of work we excel in intelligible to hiring managers and teams across different sectors.

More importantly, focusing on “skills translation” can affect our perspective on what we’re actually doing by transitioning. This can encourage a haphazard approach and result in job searches that burn hours and morale, with little clarification in the end on what to improve or do next. 

Presenting an incoherent picture of ourselves also risks stumbling into a negative stereotype many of us are confronted with at some point: Academics are not going to be able to contribute outside of higher education.

Though this is utterly false, it can still become a self-limiting prejudice through a series of confusing negative experiences.

The good news is that reality tends to run in the opposite direction: The background of humanists can add a rare value that insightful leaders can immediately identify—when it’s communicated as part of a strong professional presentation. (More on this in a future post.)

Not everything we can do or have done is necessarily relevant right now. How do we judge? There are different starting points one can take, but here is one that is especially important:

Lack of clarity on these cardinal points in your transition can negatively impact you at a critical point in your transition—the very beginning.

As you make fundamental shifts in your professional identity and narrative, and develop strategies for your next steps, you will need a way to bring together the elements of your experience and ability into a cohesive presentation–that is also aligned with your goals and values. We can help you get there.

Join us for The Very Beginning workshop this December 12 at 12pm CT. Over about an hour, you will map the first part of your next expedition.

The Very Beginning is part of our One Hour, One Big Thing series where we take one hour to help you tackle one big step in a humanists’ post-academic transition.