On Looming Cuts, Job Insecurity, and Reclaiming a Sense of Possibility

Why it might be time to explore other job opportunities for your own sanity

Photo by Zhanhui Li on Unsplash

The crisis in higher education is no longer a distant possibility—it’s becoming harder and harder to ignore.

Right now, there’s a growing, visceral fear among many of us—not just about the future of our work, but about whether we’ll keep our jobs. Across institutions, there’s talk of devastating budget cuts. Faculty worry that layoffs are coming and in the UK, that’s been already happening for some time. Entire departments feel at risk. Research budgets have already been cut, and we are worried about what’s next.

And the not-knowing—of whether we’ll have the support to keep doing the work we love, or whether our jobs will still exist at all—can be paralyzing.

For those of us who entered this profession out of a love for teaching, research, and making a difference, it’s gutting to imagine that the very work that called us into academia may soon be devalued or dismantled.

And since my work now revolves around coaching academics, I’m also feeling the pressure in a different way. If professional development funds disappear or shrink in the US, many scholars may no longer be able to invest in coaching or other forms of support. Like many of you, I’m bracing for the possibility that the structures I’ve built my career around could shift—rapidly and dramatically.

But here’s what’s surprised me: I’m not as afraid as I expected to be. I think that’s because I’ve already spent a lot of time imagining other career paths for myself. I no longer believe there’s only one thing I’m meant to do forever. Don’t get me wrong, I love the writing coaching and teaching I do now, but I also know that it’s not the only thing I may ever love.

For a long time, I saw being a university professor as my calling. Now, I see it as one meaningful chapter in a life that could hold many. That shift in perspective has made all the difference.

My Shift in Perspective

As many of you know, I went through a few years of deliberating on whether to leave my tenure-track position in Texas because I fundamentally disagreed with the ways the state was encroaching on the university and just didn’t feel at home in the state. I loved my job—but I also felt increasingly at odds with the political pressures shaping what I could teach and how I could show up in the classroom.

Photo by Anika Huizinga on Unsplash

I stayed frozen for a long time because I couldn’t imagine my life outside of academia. I had built everything around that identity. But once I started researching other possibilities and opening my mind to a life beyond the university, a weight lifted. I didn’t feel as fearful—because even if I chose to stay, I was doing so from a place of awareness and agency, not paralysis.

Other Options Can Be Grounding

Even if you don’t want to leave your job, if you’re afraid that decision might be made for you, opening yourself to the world of other options can be incredibly grounding. You don’t have to act on them today—but simply knowing they exist can restore a sense of control when everything else feels out of your hands.

We were trained to think linearly—to follow the path from grad school to postdoc to tenure track. But in this moment, maybe what we need is a different kind of map. One that includes side roads and alternate routes. One that acknowledges both the love we feel for this work and the grief of what’s being lost. One that dares to imagine futures we weren’t taught to envision.

There’s no shame in wanting to stay. There’s no shame in preparing to go. There’s no shame in not knowing what comes next.

If you're lying awake at night worried about your job, your students, your research, or your mortgage—you're not alone. And if you're quietly wondering whether this profession can still hold your hopes and your integrity, you're not the only one asking those questions.

Explore for Reassurance

If nothing else, this post from a few years ago offers advice on how to start researching alt-ac careers to let yourself know that there are other options.

This is where I began—I dipped my toe in—and then I gradually became less afraid of moving on. Even if you remain in academia, reminding yourself that there is a vast world of meaningful work out there can be very reassuring in such a volatile time.

You do not need to figure everything out today. But you can start by giving yourself permission to imagine other paths.