\n <\/p>\n
People with PhDs say they spent years during their studies feeling exhausted and lost their work\u2013life balance. <\/span>Credit: Getty<\/span><\/p>\n I have just started the fourth year of my PhD. As I reflect on where the time has gone, I realize that my mental health is not where I want it to be.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been fortunate to have a supportive adviser and an incredible laboratory environment at Stanford University in California \u2014 that includes some of the most wonderful people I\u2019ve ever worked with. But even with that, there\u2019s a broader academic culture that seeps into the habits of many researchers \u2014 one that rewards burnout and discourages rest. <\/p>\n Somewhere along the way, I started wearing burnout like a badge of honour. In weekly lab check-ins, I make sure to mention I was in the lab over the weekend \u2014 slipping in a quiet signal that I was going above and beyond. I\u2019ve made sure to send e-mails early in the morning or late at night to demonstrate I was working long hours.<\/p>\n I\u2019m exhausted. Doesn\u2019t that mean I\u2019m doing something right?<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until my mother visited me in July that something shifted. She stayed with me for a few days, and although we spent time together \u2014 walking outside, catching up over dinner \u2014 she noticed I wasn\u2019t really \u2018there\u2019 in the moment. I looked pale, she told my partner later. She could see that the PhD journey was taking a toll on me.<\/p>\n This list of non-negotiables helped me to defeat PhD-student guilt<\/p>\n<\/p>\n After she left, I talked to a lab mate about it. I said I was trying to find my equilibrium again. My lab mate said, \u201cYou\u2019re taking a step away. I\u2019m so excited for you.\u201d<\/p>\n I immediately got defensive. \u201cI\u2019m not slacking,\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m not falling behind!\u201d This culture of burnout can be especially difficult for students, including myself, who don\u2019t plan to pursue a career in academia. When academic work is exhausting and your research is meant to receive your all, it leaves little time for other necessities, such as career exploration, hobbies and socializing \u2014 all of which are essential for a career and a life beyond the lab.<\/p>\n That\u2019s part of why I started PhD Paths a little over a year ago, an extracurricular project for which I\u2019ve interviewed 300 PhD holders who\u2019ve transitioned to careers beyond academia. I share their written interviews by means of a Google Sheets database, website and newsletter. It began as a personal attempt to explore what other career avenues were possible, after realizing that I did not want to stay in academia. PhD Paths has grown into a community of thousands of readers and contributors, challenging the narrative that there\u2019s only one \u2018successful\u2019 path for PhD students.<\/p>\n Using these interviews, I share the stories of those who\u2019ve gone before \u2014 to show the diverse career opportunities that a PhD can lead to, and to remind others that they\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n I ask each interviewee: \u201cWhy did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?\u201d The most common reason was the culture of the academic world. In fact, more than half of the people I interviewed said that some component of the academic culture drove them away. They described poor work\u2013life balance, relentless pressure to publish and an undercurrent of stress that never let up. <\/p>\n In academia, there\u2019s a curious ritual when someone asks, \u201cHow are you?\u201d The correct answer is never \u201cgreat\u201d or \u201cwell-rested\u201d. It\u2019s \u201cbusy\u201d or \u201cexhausted\u201d. The idea being that, if you\u2019re not tired, you\u2019re not working hard enough. As a scientist, I\u2019ve tied my identity to exhaustion.<\/p>\n Through these conversations, I\u2019ve learnt that my experience isn\u2019t unusual. Again and again, interviewees have told me that they spent years during their PhD studies feeling exhausted, from working too many hours, and had lost their work\u2013life balance. They were amazed at the flexibility and minimal stress that they experienced when they stepped out of academia and into an industry position.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why I\u2019ve shared these stories beyond my own circle. What began with two viral posts that introduced the PhD Paths resource \u2014 which together reached more than one million impressions on LinkedIn \u2014 has grown into a personal audience of more than 24,000 followers on the social-media platform, as well as a PhD Paths newsletter reaching more than 7,000 readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People with PhDs say they spent years during their studies feeling exhausted and lost their work\u2013life balance. Credit: Getty I have just started the fourth year of my PhD. As I reflect on where the time has gone, I realize that my mental health is not where I want it to be. I\u2019ve been fortunate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[859,16456,22168,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-41735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ive","9":"tag-phd","10":"tag-relearning","11":"tag-rest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The exhaustion identity<\/h2>\n