I completed my PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2014. The day after my commencement ceremony, I moved across the country to live in Carmel, Indiana—finally the same city as my then boyfriend (now husband). After nearly a year unsuccessfully job searching, I began writing about my experiences transitioning from the academy to the “real world.” The following are some of my early musings. You may have some of the same thoughts, hopes, and fears that I had. If so, be encouraged to continue pursuing your passion—within the realm of academia or beyond it!

April 2015: If you’d told me a few years ago I’d be living in Indiana and starting my own business, I never would have believed you. Before, I was looking outward at what possibilities already existed “out there” that I could safely choose from. That was tough—I struggled to find an occupation that I was truly passionate about.

I was never the kind of kid who “knew what I wanted to be when I grew up.” In high school, my jobs were completely unrelated (singing instructor; janitor; hospital record keeper). In college, I earned two majors (history and political science) plus two minors (philosophy and psychology). In grad school, I split my time between the political science and social psychology departments. My dissertation examined romantic relationships!

So of course when I moved to the Indianapolis area after finishing my PhD and began looking for a job, it was impossible to find a listing that matched my “diverse” educational and employment background. I did all the things I thought a good new graduate was supposed to do: plastered my resume everywhere; signed up for online job boards; applied to jobs I was way overqualified for; applied to jobs I was not qualified for; grabbed coffee to “network” with anyone who would give me five minutes of their day; created a weekly email update to send to contacts informing them of my search process and job prospects in case they had any appropriate connections; wrote, and rewrote my resume; wrote many versions of my cover letter; dressed up and went to job interviews I knew I was too qualified for; went to job interviews I knew I was not qualified for; read books about the job search process; read books on effective networking; got my hopes up that something was going to come through; got my hopes dashed because it didn’t; was excited ... was depressed ... was bored ... was stressed…

Then along the way, I connected with two different organizations looking for contractual help. The first opportunity was with a consumer research firm needing someone to conduct and analyze focus groups. The second opportunity was with faculty at a local university needing someone to design and run a leadership study. While continuing to job search, I also found myself playing the role of a home-based independent consultant, and I really liked it.

Didn’t see that coming! Nor did I expect to enjoy the less than safe option of looking inward and building my own career path, instead of outward and choosing from the list of options that already existed. I had to stop and reflect on what I loved to do—what I was most passionate about: knowledge, research, people, relationships, and the social sciences. So I decided to start my own home-based consulting business where I could study the things I cared about.

How did a political scientist turned accidental entrepreneur learn what it would take to build a business? By doing research! I began my transformation process looking to the experts for information and advice. I hadn’t planned to become an entrepreneur—and as it turns out—neither had a lot of other people who operate very successful home-based consulting firms today. In his book, Start & Run A Consulting Business, Douglas Gray (Reference Gray2010) defines a consultant as “someone who has expertise in a specific area or areas and offers unbiased opinions and advice for a fee. The opinion or advice is rendered exclusively in the interests of the client and can cover review, analysis, recommendations, and implementation.”

I broke apart this definition to see if I fit. Was I someone with expertise in specific areas? I had extensive knowledge of research design, data analysis, political science, the social sciences broadly, human relationships, and the scientific method. Could I offer unbiased opinions and advice? To me, that sounded a lot like the scientific method applied to real-world scenarios. Would my opinions and advice cover things like review, analysis, recommendations, and implementation? The work I performed for the market research company involved running focus groups (implementation) and going through audio/video footage afterwards to see what we’d learned (review, analysis, recommendations); the work I was performing for the university faculty members involved building a literature review of relevant books and articles (review), in-depth interviewing (implementation), examining the data collected from the interviews (analysis), and designing a survey instrument based on the interview findings (recommendations).

What I was doing and hoped to do fit well with Gray’s definition. More importantly, it helped me begin seeing the transferable skills (developed in my former role: grad student) I could bring to the table (in my new role: independent consultant): focus group facilitation; in-depth interviewing; literature reviews; data analysis; and survey design.

I started my transition from job seeker to career designer by thinking about what I loved and was passionate about. For me, that was a great start as it got me thinking about what could be, not just what currently was. But thinking only gets you so far. By breaking apart the definition of what it meant to consult, I was able to come up with a list of valuable services I could provide clients that became the foundation of my business plan.