Thinking About Leaving Academia? Practical Career Advice for a Tough Job Market

The job market is tough right now — particularly for researchers, early career academics, and professionals working on short-term contracts. At Bridge Research, we’re having more and more conversations with people exploring alternatives to traditional academic careers, including freelancing, consultancy, and portfolio careers.

If you’re considering a move beyond academia, you’re not alone. Structural challenges - limited long-term contracts, short-term funding cycles, heavy workloads, poor work environments, and restricted career progression - are pushing talented researchers to rethink how and where they work. Importantly, this isn’t a failure of individuals; it’s a system under strain.

So what helps in practice?

1. Increase your visibility.

Consistency matters. Sharing insights, engaging with others’ work, and talking openly about your experience builds trust and momentum over time.

2. Clarify your offer.

Be able to describe what you do - and the value you bring - in one clear sentence. This helps others understand how to work with you, whether that’s through employment, consultancy, or collaboration. It is a great tool to have for conferences, networking events and meetings.

3. Follow opportunity, not job boards.

Pay attention to where funding, grants, and new initiatives are emerging. Organisations that are growing often recruit informally before roles are advertised. Connect with others who are at the 'pointy end' of funding, and keep up to date with colleagues and new connections.

4. Show your work.

Live portfolios, blogs, or pinned posts help demonstrate impact far better than a CV alone. Evidence of recent work builds confidence. You could use LinkedIn to help with this.

5. Collaborate and co-create.

Public collaboration - events, articles, or small projects - builds credibility and expands networks organically. Get in touch with us (Bridge Research) if you're looking to collaborate, as we're always keen to work with new people.

6. Stay open to consultancy.

Short-term consulting or freelance research projects often lead to longer-term opportunities. Many careers evolve through experimentation rather than linear progression. Again - check out opportunities with small research teams and consultancies like Bridge Research - as they're often looking to build capacity by working with freelancers.

7. Keep strong and believe in yourself.

Most importantly, protect your confidence. Career transitions are emotionally demanding, and rejection is hard - but momentum builds over time.

At Bridge Research, we believe there are many meaningful ways to do impactful research and knowledge-driven work. If you’re navigating a transition or wanting to explore additional research opportunities alongside academic research work, support exists - and new paths are possible.