I was motivated to organize these pre-conference workshops, which I have also turned into department seminars, because I found many (many!) people coming to me for advice after I left my faculty position in 2017. I put together these resources, with help from others who have made similar transitions, to reflect what I found to be the most generalizable and helpful parts from my own experience. I'm especially grateful to Carissa for her contributions and guidance in making a successful workshop.

My PhD is in psychology with a focus on cognitive development, and following my graduation in 2008 I became a tenure-track professor at a research-intensive university. I studied learning and memory in young children from a dynamic systems perspective, including computational modeling. In 2017, I left my faculty position to become a research scientist at an education non-profit. I started my non-academic job (taking a leave of absence from my faculty position) in the midst of appealing a tenure denial. My motivation was both because I was unsure if my appeal would be successful and because I had found it hard to do the kind of work I really wanted to do while on the tenure track. I thought I might be able to make a faculty position more of what I wanted if I managed to get tenure (and funding!), but at the same time I wanted to see what other options were available for me to pursue my research interests. My appeal was ultimately successful, but by that time I had been in my current position for 16 months and had no interest in going back to a faculty position.

I worked in my first non-academic job for nearly three years (September 2017 through July 2020) until revenue loss resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic led the company to downsize and eliminate my department. I was fortunate to receive a generous severance package which allowed me to be selective in my search for a new position. By February 2021 I had applied for about 25 jobs and had a handful of interviews. In November 2020 I started a part-time research consultant position, and in March 2021 I joined an university-affiliated center as a senior research associate, giving me a new experience in an "alternative academic" career. In April 2022 I was promoted to assistant director of my team, giving me more opportunities to drive the direction of our research as well as contributing to current projects.

My faculty position in academia was not a good fit for me, and I feel very lucky to have quickly found a job where I could spend nearly all of my time doing what I love (research!) on topics that are both interesting and valuable to me. When my first position ended, I am grateful to have had the ability to wait for a job that felt like the right combination of responsibilities, content area, and seniority level to continue working in research that supports education for under-served learners, as well as having support from those in my network who helped me find new opportunities.