About Exit, Pursuing Career

Exit, Pursuing Career provides commentary, advice, tactics, and curated links for humanities graduate students and PhDs looking to leap from academia to something else.  We discuss changing careers from the vantage point of two former tenure-track Humanities professors who have done it, have the scars to prove it, and have helped dozens of others do it.

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About Patrick

I was a tenure-track professor at Boston University for two years, until 2013. I then joined the Advisory Board Company, a research and technology firm serving hospitals and health systems, where my clients included organizations across the U.S. as well as in Brazil, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia. In 2015 I joined Kensho, a machine learning and artificial intelligence startup for the finance industry that was acquired in 2018 by S&P Global in the largest AI acquisition to date.

About Brendon

I earned a B.A. from Reed College in 1987, a M.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1993, and Ph.D. in Classical Studies from Stanford in 1998.  I was a tenure-track professor at Wellesley College from 1998-2007. I then joined Cambridge Associates, an investment consulting company that advises endowments and foundations on how to manage their investments.  From 2011-2019, I worked in strategy, marketing, and sales at two NYC-based hedge funds. In 2019, I co-founded HarborHouse Partners, a management consulting and e-commerce business headquartered in Blue Hill, ME.

Why subscribe?

Exit, Pursuing Career makes its members smarter about how to leave academia, and what it feels like when you’re in the process.  We’ll share with you our own stories of decision-making and transformation, with all of the victories and bumps and bruises along the way. We’ll give you our takes on high-level stuff (e.g., “Do I regret leaving?” and “Are non-academic careers intellectually rewarding?”), as well as tactics (e.g. Why networking is the single most important thing you can do, and here’s how you do it”).  

For University Career Advisors, Deans, Department Chairs, Professors and Mentors, Exit, Pursuing Career is an educational tool, a guided entry into an unfamiliar process and an experience that will help you help your graduate students.  

For Recruiters and HR Professionals, Exit, Pursuing Career is a bridge to the population of smart, high-performing individuals figuring out their next career.   Learn what is distinctive about this talented group of people, and what challenges to career transformation are unique to being, say, a PhD in English or History or Philosophy.  

We send one newsletter a week, on Wednesday.  To receive occasional free content, you don't need to do anything other than subscribe

To receive regular content, including access to our more robust, kick-a$$ Members-only Colloquium, become a Member! For our first 1000 members, the price will be the cost of a fancy Starbucks drink with whipped cream: $5.99 per month forever. Membership gets you:

  • The Wednesday newsletter, chock-full of our insights and tactics, as well as contributions from guests (career coaches, recruiters, other humanists who are crushing it in all kinds of careers) 

  • access to our Archives; 

  • access to community features including comments and “ask us anything” sessions; and

  • first look at any new initiatives we can get off the ground (e.g., new content distribution channels, etc.). 

If it’s not what you hoped for, you can of course unsubscribe at any time.  

We accommodate group subscriptions. Email us for details: Brendon: brendonreay@gmail.com; Patrick: pwoodu@gmail.com

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Helping Humanities graduate students and PhDs launch into non-academic careers

People

FinTech executive, former tenure-track professor, and recovering concert violinist
Investment professional, entrepreneur, former tenure-track Humanities professor