Coming in 2026/27 – Moving from Academia to a Career in Professional Services: Options and Opportunities

Really pleased to have a contract to complete this book for next year as part of the Routledge Insider Guide to Success in Academia series. You can see full details of the series, a few examples of which are pictured above and which is edited by Pat Thomson and Helen Kara, here on the Routledge site.

About the Book Series:

‘Insider Guides to Success in Academia’ offer support and practical advice to doctoral students and early career researchers. Covering the topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked, this indispensable series provides practical and realistic guidance to address many of the needs and challenges of trying to operate, and remain, in academia.

These neat pocket guides fill specific and significant gaps in the current literature. Each book offers insider perspectives on the often implicit rules of the game – the things you need to know but usually aren’t told by institutional postgraduate support, researcher development units or supervisors – and will address a practical topic that is key to career progression. Essential reading for doctoral students, early career researchers, supervisors, mentors or anyone looking to launch or maintain their career in academia.

This guide is intended to help those at an early stage in an academic career who are considering a shift to working in professional services in higher education. The book will address, among other things, the nature and scale of professional services, the wide range of jobs available and the skills and expertise that someone with an academic background could offer. It will set out advice on applying for professional services roles and how to survive and then develop a career path for the long term.

The book will aim to demystify many aspects of higher education operations and highlight all of those areas in professional services where someone from academia (or indeed elsewhere), with a positive attitude and the right motivation, can make a real difference. It will also include case studies of individuals who have made the shift and what they have learned from the experience.

So, am really excited to be putting this together and hopefully it will be out at some point in the next year or so. Huge thanks to Pat Thomson in particular for the original suggestion.