The truth has just dawned on you that you’re not going to stay in academia and become a PI.
After many years in dogged pursuit of your dream, you’ve realised that it’s just not going to happen.
Maybe it hit you halfway through writing your 37th grant application. Or after your paper was rejected for vague reasons. Or during another painful lab meeting with a toxic boss. You just can’t do it anymore.
Maybe you’ve given it your best shot and tried and tried for faculty positions but the hiring committees just aren’t hiring you and you feel like you’ve been around the block and then some.
Maybe you feel like you need a new challenge. Life has to mean more than just publishing papers that hardly anyone reads.
There are many ways that people arrive at the place where you are - but we all feel the same when we get there: disoriented, sad and uncertain, like a ship cast adrift in search of a new destination. You may feel like you’ve failed - or you may feel like the system failed you.