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Read the following advice on handling the "why are you leaving academe?" question that might come up in a job interview with a for-profit, non-profit, or government recruiter and try to keep a straight face.

A lot of things may be pushing you out of academe. That’s the case for many of the students and postdocs I meet with every year who are pursuing careers beyond it. They’re facing really bad faculty job markets. They’re sick of the never-ending pressure to chase external funding. They’re frustrated that they spend months writing articles almost no one reads. They’ve experienced microaggressions and bias in academic settings and just feel done with the whole thing. Those are all important reasons for pursuing other paths. But they aren’t the most useful answer to the question at hand.

When you spend time explaining the inner workings of academe -- which most employers don’t care about anyway -- rather than talking about yourself, it can seem as though you’re not ready to leave it. Indeed, one of the main reasons they might ask the question in first place is that they’re wondering how committed you are to the job you’re applying for, as it might appear that you’ve spent years preparing for something else. They may worry that if they hire you, they’ll just have to run another search a few months down the line when you head back into academe. Or they may think that they’re your second choice and that maybe you aren’t very interested in the work.

It can also make you seem negative and bitter. Which, honestly, you might be! There’s lots to complain about in academe and lots of problems that may have made it hard for you to thrive in it.

Or, upon encountering advice such as the above, interviewers might justifiably worry that if they hire somebody out of the academy, they'll be getting a credentialed snowflake who will make everybody else in the office miserable, and burden the personnel department with all manner of grievances.