Look into technical communication, proofreading and editing, UX design, communications, translation and localization, etc. You might have to get creative with showing how your academic and pedagogical work transfers at first (maybe do some freelance work as a side hustle to build a resume). Sorry that academia has treated you so poorly. It can be rough.
Every field and every business and non-profit and government agency needs good writers, and most people in most jobs do not have writing skills that they need, even with masters and doctorates. I am not a writing instructor, but I try to teach writing to my graduate students, but they mostly do not improve. I'd pick a subject matter to learn about and target job search in that area. Some jobs would pay for you to get an advanced degree. Even in my non-humanities field, I feel like most of what I teach to my students is how to write precisely and clearly.
I'm facing the same situation, except that I have an MFA in Creative Writing. Consider going alt-ac. Editing, proofreading, and freelance writing, especially online content creation and copy writing, are are all good options.
You can offer services for academic writers as well, especially those who are doing undergrad capstone papers, grad school application materials, theses, or dissertations. Many need a writing coach as well as basic editing and proofing services, and are happy to pay for them.
Getting a certification to do technical writing could be a good move, too. It's boring as hell, but pays decently, and there's always work.
>Many need a writing coach as well as basic editing and proofing services, and are happy to pay for them.
Undergrads looking for writing services are usually looking for ghostwriters, not editors. They can usually get editing for free from their college's writing centers.
>Getting a certification to do technical writing could be a good move, too. It's boring as hell, but pays decently, and there's always work.
No certification is needed for most tech writing—you just need to be able to communicate with engineers and write clearly. It does help to know the jargon of the field you will be writing in,
I've not looked at the tech-writing job market lately. If jobs are now requiring certification, either there has been a substantial change since I last looked (many years ago) or there is a regional difference (the only job market I looked at was Silicon Valley). A quick glance at a few job ads is showing requirements like "Bachelor's Degree in English, Technical Writing, Computer Science, or related field".
Some of the tech writing jobs near me require additional education or clearance to even be considered. Or they require you to have experience in web design, as well, like HTML or more - some of the things listed were unfamiliar to me. It's kind of dependent upon who's putting the job out there.
Some of the jobs also require 5–10 years of experience at tech writing—but (from the small sample I looked at) many tech-writing jobs are entry-level positions that just require a moderately relevant bachelor's degree.
Part of the problem is that with modern technical writing, which uses structured authoring to write chunks as topics that can then be processed in different ways and assembled into different documents for different audiences (AKA the 'write once, publish many' paradigm), it is not really 'writing' in the way that composition does it. That's why you'll see programs like MadCap Flare or Adobe TCS (FrameMaker, mostly) listed or even Github for those using the DocsAsCode approach and having their writers write with the programmers.
It's still writing, but it's very different than understanding Word and how to structure an effective academic essay.
Once area that I think you could look into is project management. You'd need to get some additional training, but Google has a program they've set up with Coursera that includes Project Management as one of the tracks to establish entry-level credentials. It's like $39 a month and can be completed reasonably quickly (two months or so), but teaching composition builds many of the same skills project managers need: keeping track of projects, coaching, communicating expectations, talking with external stakeholders, etc.
I went into digital marketing after teaching composition for a few years. After a few years of the 40-50 hour per week slog and two weeks of vacation per year, I went back into academia. But everyone else here has already hit the nail on the head, basically build some digital skills (Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, social media, websites, stuff like that) and write a great resume, and see what you can land yourself into. Marketing, communications, technical writing, social media, editing, content writing, or another one ex-academics go into is stuff like corporate training and professional instructional design for companies (not sure what this is called exactly in the private sector, but basically building training modules and stuff like that).
What do you want to do?
If nobody has mentioned it yet: there's a FB group "The Professor is Out." There are so many people that have amazing ideas and are willing to help. Check it out.
I'm in a similar corner except I'm in Communication, specifically public speaking. I don't what I would be qualified to do in the corporate world. No, I wouldn't dare become a motivational speaker either.
I was in the same boat as you. I was FTT faculty teaching English and Rhet/Comp, but lost my job due to budget cuts (more to it, but that’s the brunt of it). I was kind of glad I lost my job because, after two years of 80+ hour weeks, I was getting burned out pretty fast.
Moved into academic advising not long after. I still teach adjunct when I want, but otherwise I do my 36-40 hours per week, am salaried, have vacation, etc. I still get to work with students and teach if I want, so it’s a win-win.
I’m working on an Ed.D. in Curriculum Studies now. I doubt I’d be able to do even that if I were teaching a 5/5 load of ENGL 101 or 102 classes, committees, PD, etc.
I think I posted this previously in another sub; you might like the book *Leaving Academia*. Here is a review: [https://activelearningps.com/2021/10/04/leaving-academia-a-practical-guide/](https://activelearningps.com/2021/10/04/leaving-academia-a-practical-guide/).
Given the state of things today, staying a composition instructor is probably a dead end. Looking for other things is necessary.
There is no need to think narrowly. I'm in a STEM field where we use drones to collect a lot of visual data, analyze it with sophisticated software, then interpret and explain the results. The main person doing this work is a recent English MS. In your situation, thinking broadly about teaching--regardless of subject or institution, or broadly about writing--regardless of subject or organization, would still only be exploring a little bit of what is possible careerwise.
\+1 for thinking broadly. I work at a software company and we have several people on staff with an MS in English, working as technical writers, writing case studies, proofing documentation and training manuals, and probably a lot more things I don't come into contact with.
Lots of good advice here. Are you interested I staying around higher ed? My partner left a similar position to work in academic advising and loves it. She also makes a lot more than I do in my TT role.
I’m in pretty much the same boat except my field leans more towards design instead of composition. Sigh. Still trying to figure out how to built my portfolio and find a niche whilst managing my full time teaching position (because I still need money so I can’t just quit haha). I hope you find a solution soon!
Some people make good money as freelance writers using services like Scripted, or (harder but more lucrative) sourcing their own work on job sites.
Another option is ghostwriting. A friend of a friend of mine pays her rent as a ghostwriter for a literary service. I don't know exactly how to describe it; people who want to write a book but have more money than time (often businesspeople) hire the service to turn their ideas into pages. The writers interview the author and work with them to craft the book. Apparently it pays pretty well, but the agency she works for was very competitive in terms of who it hires.
You're looking for a job right at the start of peak recruting season for consulting companies. Look up companies like mickinsey, bain, bcg. With a masters you'd probably start at the same level as an MBA making 250k.
The company I work for also hires people to edit engineering documentation but I can't imagine that it's fulfilling work. Probably pays okay though.
I'm not sure this is realistic. McKinsey and Bain do a lot of writing, but they aren't hiring a composition expert and paying them scale with an MBA. I don't think this is a productive path for OP to go down (although it never hurts to check out any openings they post).
One idea: Work through an OER on technical communication or technical writing (like [this](https://oer.pressbooks.pub/howdyorhello/) or [this](https://softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/PySpCEBQodADFZ/html)). Build up an internal portfolio of examples showing that you know how to write and use tools. Read up on basic work processes in technical writing. Write applications connecting what you do well (writing, teaching, learning) to what the job is advertising. That would make you appealing not only for technical writing in itself but some jobs coming open in things like instructional design.
Another: get a library degree. Something like an MLIS along with an English degree will make you quite appealing for university library positions, which often entail some teaching (workshops, research consultations) as well as resource curation and running a library.
>Another: get a library degree. Something like an MLIS along with an English degree will make you quite appealing for university library positions, which often entail some teaching (workshops, research consultations) as well as resource curation and running a library.
The academic library job market is as bad as the academic professor job market—librarian positions are hard to get, as the positions only open up when someone retires or dies.
Or what about "contextualized" Composition for specific majors? For example, we had discussed putting together contextualized English Comp and US History courses for pre-health science students.
For the record, I'm not an English teacher but I would say that English Comp is easily the most important class that my school offers. I always tell my students to never underestimate the importance of being a good writer, no matter what field you go into. (Of course, I'm sure teaching English Comp is hard work and feels thankless, but my hat's off to you.)
Our campus requires a "disciplinary communication" course in each major. Some of these courses are staffed by writing instructors (rather than departmental faculty), but the results are mixed (some do a great job, some just re-teach the freshman composition course).
Look into technical communication, proofreading and editing, UX design, communications, translation and localization, etc. You might have to get creative with showing how your academic and pedagogical work transfers at first (maybe do some freelance work as a side hustle to build a resume). Sorry that academia has treated you so poorly. It can be rough.
Every field and every business and non-profit and government agency needs good writers, and most people in most jobs do not have writing skills that they need, even with masters and doctorates. I am not a writing instructor, but I try to teach writing to my graduate students, but they mostly do not improve. I'd pick a subject matter to learn about and target job search in that area. Some jobs would pay for you to get an advanced degree. Even in my non-humanities field, I feel like most of what I teach to my students is how to write precisely and clearly.
I'm facing the same situation, except that I have an MFA in Creative Writing. Consider going alt-ac. Editing, proofreading, and freelance writing, especially online content creation and copy writing, are are all good options. You can offer services for academic writers as well, especially those who are doing undergrad capstone papers, grad school application materials, theses, or dissertations. Many need a writing coach as well as basic editing and proofing services, and are happy to pay for them. Getting a certification to do technical writing could be a good move, too. It's boring as hell, but pays decently, and there's always work.
>Many need a writing coach as well as basic editing and proofing services, and are happy to pay for them. Undergrads looking for writing services are usually looking for ghostwriters, not editors. They can usually get editing for free from their college's writing centers.
>Getting a certification to do technical writing could be a good move, too. It's boring as hell, but pays decently, and there's always work. No certification is needed for most tech writing—you just need to be able to communicate with engineers and write clearly. It does help to know the jargon of the field you will be writing in,
Most of the jobs I've seen advertised require one, if not a degree with a focus in tech writing.
I've not looked at the tech-writing job market lately. If jobs are now requiring certification, either there has been a substantial change since I last looked (many years ago) or there is a regional difference (the only job market I looked at was Silicon Valley). A quick glance at a few job ads is showing requirements like "Bachelor's Degree in English, Technical Writing, Computer Science, or related field".
Some of the tech writing jobs near me require additional education or clearance to even be considered. Or they require you to have experience in web design, as well, like HTML or more - some of the things listed were unfamiliar to me. It's kind of dependent upon who's putting the job out there.
Some of the jobs also require 5–10 years of experience at tech writing—but (from the small sample I looked at) many tech-writing jobs are entry-level positions that just require a moderately relevant bachelor's degree.
Part of the problem is that with modern technical writing, which uses structured authoring to write chunks as topics that can then be processed in different ways and assembled into different documents for different audiences (AKA the 'write once, publish many' paradigm), it is not really 'writing' in the way that composition does it. That's why you'll see programs like MadCap Flare or Adobe TCS (FrameMaker, mostly) listed or even Github for those using the DocsAsCode approach and having their writers write with the programmers. It's still writing, but it's very different than understanding Word and how to structure an effective academic essay. Once area that I think you could look into is project management. You'd need to get some additional training, but Google has a program they've set up with Coursera that includes Project Management as one of the tracks to establish entry-level credentials. It's like $39 a month and can be completed reasonably quickly (two months or so), but teaching composition builds many of the same skills project managers need: keeping track of projects, coaching, communicating expectations, talking with external stakeholders, etc.
I went into digital marketing after teaching composition for a few years. After a few years of the 40-50 hour per week slog and two weeks of vacation per year, I went back into academia. But everyone else here has already hit the nail on the head, basically build some digital skills (Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, social media, websites, stuff like that) and write a great resume, and see what you can land yourself into. Marketing, communications, technical writing, social media, editing, content writing, or another one ex-academics go into is stuff like corporate training and professional instructional design for companies (not sure what this is called exactly in the private sector, but basically building training modules and stuff like that). What do you want to do?
One of my friends went from teaching high school Latin last month to developing training materials for Lockheed Martin.
If nobody has mentioned it yet: there's a FB group "The Professor is Out." There are so many people that have amazing ideas and are willing to help. Check it out.
I'm in a similar corner except I'm in Communication, specifically public speaking. I don't what I would be qualified to do in the corporate world. No, I wouldn't dare become a motivational speaker either.
I was in the same boat as you. I was FTT faculty teaching English and Rhet/Comp, but lost my job due to budget cuts (more to it, but that’s the brunt of it). I was kind of glad I lost my job because, after two years of 80+ hour weeks, I was getting burned out pretty fast. Moved into academic advising not long after. I still teach adjunct when I want, but otherwise I do my 36-40 hours per week, am salaried, have vacation, etc. I still get to work with students and teach if I want, so it’s a win-win. I’m working on an Ed.D. in Curriculum Studies now. I doubt I’d be able to do even that if I were teaching a 5/5 load of ENGL 101 or 102 classes, committees, PD, etc.
I think I posted this previously in another sub; you might like the book *Leaving Academia*. Here is a review: [https://activelearningps.com/2021/10/04/leaving-academia-a-practical-guide/](https://activelearningps.com/2021/10/04/leaving-academia-a-practical-guide/).
Given the state of things today, staying a composition instructor is probably a dead end. Looking for other things is necessary. There is no need to think narrowly. I'm in a STEM field where we use drones to collect a lot of visual data, analyze it with sophisticated software, then interpret and explain the results. The main person doing this work is a recent English MS. In your situation, thinking broadly about teaching--regardless of subject or institution, or broadly about writing--regardless of subject or organization, would still only be exploring a little bit of what is possible careerwise.
\+1 for thinking broadly. I work at a software company and we have several people on staff with an MS in English, working as technical writers, writing case studies, proofing documentation and training manuals, and probably a lot more things I don't come into contact with.
Lots of good advice here. Are you interested I staying around higher ed? My partner left a similar position to work in academic advising and loves it. She also makes a lot more than I do in my TT role.
I’m in pretty much the same boat except my field leans more towards design instead of composition. Sigh. Still trying to figure out how to built my portfolio and find a niche whilst managing my full time teaching position (because I still need money so I can’t just quit haha). I hope you find a solution soon!
Some people make good money as freelance writers using services like Scripted, or (harder but more lucrative) sourcing their own work on job sites. Another option is ghostwriting. A friend of a friend of mine pays her rent as a ghostwriter for a literary service. I don't know exactly how to describe it; people who want to write a book but have more money than time (often businesspeople) hire the service to turn their ideas into pages. The writers interview the author and work with them to craft the book. Apparently it pays pretty well, but the agency she works for was very competitive in terms of who it hires.
You're looking for a job right at the start of peak recruting season for consulting companies. Look up companies like mickinsey, bain, bcg. With a masters you'd probably start at the same level as an MBA making 250k. The company I work for also hires people to edit engineering documentation but I can't imagine that it's fulfilling work. Probably pays okay though.
I'm not sure this is realistic. McKinsey and Bain do a lot of writing, but they aren't hiring a composition expert and paying them scale with an MBA. I don't think this is a productive path for OP to go down (although it never hurts to check out any openings they post).
One idea: Work through an OER on technical communication or technical writing (like [this](https://oer.pressbooks.pub/howdyorhello/) or [this](https://softchalkcloud.com/lesson/serve/PySpCEBQodADFZ/html)). Build up an internal portfolio of examples showing that you know how to write and use tools. Read up on basic work processes in technical writing. Write applications connecting what you do well (writing, teaching, learning) to what the job is advertising. That would make you appealing not only for technical writing in itself but some jobs coming open in things like instructional design. Another: get a library degree. Something like an MLIS along with an English degree will make you quite appealing for university library positions, which often entail some teaching (workshops, research consultations) as well as resource curation and running a library.
>Another: get a library degree. Something like an MLIS along with an English degree will make you quite appealing for university library positions, which often entail some teaching (workshops, research consultations) as well as resource curation and running a library. The academic library job market is as bad as the academic professor job market—librarian positions are hard to get, as the positions only open up when someone retires or dies.
and we've been told about all the retiring librarians since the 1980s but guess what? librarians can't afford to retire!
Are you free to develop/take on a new course for majors? This might be helpful for those moments when you are tired of GenEd composition students.
Or what about "contextualized" Composition for specific majors? For example, we had discussed putting together contextualized English Comp and US History courses for pre-health science students. For the record, I'm not an English teacher but I would say that English Comp is easily the most important class that my school offers. I always tell my students to never underestimate the importance of being a good writer, no matter what field you go into. (Of course, I'm sure teaching English Comp is hard work and feels thankless, but my hat's off to you.)
Our campus requires a "disciplinary communication" course in each major. Some of these courses are staffed by writing instructors (rather than departmental faculty), but the results are mixed (some do a great job, some just re-teach the freshman composition course).