The Federal Option

By James M. Van Wyck

INSIDE HIGHER ED - August 10, 2015

Are you a graduate student interested in careers beyond academia? Consider giving the federal government a look.
One way for graduate students to test the waters of civil service would be to apply for one of the many internships available for master’s and Ph.D. students. To give just one example: an excellent point of entry is the Presidential Management Fellows Program. And jobs in the federal government aren’t just a good option for graduate students. Adjuncts and tenure track professors looking for a change might consider this career path as well.
One academic who made the jump is Alexandra Lord, who left a tenure-track post in a history department to pursue a career in the federal government.
It’s clear that this choice was the right one for her. For one thing, she’s held a string of interesting and important jobs since leaving academe. She’s served as the staff historian for the Office of the U.S. Public Health Service, the branch chief of the National Historic Landmarks Program, and she is currently the chair and curator of the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. She’s also been able to publish her own research at a faster clip than when she was on the tenure track. And her belief that the “historical profession suffers when it is defined narrowly” has led her to found two great projects: Beyond Academe and The Ultimate History Project.

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