Transition in Progress: Embracing the Alt-Ac Path

Last updated on September 8, 2024

August 9, 2024, was my final day as an instructor at Texas A&M University. The university is considered one of the best in Texas, and I was honored to teach there, but I was unhappy and unhealthy. Those two probably go together, with some uncertainty as to which is the cause and which is the effect.

The commute could last three hours, as I have shared before, which was taking a toll on my body. Susan and I had planned on one more year at the university, but the decision had been made to exit as soon as possible. From back pain to unacceptably high glucose readings, a lot of factors were contributing to headaches and even a few migraines.

If my disposition differed, if I could have kept quiet and stuck with it, I have little doubt that I could have remained a lecturer at A&M for another four years. I might have earned a promotion after my fifth year to senior lecturer. Teaching the same three or four courses each school year was unappealing. My ambition was to teach media production and media strategy. I did not want to teach traditional English courses.

When I was an undergraduate majoring in journalism and English, my plan was to teach high school journalism and media production. That was my career plan and one to which I kept returning. Even this summer, I applied for middle school, high school, and university media production posts. I was a finalist for a university post in journalism and mass communications. Had I been offered such a post, I would have remained in education.

In 2017, I completed a Master of Fine Arts in Film and Digital Media. I did so because my doctorate was misunderstood, so the MFA was an effort to clarify my interests in design and media, not academic writing.

I kept landing in English Composition courses — far from my areas of interest and scholarship. Even the technical communication courses to which I was assigned were far from the technology of communicating. I appreciate academic writing, but if our primary goal is to foster critical thinking and logical argumentation, I wonder if other media might better reach our students. The stilted, artificial language of student (and faculty) papers is satirized easily. The style persuades few (if any) readers outside academia. The technical communications courses largely ignored how organizations deliver information today: videos and online help systems.

When I surveyed my students, not one — not a single one — had submitted a cover letter or traditional resume to secure an internship or employment. Job applications are online, where databases filter and screen applicants using keywords and artificial intelligence. When asking students how they learned new tasks, most of them pointed to YouTube and Wikipedia. To enhance the relevance of my course sections, I brought media production into my classes as best I could. Over the years, my students created board games, LEGO kits, interactive fiction (IF), websites, ebooks, short films, and audio content.

Now, I am on the “Alt-Ac” path, an “Alternative Academic Career” that allows me to use my degrees. I am transitioning full-time to digital marketing strategy and analytics. My duties include explaining economic issues to the public; I continue researching and writing on the economics of rhetoric and the rhetoric of economics. (There will be surveys and focus groups!)

In academia, I didn’t teach in my areas of interest, and publishing wasn’t advancing my career. In my first few weeks on this new path, I’ve been able to take photos, design websites, and analyze data.

Leaving academia allowed me to be a visual and digital media rhetorician. Reaching the widest possible audiences has always involved sounds and pictures. I recognize the letterforms are visual and texts are audiotry experiences, but that’s exactly the sort of academic argument that people ignore. When seeking to educate and persuade, pictures are worth thousands of words. Audio triggers responses that differ from reading. Put pictures and sound together, the effectiveness of a message increases exponentially.

Being paid to analyze data to determine the effectiveness of media campaigns I also help design? This was how I dreamed academia might be. People wonder why I track issue data, polling, focus groups, and Q Scores. I love data, especially probabilistic mapping of behavior and choices. Sometimes, I don’t even care about the underlying area. For example, I helped a student analyze why first-round draft picks are overpaid by the NFL, and by how much, versus third-round picks. Data are fascinating.

Chasing the dream of a tenure-track academic post did a lot of damage to my mind and body. Now, I do what I enjoy without a three-hour commute, and there’s even the potential for advancement.

There was no “back to school” for me… and I am relieved.