How Can I Be a Philosopher in a Non-Academic Career?

Answers from Gina Helfrich, PhD, Program Officer for Global Technology in International Development

Gina Helfrich (photo right) earned a doctorate in philosophy from Emory University and is now program officer for global technology at Internews, an international nonprofit dedicated to empowering local media worldwide. Helfrich spoke with Dana Delibovi on behalf of the Blog of the APA about her experience as a philosopher who works in the tech sector.

Q: What was the focus of your philosophic interest during graduate school?

I pursued work in ethics and social philosophy. While doing my graduate work, I also earned a graduate certificate in women’s and gender studies.

I wrote my dissertation about the practice of solidarity across different human identities. Drawing heavily on feminist epistemology, I argued for the importance of personal transformation in support of others who are very unlike oneself—especially when those others are marginalized or oppressed. I tried to develop a concept of ethical solidarity as a virtuous interpersonal relation toward others, in which each individual is predisposed to act in support of other individuals’ human flourishing, across difference.

Q:When did you decide on a non-academic career? What motivated your decision?

I went to the APA’s job event at the 2008 convention—given the year, you can see that my non-academic career path was not entirely my free choice! The recession was in full swing. There weren’t a lot of jobs. Even the post-docs I applied for sent back letters saying they were canceled for lack of money.

External pressures weren’t the only motivator, though. I spent the final year of my doctoral work on a writing scholarship. During that time, I realized that I didn’t like sitting in a room alone with nothing but my writing—but that’s such a huge part of the academic track. I also wanted a choice of where I lived, rather than to move for whatever job I could get in the academy. So ultimately it was a fairly belated realization that maybe it wasn’t the best career for me.

Q: What’s your career been like so far?

It’s a little peculiar to talk about “a career” outside of academia. When you are in academia, you have a set career. You are a professor. But my road has been winding.

Q: Tell me about the twists and turns.

Today, I work in technology in the context of international development, with a specific focus on the human right to good information. I’ve been in tech for six years; before that, I was a higher-education administrator for four years.

There were a lot of unexpected moments. Sometimes, it seemed as if a perfect job fell from the sky with the job description written just for me. Other times, I had to work very hard to find a position.

My first full-time job, as assistant director of the Harvard College Women’s Center, fell from the sky. I saw it come across a mailing list I was on as a result of my graduate fellowship working in the Center for Women at Emory University, and it was a great fit with my scholarly focus in women’s and gender studies.

After a promotion to director and four years at the women’s center, I felt restless. So I read books like What Color Is Your Parachute? I did informational interviews. And eventually, I networked myself into a tech job at a startup—but I got laid off after a year, and I then was stuck with this bizarre resume.

So I did what you do: I put myself out there, chased a lot of opportunities that didn’t pan out, and eventually landed a communications position with NumFOCUS, a nonprofit that supports open-source scientific research. Around the same time, I cofounded a staffing and consulting business to support better diversity and inclusion in technology. We started getting a lot of attention, and even got some venture capital, so at a certain point I was basically forced to leave my full-time/regular job. But the business didn’t work out, and after seven months of “funemployment,” I found my way back to NumFOCUS for few more years.

Then, something else fell from the sky. When I heard about my current position, I thought it was perfect—the candidate needed to understand open source software communities and be conversant in issues of diversity and inclusion. I submitted my resume and cover letter, and got the job.

Honestly, even that summary of my career feels a little too neat; it was very messy and unexpected. So that’s the non-academic path—terrifying, but beautiful!

Q: How has your philosophic training helped you along the way?

I can’t say specifically how philosophy has helped me in my work, but I can definitively say that it has. Philosophy is intrinsic to how I operate, how I approach problems.

Looking at the tech sector, philosophy trains us in ethics, and tech really needs ethicists. The unintended adverse consequences of tech are rampant. Look at what’s been going on with Zoom—the platform’s privacy and security issues could have benefitted from some straight talk about ethics. Or look at self-driving cars—you can’t build them without literally having to consider the Trolley Problem. So I think there’s an incredibly important role for philosophers (and other humanists) to play in technology.

Q: You got your current position by submitting your resume—did you redesign it for a non-academic career?

Yes. I had to get rid of my curriculum vitae. Every resume you craft to apply for a job has to be strategic, particularly for a former academic pursuing a non-academic career. The best advice I’ve heard: The resume and cover letter should give the impression that the role you’re applying for is the natural next step for you. Constructing it is an exercise in building an argument that you’re the exact right person for the job.

I never tried to hide my PhD. I felt that, if people have a problem with it, I probably don’t want to work with them anyway. And I worked so hard to get those letters behind my name, I was going to keep them there, dang it!

Q: What can philosophy faculty do to help their students pursue non-academic careers?

The most important thing is to be supportive. Graduate school can really undermine one’s self-confidence. But you need self-confidence to get a job—and faculty support helps.

Another thing faculty can do is get familiar with some basic resources to help graduate students find careers—things like the book Designing Your Life by Stanford University professors Bill Burnett and David Evans.

Faculty have to reckon with the fact that PhD students fund their lifestyles, but there are not enough academic jobs for every PhD student. So faculty really owe it to PhDs to support them in the search for all types of work. Our community should also do more to encourage and support hybrid careers for PhDs—you work in tech, for example, but also teach a course or write philosophical articles.

Q: If you had it to do over again, would you still have gotten your PhD in philosophy?

A question like that is very sticky. So many things unfolded in my life in certain ways, and many things I would not change—if I hadn’t gotten my PhD, other things might not have worked out as they did. The question makes me think about Nietzsche’s theory of eternal return, and how I’m trying to affirm all of my life.

Maybe the question should be, “Do I recommend getting the PhD?” My answer is, most likely, no. You’d have to be someone in very special circumstances.

Getting my doctorate was a mixed bag. I feel so privileged—in this day and age, getting a philosophy PhD is an extraordinary luxury. I was able to live the life of the mind for six years. (I was also really poor when I was doing it!)

Still, it was an incredible opportunity. I did some very deep thinking. . It’s a cliché, but I studied philosophy—I truly did think about the meaning of life, for a very long time, and that has been formative in shaping who I am.

Dana Delibovi

Dana Delibovi (MA, New York University) has a hybrid nonacademic/academic career as a healthcare communications writer and an adjunct professor of philosophy.