It was 2011, and I had become sure I didn’t want a tenure-track job. I started my Ph.D. in the throes of the 2008 recession, and the tanking job market meant there were few postings in my minuscule subfield. But academic job scarcity wasn’t the primary reason I no longer sought a professorship. Too many aspects of the professoriate just didn’t suit me: departmental politics made me uncomfortable, I didn’t love teaching (and loathed grading), and I couldn’t imagine going through the wildly onerous and fraught (interview on a hotel bed?) academic application and interview process.
