What if, after years of study, you find yourself wondering about whether you are actually cut out for the life of the academic? How does one decide to walk away? How do you contend with the emotional upset and sense of vertigo that can attend the liberation once obligations to your department and professors no longer shape your day-to-day existence?

Our contributors below speak candidly about the difficulties of deciding whether to end their career aspirations. David Zauhar approaches the subject philosophically and begins his piece with five things not to do when leaving the academy or - even worse - when writing about leaving the academy. David currently works part-time (because of budget problems) at an academic library in Pennsylvania and does freelance editing and writing. Mary Zajac tells of her decision to change careers and pursue a more intense passion - the food and wine industry. Lisa Cochran Higgins took a break from the academy and worked as a fundraiser before deciding to make a return. She now works as a visiting assistant professor of English at Dominican University, in River Forest, Illinois. Both Mary and Lisa offer practical advice about how to seek employment elsewhere.

Desperately Seeking Employment: How to Secure a Full–time Tenure–track English Position at the Community College Level

In October, 2003, the English Council of California Two-Year Colleges (ECCTYC) held its biannual conference in San Diego. The "Desperately Seeking Employment" panel offered advice that we knew Lore readers could use as they scrutinized job ads and prepared their application materials for community colleges in California and nationwide. Two of the panel presenters—Darren Chiang-Schultheiss of Fullerton College and Sally Fitzgerald of Napa Valley College—were generous enough to reformat their work for publication in Lore. Darren focuses on preparing professional application materials to secure an interview, while Sally offers strategies for determining which job ads to target and for making the most of the interviews that your "best qualified paperwork"—to use Darren's phrase—has obtained for you. Though both writers concentrate on community colleges (in some instances, California specifically), these two pieces make recommendations that are applicable to a range of job seekers striving to distinguish themselves on paper and in person.