I’m nearly there. My PhD thesis is with the copy editor for the second time. I know there will be yet more typos to fix and references to correct. I know my supervisors will make a few more suggestions, but I’m nearly there. In a few weeks my PhD Thesis will be in the examiners hands.

It’s almost six years since I started my PhD journey and eight since, in contemplating what’s next, that I commenced an academic journey. At that time I was exiting my career as a partner in a global consulting firm and I had to think about what I’d do next.

With the benefit of some wise counsel from two colleagues and after reading Herminia Ibarra’s Working identities I had a plan. I didn’t want to pursue the non-executive director route or remain in the corporate space. I thought I’d be an academic and explore a completely new path.

That was the and this is now.

All of those years later, I am close to completing that journey and I’m feeling a bit lost. What’s Next?

One things for sure it won’t be academia! There are two reasons for this.

One is that I don’t like the direction universities are taking. They are no longer the bastion of free thought they once were. They are nothing like the place that I encountered as an undergraduate in the late 1970s. At that time it was ok to have a dissenting opinion, today you express one at your peril.

Secondly, I have had a successful career and have opportunities to further that in academia, as I can couple my fledgling research experience with my extensive corporate experience. However, in so doing, I would potentially take a position at the expense of someone else who has not had the opportunity to build their own career. To me that would not be fair. If someone hadn’t made way for me I would not have my career and I don’t want to deny someone else their opportunity.

So what will I do?

Since I started this journey, two of my children have got married and I have three grandchildren. My grandchildren are an unexpected joy. I know spending more time with them will be rewarding and more fun that I could ever have imagined.

My blog has been ignored. I have many drafts with a thought, or a paragraph that I never had time to complete or felt guilty in devoting time too instead of my thesis. I enjoy writing, which was a motivation for commencing my Honours and PhD, so I’m sure I’ll get back to that. Although, with Australia still in the grips of government imposed restrictions on travel, I’m not sure how much of my writing will be about travel anytime soon.

I might just do some things I haven’s done in recent months. For the last year and even more so for the last few months, pretty much everything has been ignored except my thesis. We have passed on weekends at our beach house so I could chain myself to my desk. I have passed on lunches and dinners with friends just to get the thing finished.

But now it is close. So I wonder what will be next?