Beyond Academic Philosophy

Let’s Phi helps philosophers find career opportunities outside of academia. Since 2020 we have run three conferences and dozens of workshops, and collected the stories of philosophers who built fulfilling careers beyond the university. Our community lives in the newsletter — 1,800+ philosophers strong.

Today, Let’s Phi is a living library: everything stays free and open, the opportunities board is refreshed with each newsletter issue, and whenever we sit down with another philosopher who made the leap, a new story lands here and in your inbox.

Not sure what you want to do?

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Most philosophy graduates aren’t. We wrote a page for exactly that: how the job world is organised, in plain terms, questions worth asking yourself, and things you can try this month to find out more.

Find your path

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If a field already pulls you, each guide covers the people who’ve done it, the talks we ran about it, and where to begin:

• AI & Data Ethics — working out what counts as fair or harmful in AI systems
• Ethics Consulting — advising organisations on ethics questions, as a job
• Management Consulting — the standard graduate route into business problem-solving
• Risk & Catastrophic Risk — risk teams in tech, and research on large-scale threats
• Blockchain & Fintech — young companies building financial systems from scratch
• Venture Capital — evaluating early startups for an investment fund
• Entrepreneurship & Startups — starting a company, or joining one early
• Media & Writing — jobs where the writing is the work
• Cybersecurity & Recruitment — finding and judging technical talent, no technical degree needed
• Business, Mentoring & Beyond — the ordinary roles most organisations run on

These are the paths people in our community have taken, not a complete list. We also know philosophers in law, policy, government, teaching and product management. If your path is missing, tell us about it.

Why Let’s Phi?

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Philosophy attracts exceptionally intelligent people. It gives them great analytical skills, open-mindedness and a lot of stamina for going deep on a topic. Philosophy departments all over the world are great at preparing you for an academic career — but outside of academia, it’s not obvious what a philosophy graduate can do.

Let’s Phi exists to change that. We help you leverage your philosophy skills for a non-academic career: find out how to market your degree, and get inspired by people who have already made the leap.

More to explore

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• Stories — philosophers who built careers beyond the university, in their own words
• Opportunities — current roles where philosophers are a good fit
• Articles — essays, interviews and resource round-ups from the newsletter
• Events — the archive of our conferences, workshops and talks
• About — who runs Let’s Phi, what members say, and how to get involved

Share your story

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Did you study philosophy and build a career outside academia? Your path is exactly what a philosophy student somewhere is trying to picture right now. We’d love to interview you — one relaxed conversation, and we turn it into a story for the library and the newsletter.

Reach out to Konrad on LinkedIn to set it up.