Why does the idea of leaving academia so often feel like professional failure? The mere idea of leaving academia can feel like the greatest failure of them all. But the academic world need not be an unquestioned given: there are many other things you can do, and they are not less meaningful than doing academic research or teaching – and may not be as far removed from those activities as you imagine. We hear from people who work in academia or who left academic jobs to pursue careers outside the university, and ask why it’s so important that career change be a real and not an automatically devalued possibility. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/