system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If I leave my postdoc for a non-academic position, would I be able to re-join academia later on?

I have a job offer for a science communication- outreach position. I am thinking of taking it because I want to see if that career path would make me happier. The position involves grant writing and fieldwork, but no opportunities for publishing. I am on my first postdoc. If I leave my postdoc for this position and then decide that I miss research, would I be able to get another postdoc and get back in the game? Or am I really shutting the door on the academic career track? I do have some trailing papers from my PhD so I will probably still have publications coming out for the next year or two.
gpt
The vast majority of postdocs in most fields have no realistic academic career prospects, so likely you can't actually decrease your chances very much. But yes, it will be difficult to get back into the game. When applying for jobs, you will likely be judged by people who have never known anything but the very linear career paths that academics are meant to follow and will look down on any deviation from that path. Many will think that you went into a non-academic position because you were not good enough to get a tenure track position, though many will think that if you do more than one or two postdocs anyway. Academia is very social status oriented and non-academic jobs are for many academics low-status. It is not impossible though. Ones chances are never zero.