One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life was the decision to leave the academic field of Philosophy at age 23 (after I recieved my Master's at 22 and briefly taught at a California State University). I was smart enough to know the job prospects were abysmal, and humble enough to realize I wasn't some super genius or well-connected person who would beat the odds. And unlike quite a few of my Christian philosopher friends at the time, I was wise enough to know that the idea of going into Philosophy for apologetics reasons was foolish: proving Christianity is true beyond reasonable doubt was and is impossible - there will always be reasonable unbelief; few people read one's philosophy papers anyways; philosophers don't have dibs on critical thinking or truth; and conformist pressure would push one away from Philosophy of Religion into fields that were more "safe" from a career perspective, completely defeating the purpose of sacrificing a high-paying "boring" career to do what one loves (philosophizing on the most important of issues - God). I also knew at the time - even before the worst of the "woke" craze kicked in (e.g., regarding transgender ideology), that there would be conformist pressure to not speak one's mind regarding social issues. In fact, I remember the chairman of the Philosophy department advising me to not discuss abortion in class because irrational people would get emotional and because some of my students would have had abortions. And this was back in 2016!
All this to say that my decision has proven to be a truly wise one. The job market now is virtually impossible to break into, and many of my erstwhile conservative Christian philosopher friends who pursued a PhD are now scared to their boots to even publicly say something as trivially true as that a man can't become a woman and vice versa. Their misguided notions of "conquering philosophy for Christ" met a brick wall called reality, and years in the guild has rendered them dumb cowards (and I use 'dumb' in the proper old sense of the word).
Now, I hardly follow the latest news in the guild anymore, but here's a recent example of how hard it is to get a Philosophy job and why you shouldn't pursue a PhD in Philosophy (completely aside from the groupthink present in the academy): I know someone who I consider a true genius with all the right credentials: quite a few publications in great academic journals, graduated from a top 3 PhD Philosophy program, completed a prestigious postdoc, is highly technical, etc. And guess what? This individual just got hired as a visiting assistant professor - not even a tenure-track professor - at some college I have never even heard of before. That's how bad the market is.
In conclusion, stay away from academic philosophy - stay very far away. You don't need to be a professional philosopher to do great philosophical work. You don't need to be a academician to have a good philosophy of life. Indeed, these days I tend to trust the common man's view of the world and ethics over and above the view of the ivory tower philosophy professor.
