As the title suggests, I am an academic working in a field of computer science which is adjacent to machine learning and deep learning (Information Retrieval and Databases). Without going into too much detail, I'm at a top UK University, and have a continuing position (assistant professor).

More and more recently, I feel that I'm being forced out of my field. My papers which focus on very core topics in the aforementioned fields tend to get reviews which indicate that they are not SOTA and/or are not of interest to the greater field. One particular work was described as an "applied application paper" even though it was on query planning (a very fundamental topic in the field).

Perhaps my work isn't interesting, and maybe I am out of touch with the interests of the greater field.

However, it seems that most of the focus is currently on how massive language models can help the field, with very little work focusing on traditional aspects.

Unfortunately, I don't find these deep learning techniques interesting, and I don't think I should need to follow these areas just because they are hot. That said, it doesn't seem like I'll be able to continue doing the research I enjoy, as the field is no longer interested in it.

I am looking for advice on how to deal with these type of situations: have you ever felt that your interests/skills are no longer useful, and how did you move past it?

I apologize for the vague question, but it's something I'm struggling to come to terms with, and it's difficult to describe my feelings on the topic.