After university, Persky worked at Vancouver Mental Patients Association and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation before becoming a college instructor in the sociology department at Northwest Community College in Terrace, British Columbia. He subsequently taught briefly at Malaspina College in Nanaimo, and Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. From 1983 to 2016, he was a professor at Capilano University in North Vancouver, first in political studies and then in philosophy. Since 1990, Persky has resided part-time in Vancouver and in Berlin, Germany.
