job issues

[i_broke_it_]

I've been reading a few academic blogs lately, and one issue everyone brings up is how hard it is to get a job after grad school, especially for humanities people (see http://academiccog.blogspot.com/ as an example). Basically, most people seem to say "Don't go to grad school, if you

Comments

[mechanyx]

If you are going to grad school to get a job "in the field", you've probably got it backwards.

The way I see it, there are 3 reasons to go to school beyond undergrad.

1) It's a prereq for what you're trying to do. I.e. you want a very specific job that has very specific requirements like biomedical engineering or you want to work on the heavy relativistic ion collider or your government requires a certain degree for something or you have to have a PhD from an Ivy in order to be considered for a professorship in your field.

2) It's your purpose in life to study/understand what you're going for (this was my reason) and don't care AT ALL what the costs or consequences of grad school are because there wouldn't be much point to your life without the knowledge it imparts upon you.

3) You are killing time, don't care and/or are a career student who is going to keep their loans in grace until they die.

If you are intending to be like most ppl I know and get some job that has little to do with your degree because there is no job that requires you to have a degree in trombone performance or whatever, then having a graduate degree actually makes it harder for you to get a job because a) you look overqualified and the company is afraid you'll leave and b) you probably have additional loans which mean you HAVE to make more money when you're out even if you don't care.

I did #2 but work in the field that I originally went to undergrad for because in engineering they just care if you're qualified for whatever it is they need you to do and they pay you sufficiently much money that additional grad school debt (of which I didn't accumulate much actually) isn't an issue and while engineering isn't my #1 passion, it is my #2 so...

[obsoletechild]

Or all three!!!

I completely agree with this comment.

[mechanyx]

lol

Well, 1 and 3 would be mutually exclusive unless 3 is your backup plan if 1 doesn't pan out :) lol

[curlgirl510]

"2) It's your purpose in life to study/understand what you're going for (this was my reason) and don't care AT ALL what the costs or consequences of grad school are because there wouldn't be much point to your life without the knowledge it imparts upon you."

Here Here!

I'm leaping before looking, so to speak. Even though I've realized this more recently, I don't think i can do anything else. Actually I think I could do a number of jobs (including taking back my old high school job as drive thru vixen) but I only want to study literature. It's that do or die philosophy; if i don't pursue this i would always feel as if i had wasted my life.

About the job thing, I'm sure i will be trying to master the "kick myself in the seat of my pants" trick after obtaining ye olde PH.D. and not lucking out with jobs. I've heard the same old stuff over and over: "the job market for college profs isn't good and oh, by the way, are you interested in 20th century literature? Didn't you know everyone else does that? You will never find a job. Ever. No, No, sssh. Never. You should really reconcile your differences with Pope and Dryden and specialize in restoration literature."

So what do we do? I guess, suck it up and take whatever we can get right out of grad school and hope that we one day get our dream tenured track job.

and keep reading, always keep reading.

[mechanyx]

You live in Gurnee! I spent a month there last year.

[i_broke_it_]

I agree with this, and #1 and 2 are my reasons for grad school. I'm glad to see that other people feel that "purpose in life" thing, because when reading academic blogs it seems like 99% of grad students, adjuncts, and professors (even tenured ones) are burnt out, tired, and disappointed with their lives/jobs. As I said, many of those sites try to warn people away from graduate school.

I personally would get my PhD whether I was guaranteed a job or not.

[mechanyx]

Ohh, well, grad school was the worst time of my life but that's because the location and ppl I had to deal with were awful like aliens or something. I loved doing my work but it reaffirmed my thoughts that I needed to operate FAR outside the established community.

I learned what I needed to. Now I know what I have to do.

Just remember, there's always another way (except, ya know, when there isn't).