Required reading
"Wanted: Really Smart Suckers", by Anya Kamenetz of the Village Voice, should be required reading for all aspiring graduate students. Particularly this quote from comp lit Ph.D. Dan Friedman: "I didn’t know what I was getting into. It would have been different if I had known. You’re committed to your subject and you think, I want to study literature. You don’t think of yourself as a 40-year-old trying to support a family." Yup.
Seven years ago, when I entered graduate school, people were still predicting that, while the academic job market admittedly sucked like a giant Hoover vacuum, there’d eventually be tenure-track positions opening up as all the older professors finally retired. Now that it’s becoming increasingly clear that many of those positions are being replaced by adjunct jobs, I wonder if the old "they’ll retire sooner or later" argument is still in use. If (as the Voice article reports), "[g]rad school applications are up slightly over the last decade, as unemployed college grads seek a haven from the job market," I suspect yes — though this also suggests that a lot of bright young people see grad school as a way of sitting out economically tough times.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of putting together a whole bunch of writings from the academic and postacademic blogosphere and turning them into a book for prospective graduate students. Someone proposed this idea already, I know. But who? I want to say I saw it at Caveat Lector, or possibly in an Invisible Adjunct thread, but my brain feels like a sieve today. If anyone has the link I’d be grateful.
So, knowing what you know now, would you have gotten that PhD and pursued an academic career?
I’m still in course work for my PhD, i.e. still in a fair position to extricate myself easily. I’ve been reading a lot on blogosphere trying to get a realistic picture of what’s out there. And despite it all, I still hope to be in the 5% (or some ridiculously meager percentile) that gets a job in it, which, as I see before me, is hopelessly naive.
But, I REALLY like what I’m studying. In fact it’s not a matter of “I like this well enough that I could do it for the rest of my life.” It’s more like “I like this so well I can’t imagine my life without it.” Of course, I haven’t been through the trial of the dissertation yet…
So is love for the subjects perpetuating the bleak job situation–people still searching for jobs or working in less than ideal job situations? I didn’t go to grad school to wait out a economic slump. My decision to go was a calculated drive.
Why did you go? and would you have gone knowing what you know now?
Those of us who have completed undergraduate work in the humantities or social sciences during the past twelve to sixteen month have been faced with strikingly bleak statistics about the job market in every field, not just academia.
Given a 1:5 chance of getting an academic job when I finish school (assuming, hypothetically, I were to go on and complete a PhD– I’m doing an MA now) and what was presented to me as an equally slender chance of getting a stable job doing something I like outside of academia, graduate degree or no, I chose to do what I was most passionate about.
I was never told that graduate school in literature would up my chances of finding a well-paying, stable career. No one promised me that. But, since no one promised me anything else, either, I don’t feel as though I have a whole lot to loose.
I thought I understood the risks when I first started too, but I would emphatically discourage anyone from going for a PhD. I would tell them to do it slowly and part-time, while pursuing a career that is also satisfactory but has better odds. While I’m still passionate about my subject, I realized I could be really happy pursuing it as a hobby and intensive side interest, without all the discouragement and pressure of an academic career. The learning can be wonderful, but the working conditions are the problem. I mean, a lot of people love to sew, but wouldn’t work in a sweatshop for several years to be able to do it.
I think some of the respondents here should perhaps take a moment and put their “passion” aside, along with their vaulted notions about how life promises nothing, read the entire article, or re-read it, and then re-read this phrase, “You don’t think of yourself as a 40-year-old trying to support a family,” about fifty or sixty times until it sinks in. (and if the family part is inapplicable, then just try thinking of yourself as a 40-year-old)
Chris: My comments were about my decision to enter graduate school, not pursue an academic career. I went into an MA program specifically because I wasn’t 100% committed to an academic career, and in the intervening year, that uncertainty has blossomed. If what you’re saying is that those considering an academic career but still in the earlier stages of their graduate career ought to get out now, while they still can, don’t worry– I, at least, am listening.
But my question still remains. In light of all this, why are people still in academic careers at all? Why do people still go to graduate school and pursue tenure track jobs? Is it because they naively get suckered in until they can’t get out anymore? If it’s 100%, unequivocably bad, then why are there still universities? It’s worth considering that a possible answer, as unscientific as it is, is that there are people who love to do their work, and some of these people will get a job. Some people, though very few, ARE 40 years old and supporting their families. (As a complete side-note, though: isn’t it a little presumptuous to think of you yourself as being the sole supporter of your family?)
Great questions. I don’t have answers to all of them, but here are a few thoughts in reply.
Why I went to grad school: because I loved my subject (I still do), and because — like you, Jeannette — I had a hard time imagining doing anything else. (I’m from an academic family, which probably has a lot to do with that.) And also because people steered me toward academia even as they cautioned me about meagre job prospects.
I knew about the job market when I went in. I went through a couple of years of ambivalence, then got invested in what would eventually become my dissertation project, thought “I’ll stick with it,” and stayed. Then the ambivalence returned when I started thinking, coldly and realistically, about what my professional and personal life would be like if I actually got an academic job.
So I knew what I was getting into: I knew that my job prospects were slender at best, and I knew I’d probably need a Plan B. But I also didn’t know a lot of things: I didn’t know, for instance, what teaching was like, or that I’d struggle with it for years before realizing that my heart just wasn’t in it. I didn’t know that when I hit my late 20s, location would start to seem a lot more important than it did when I was 22 and relatively carefree. I didn’t know what it would be like to have the constant “I should be grading/researching/writing” guilt hanging over my head. I don’t think anyone can really know all this when they start out, and it’s not just naiveté; some things are very hard to predict when you’re young and haven’t experienced them directly.
If I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t have gone to grad school directly after undergrad; I would have worked at something else for a few years and then, most likely, gone for an MA rather than a Ph.D. Megan’s strategy, in other words. And Megan, I think your approach is a smart one to take. I like Ladygoat’s suggestion as well, though I suspect it would be tricky to find a humanities Ph.D. program that would let you pursue the degree part-time while working. Does anyone know of graduate programs that allow for this?
Jeanette, I do think that many get suckered in, as you say, and then become unable to see a way out. What keeps them in? Lots of things, obviously, but one I can speak to is this: you spend all those years in your mid/late-20’s or early 30’s in grad. school, it doesn’t work out, and there you are, pushing 35 or 40, and you are no more qualified for a non-academic position than a 22-year old kid who just graduated from college. I think something that often gets lost in these discussions is that the years spent in grad. school are the same years one would have spent “paying their dues” in some other field, which, unlike academia, has not morphed into a dead end job.
As for the state of our universities, the morale level at most non-Ivy large universities, often amongst the tenured and non-tenureds alike, is fairly dismal.
On a side note, I wasn’t presuming that any one person was the sole supporter of their family. But at the same time, most families I know rely so heavily on both incomes that loosing one would be tantamount to a catastrophe. Still, I should have clarified.
Oh, and no, knowing what I know now, no way would I have ever gone to grad. school. I’d have pursued some sort of professional MA degree.
You make a good point, Chris. Esp about “paying dues” in another career.
I will say for my defense, though: When I was an undergrad at a liberal arts college, instead of being coddled into the idea of going to grad school, when I approached my advisor on the topic he emphatically told that I really indeed did not want to go. I persisted, he persisted. He fed me statistics and all sorts of depressing information, only relenting when I was handing him recommendations to fill out. So I wasn’t given pipe dreams.
Everyone will have differenct experiences. So far, “knowing what I know now” doesn’t discourage me from my pursuit.
To be honest, if I can’t get a job at the university level and decide to “leave academe”, my plan B is to teach high school (wh. my husband is currently doing upon his happy departure from grad school) or to work in a library. I worked in a library before grad school, and was offered a job to teach at a high school which I turned down in order to go to grad school. So I have seen both as attainable circumstances.
So, though I think that you raise some very reasonable and noteworthy points, I do think that if everyone held your view, there would be no university left, and after 800 years, I think that would be a sad demise of an institution.
I proposed the book, but it wasn’t on CavLec — I think it was at Rana’s.
And I’m afraid I can’t commit to it right now. I have metric tons of material. I have no time.
Jeannette, you *are* aware that to get anywhere in a library you need an MLS? And that to be a high-school teacher you need a teaching certificate and possibly another degree (depends on state)? If I were you I’d start pursuing one of these things NOW rather than later.
Jeanette — Compromise. If there’s no way of talking you down from the roof ledge of the 40 story building, at least make sure that while you’re in grad. school you take a few side classes in some vocationally/professionally applicable field. Learn web design, or take communications courses, something, anything that can be a fall back for you.
I was a very devoted grad. student, immersed in the vagueries of Blanchot and Beckett, and I scoffed at those of my cohort who had one foot in and one out. They’re employed now, happy, have 401K’s, have health insurance, some are married, have partners, and are buying houses. I’m soon to be unemployed, I’m a miserable bastard (can’t you tell?), I rent an apartment, I will soon be without health insurance, and I have an anemic amount og money in a retirement acount. And now, instead of embarking on an interesting non-academic career, because I have no money, and spent far too long in a state of denial about my future prospects, I’m in the unfortunate position of having to get my real estate license because that’s the only “professionl” work I can find. It’s also the only kind of work for which I can be remotely qualified without having to do a substantial amount of re-training that I cannot afford. And at 43, this sucks. ( I explained to one would-be grad. student who was one of my students at Haveford, “consider me a kind of walking ‘Don’t Let This Happen to You’ sign.” Fortuntely, he’s not going.)
Be careful, good luck, and DO NOT put all your eggs in one basket.
Thanks, Dorothea — I keep losing track of what I read where. I’m insanely busy too, so it’s more of a hypothetical “what if some of these assorted writings were eventually put together” question than a project proposal. But maybe someday. (And I hope your hands feel better soon, by the way!)
Chris, is there anything I/we can do? Brainstorming or suggestions or the like? Seriously, I’m offering. Not that I’m a fount of practical experience, having spent the last seven years in graduate school. But if you want to bounce career-change ideas around, I’m up for it.
I don’t think a mass exodus of current/potential grad students (as well as adjuncts and junior faculty) would spell the end of the university, period. Maybe the end of the university as we know it, but given the way the system has been falling apart over the past few decades, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If nothing else, people in high places in academia might be forced to confront the miserable job market, as well as the miserable working conditions that a lot of academics face. I’d actually like to see administrators and tenured faculty realize “We can’t get a constant supply of grad students to teach the lower-level courses any more. Oh no! They’ve wised up! They’re on to us!” Then we might start to see change.
Amanda — Thanks for the offer, but I think by now the dye is fairly well cast. I f’d up big time. One of my many regrets is that I didn’t take the advice I’m giving — largely because I was reassured a thousand times, ‘you’ll get a job, how could you not get a job, don’t worry, and don’t get side tracked by taking a part-time gig in the univeristy publications office’. Yeah, right.
The irony, of course, is that the woman who ended up taking that job is now the communications director for the president of the university, and is earning around $55k plus benefits etc.!
And to further the irony, exactly what can one say about the American univeristy when the staff is paid better and has more job security than the professors? Not to belittle the staff, but you have to admit that something is a tad awry here.
Like that old Faces song goes, “I wish I knew what I know now/ when I was younger …”
I’ll leave one more comment for my own self-respect, so I’m not perceived as a complete moron.
Thankfully, knowing that prospects were scarce, I got an education minor along with my two majors in college…just enough education hours so that a school can legally hire me and will pay for the few remaining bits of certification (I carefully checked this out at the education office…they also have a placement file ready for me, poised in case higher ed doesn’t work out). I took the year between undergrad and grad school in order to get married and, interestingly, learn web design, a hobby I continue to develop…as I can see it became a great pedagogical tool as well as potentially bail me into a job someday. I’m also Suzuki “certified” to teach cello privately.
I really like grad school. I have a great department, a wonderful advisor. I got fed up with some of the daily issues sometimes. But for the most part I’m happy.