Hi, So, I was fortunate enough to be admitted to OSU's History program. It is not a top 10 program, but it is ranked 24 or something like that. However, the user borderlands posted an interesting article by the AHA about why name matters when trying to find a job. I was thinking about it more and more, and I did some research, and I was so shocked to find all of these articles online about jobless PhDs in the humanities. Why is this? Is this the general job market? Or is it because of name?
Here is one article I read from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/arts/07grad.html
Then I read an even more depressing articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846
http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846
I love studying History. I really do. I didn't go into a PhD to escape the job market. I really want to be in academia, but these articles, quite frankly, scared me, and I wish I had done more research. Quite honestly, I feel like just quitting grad school and going to a trade school. I often ask myself if I would be happier being a nurse, an electrician, an IT person, or even a high school teacher. I have no idea, at times, why I even went into academia.
What do you all think? Does the job market for History PhDs (and the humanities in general) scare you? Do you ever ask yourself whether or not you have done the right thing? I guess the one thing that comforts me is the fact that my PhD is fully funded. Even then, though, I don't want to end up realizing that I will be wasting the next 6 -7 years of my life studying stuff that no one really cares about and that is not marketable ...