Search the Community

Hey everyone, I'm somewhat out of place here, i am only in undergrad, and am still planning my transfer to a 4-year institution. I am planning ahead, and I know career wise i want to go into academia. My main areas of interest are art history (especially when theory is involved), and history. With regards to job prospects does getting a double major in undergrad in art history and history, help seem more attractive to academic job prospects? I will double major in history and art history even if it doesn't, because i like both areas, and I plan to eventually get a PhD in one of those disciplines. My thought behind the job prospects is that a Community college, or SLAC would be glad to have a professor teach some classes from one discipline and some survey classes in the other (in this case history). I now job opportunities are slim for post secondary teachers, but I also don't care about teaching at an ivy league, and would be find teaching at a SLAC or community college. Thanks.

I am planning to pursue Masc in ece(specialisation in biomedical) from a canadian university. Could someone please let me know the research opportunities that would be available for me after I complete my masters? How is the industrial research scenario in Canada right now? Thank you for the help

Hi! Background on me; I am about to graduate undergrad with bachelors in bio/math/neuro and I ultimately want to end up as a research scientists at a biotech company or in industry. My interests are in cell molecular biology or neurobiology so the target is likely pharm companies or other therapeutic development companies, but I’m obviously open to other ideas. The actual question: I know I will need to get a PhD but I am wanting to position myself in the best environment to facilitate that transition to industry. I have the impression that many academic PhD programs prime students for the post-doc/faculty pipeline, and lack faculty that have hands on industry experience. Are there phd programs that are known to cater more toward students seeking industry jobs? Programs whose faculty collaborate often with companies/ industry leaders? If so, how do I find them?? ((if this thread exists already my apologies and please take me to it via comments- thanks! ))

So.... I applied to PhD programs in Neuroscience this year and have not heard back from any schools yet. I have the sinking feeling I will not receive any interviews. Maybe something will come through last minute, but I cannot be sure. I have previously interned at NIH and would probably apply to their Post-Bac program. So now the thing is, I don't know how soon to give up hope of hearing back from my graduate programs and to pursue the Post-Bac program. I live far from DC so moving and housing is a big issue.

I have a masters in psychology. I don't really want to go for a phd however if i do, it will be in the field of I/o psychology or social psychology. But again, this is not what I really want to do. Before I started in my current position I was research and applying to job within the realm of market research. Obviously I did not find a job in this field before academia. Does anyone have any advice on how to get in the field of market research, marketing, or any related fields.

Hi all, I've committed to UT Austin's PhD program in English (yay!), and I am so excited to head down in August. Top of mind right now is finding and securing housing, and with that, concerns about budget/affordability. The program funding is modest at best, so I know that I'll have to find some other work to supplement my stipend. I'm wondering if anyone can offer suggestions about reasonable part-time or contract work for grad students? I know it's suggested we don't devote too much time to other work, as coursework and TA'ing already demand a lot and the priority, but this is more of a need than a choice... I've obviously thought about tutoring (any good programs/companies to look at in particular)? I am also leaving in job in non-profit development, so some kind of proposal and grant-writing would be really great. Any thoughts?

Looking for some feedback about different jobs people have while in grad school. I cannot imagine not working at ALL even though I understand how intensive it can be. I've been a Behavior Therapist for almost two years and I am getting burnt out. I don't really want to do it while in grad school even if it's less than ten hours per week. BUT, I am given clients based on my availability and I get paid $21/hr. So it's ideal for the flexibility and pay. I'm just losing my steam in the position... any feedback? Suck it up or find something else?

I'm an international student from India and I've been offered admission to Duke and USC for an MS in BME. I've spoken to a lot of people from both colleges, and I seem to get the general idea that USC is a great place primarily because of its location in California where there are a lot of BT/Biomed companies. But I'm still pretty torn between them, since Duke has a great program and offers me the flexibility to really explore what I like. As somebody who wants to enter the industry, I'm not sure if I should pick the much lower ranked program/good location, or great program/okay location. Any sights?

I graduated in 2015 with my Bachelor's neuroscience. I've been doing social science research for think tanks since then, and I'd like to make a transition into a sociology PhD program. I have a good GPA (3.9) and GREs (166V, 167Q) and lots of sociological research experience. However, I don't have any letters of recommendation from sociologists (I work mostly with psychologists and economists) and didn't take any sociology courses in undergrad. I'm wondering if there are any full-time jobs I could work at (or maybe a Master's, but those are expensive) that would improve my chances of getting into a top-tier sociology PhD program for entry in Fall 2020 or Fall 2021. I know there are a lot of Research Assistant, Lab Manager, and even Predoctoral Fellow positions in psychology, economics, and other disciplines. But I haven't been able to find many for sociology per se. Any ideas?

Need help deciding between a master's program in electrical and automation from Aalto university or comp Engineering (EE) Program from Arizona state in terms of cost of living, student Life and job opportunities PS : got a 100% scholarship from Aalto

Hi folks! I thought it might be helpful to create a place where those of us who are looking for a new position could critique/swap our CVs, resumes, and cover letters as well as discuss other topics related to applying to jobs. (I realize there is a "Jobs" subforum, but I felt like a thread with a psych-specific focus would be beneficial). I'll start! I recently discovered the perfect research position (would be my first paid), so I want to do everything I can to put my best foot forward. Some questions I had: Research fit is absolutely spot on, but my personal research experience so far is not relevant to this particular focus. Should I be concerned? The application is hosted on a portal that only seems to require a resume. However, I know the name of the PI - would it be appropriate to email them in addition to indicate my particular interest and attach a cover letter? Would that likely be seen as welcome initiative, or desperate and not following direction? I would love a critique of my resume! I'm happy to swap with anyone as well. Let's make this a productive year! 👍

Hi, I'm an international student with an interest in policy. My end goal is to become a consultant for government policy, and I was wondering whether looking into internships in US government entities is reasonable or a waste of my time. Could anyone help me on this?

Hi! I've applied this past application cycle to PhD programs in or related to behavioral genetics. My most recent research job was a three-month gig in the middle of 2018 (I had a longer researcher job before that). I worked on a short freelancing project after that and now I ideally want to get some seasonal/project-based/temporary research work. While I may just end-up getting some random temp job in the intervening time, I think being in a research position will be advantageous if I get any interviews. But any of you who does what I do probably knows that people who do scientific research usually want to hire workers who can stay-on for awhile, a thing I can't commit to now given that I could be in grad school in the Fall. I've reached out to researchers and tried to be forthcoming about my situation, but no luck so far. Does anyone have any advice? If it helps, I live in Chicago.

Hello, I'm in my second year of my Masters program as a Biology major and I have never done a research project and have struggled to make connections with Professors. I fail to find internships for biology labs and am afraid of missing the opportunity for one. I have felt overwhelmed and my adviser wanted me to pick a Professor to mentor me on my Thesis, which I do not have. I have a new adviser now and feel like I'm back at square one. My grades have been slipping from stress and me desperately clawing for a social life, my GPA was 3.21 and I fear it dropping further. I have been feeling overwhelmed when trying to find a thesis topic, it hits me like a brick wall and I don't know how to get over it. I am trying to become a Clinical Laboratory Scientist (Medical Technician) but I have no job experience. I've never had a job before. I don't really know what job to get as a biology grad student, and if I can even get one. I really need advice on this. My College offers a Non-Thesis route, but I have gotten conflicting advice on whether to take it. I don't want to be a researcher, so is it the better option? I have terrible networking skills. I fail to keep in touch with Professors and my previous adviser, who is teaching a course I'm taking, is not impressed; she's worried about me (I have terrible depression where I'm unable to function in class group work and I can't control my emotions anymore, she has noticed my declining grades and mood). How am I going to network and connect with Professors with this mental decline on my back? The mistake I made was joining a Masters program right after completing my Bachelors degree in Biology. I wasn't prepared.

Hello all! For those who are in an I/O Psychology PhD or Masters' program, or who has finished, what is your current job or what job/career are you hoping to have? I'm very interested and curious in knowing, since I want to pursue further education in I/O Psychology and I would love to know everyone's jobs/careers! Thanks!

Hi everybody! I was thinking of retraining and getting into LIS field (have a BA in Art History and MA in Cultural Management from non-US universities, with experience in museums, non-profits project work and curating). The thing is, this time I need to be very careful in choosing next studies/career, because I want to avoid being unemployed or underpaid again So, what are the odds of getting a job in the field after an MA? How is the job market for librarians and related professions? P.S. Been reading data from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/librarians.htm, but interested to hear your experience

I am about to commence my graduate program in Fall 2018. I wanted people's feedback on a few questions as I look forward to applying for jobs and internships. What was your experience looking for jobs after completing the I/O Psych Masters? Is the degree recognized across the nation, are the positions highly competitive, etc.? What are some suggestions you would offer in terms of what skills companies are looking for in an entry-level position? From your experience, what are some mistakes you made while looking for jobs, that you think could have been avoided? What was your opening salary for an entry-level I/O Psych position? What skills are highly sought after in an employee with an I/O degree? Overall, are there any regrets for pursuing I/O Psychology? I know the questions are pretty broad, but I can use all the info you may be able to share. Thank you for any feedback.

Hello everyone, In the last week before the decision deadline, I am debating between a PhD offer and a funded masters offer. The PhD is fairly low tier/low ranked school for my discipline, and my adviser is just in the beginning of their career. My academic goal and my current interests are of course to do research at the doctoral level, so many people are confused why I am having any dilemma over the two. My problem is that the PhD program, for my specific department, has had questionable placement history. It's not so much that it's "bad" placements-- people were able to find jobs. They are almost all in teaching institutions and no longer doing research. While it's reassuring that many people were able to find jobs, it's kind of discouraging that no one from any of the graduating classes has been able to break into any R1 schools. I also asked about any students that have been able to obtain post docs, and so far it seems like only one student from our department has done so. Again, it kind of concerns me. The one big career positive that the school likes to talk about, however, is the prospect of industry jobs. It seems that people have had more success with getting research positions within some prestigious tech companies, but the recruitment and placement data they're referring to is heavily made up of cognitive grads. The PhD acceptance I received is for a discipline outside of cognitive or human factors psychology, so I'm concerned that I won't be able to make my work applicable enough to get hired by these industries. I know that the motivation behind doing a PhD should be the love of research in an academic setting, but I have to make sure I meet in the middle between my passions and my (and my family's) need for financial stability. Also forgot to mention-- the program isn't fully funded, at least not guaranteed. Everyone says they're able to get funding for the years that aren't guaranteed through other means, but this is kind of scary, especially when I know that many comparable universities usually offer full funding. So now that I've laid out the context of this issue, the dilemma is basically: I'm concerned that I'm going into a PhD program with a very narrow pathway for myself to get a job worth the return of the time/labor/opportunity cost of a PhD AND allow me to continue doing research beyond my degree. Specifically, it's highly unlikely at this moment that I would get a tenure track job at an R1 school from this program. Of course, I know this is a difficult position to obtain from ANY PhD given how rough the academic job market is, but it's demoralizing to see that no one from our department has been able to get into an R1 school, with or without post doc. What I would need to do, is go into this program with at least the idea to make my work versatile enough to eventually land me an industry job in case, but that's difficult to do as a non-cognitive, non-human factors student. On top of this, pursuing such a research trajectory is very different from what I originally told my adviser, and may blatantly seem like I'm trying to go after industry jobs. Also, I'm still in undergrad and I realized through this application process that my research interests have changed quite a bit. I didn't really know what was out there for me to consider, and now I'm rethinking the research match between me and my potential adviser. This is also another reason why I feel like I should gain some more research experience and reapply. Given all of these concerns, my other option is to turn down the offer and reapply after doing some intensive work to make my application a lot better. This is with the hope that I'll get into programs with better placement records. That way I don't have to feel like there's only one possible career path that is realistically available for me to feel financially secure about. Right now, I'm thinking of doing this through taking on the funded research masters as this program has a reputation for doing well in preparing students for quality PhD programs. I am also going to make sure I spend my summers taking up any volunteer research positions and programs, in case the masters isn't research-heavy enough for my purposes. Am I being too naive about this? Or conversely, am I thinking too much? Thank you all in advance! I'm really sorry for how long this post is. I need to learn how to write concisely...

I'm new here, so I apologize if I ask too many questions! Basically, I'm currently a senior at NYU and in May I'll be graduating with a B.A. in Math and Psychology. Going into my senior year, I had been planning on applying to several Ph.D. programs in Data Science and Statistics and my career goal was to be a data scientist. However, upon meeting with the professor whose lab I do research in, he stated that it would be very difficult for me to get into any Ph.D. program with only a year of undergraduate research experience. So, I applied to 6 Masters programs and the Ph.D. in Data Science program at NYU (this has been my top choice since sophomore year so no way I wasn't going to give it a shot!). Fast forward to now, I made it up to the interview for the Ph.D. program, but yesterday I got an email saying I was offered admission into the Master's program in the Center for Data Science, and that I am not eligible for any scholarships. I have also been admitted to the Master's of Engineering in Computer Science program at Cornell Tech, as well as a couple of other M.S. programs at NYU, and I'm waiting to hear back from the three other programs. Here's where my questions come up. As I think about it more and more, the program at Cornell Tech becomes more appealing. For one thing, I think it's a more versatile degree. They have data science courses I could take, and with the degree itself I'd be a candidate for software engineer positions. As such, after completing the degree I'd likely be able to go down either route, albeit the data science route would be a bit tougher with this degree than with the M.S. in Data Science. However, I've also found jobs in software engineering to be more appealing lately. I think around my junior year of college I started to realize a software engineer career seemed like a good fit for my interests, but by that point I thought it was too late in the game to switch routes unless I got another Bachelor's in Comp Sci - who knew! Also, I've been completely lost at where to look for scholarships. I applied to one that Cornell Tech sent out the application to, but I haven't received any merit scholarships from the programs I've been admitted to. That being said, even without scholarships, the Cornell Tech degree would be approximately $8,000 less right off the bat. Additionally, it's a one year program, as opposed to the one at NYU which is a two year program. Is it presumptuous of me to think it'd be reasonable to take out $40-50k in loans, with the expectation that with the Computer Science engineering degree I'll likely be able to make decent money as a software engineer in NYC not long after graduating next spring? If it helps, I'll be graduating from undergrad with about $10,500 in loans, and if I do get a well-paying job after grad school my plan is to live as if I'm making $40k a year until my loans are paid off. I'm the first in my family to go to college, let alone grad school, so any advice is greatly appreciated! I've heard that some companies will pay for you to get a M.Eng., but honestly at this point I'd rather get the degree first since I don't think I'm qualified for many tech jobs currently. As a recap, my two main questions are: 1. Is it a smart decision to do a Master of Engineering in C.S. at Cornell Tech when I'm open to becoming either a software engineer or data scientist? 2. Is it reasonable to assume I'll be able to get a decent job with a M.Eng. degree in C.S. and that I'd be able to pay of ~$60k in loans in a reasonable amount of time? Thank you!

Hey everyone! I could really use your help: I'm trying to decide on an English or Comparative Literature program and am curious as to whether any of you think that placement records are an important factor in deciding? If so, how do you determine what a good placement record is? Thirdly, why are some schools better at placing students than others? I'm finding this very confusing because strong placement records sometimes don't correspond to the school's level of prestige. For example, I noticed that at Brown's English department, only 7% of graduates in the last 4 years got tenure-track jobs. And at Rutgers, 68% of graduates went on to secure tenure-track jobs.

I've recently been admitted to an MA program with an 20K stipend. I know this is generous for an MA program but I am trying to gauge my loan and student debt prospects. Anyone else with a similar stipend? Has anyone found any other ways to get funding? Has anyone managed to get scholarships that are separate from the particular university or department? Any jobs? Did you even need a loan?

Which departments in the humanities are the best and worst for landing academic jobs? I got my master's in English literature, but have been thinking about getting my PhD in history or sociology. Three professors (in English and History) strongly advised me to go into English, which apparently is one of the best (albeit still extremely competitive) for academic jobs. They also said History is one of the most difficult. How true is this? Is there any way to validate these claims?

Hi, I'm in my second semester as a Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature. I know some people might think that it's too early for me to start worrying about what to do to get hired, others might be thinking that it's never too early, others might be saying "you're a comparative lit. major, there are no jobs" lol, but please just stick with me a moment. I'm looking for advice on how I can become a more competitive applicant when applying for assistant professor jobs (and similar jobs) after I finish my Ph.D. I'm technically first-generation college student (my parents dropped out of college, and my much older sister went to college later through a continuing studies program and received a masters online. However, she doesn't work in academia) so I'm pretty lost here about how all of this works and what's attractive to universities. I'm trying to figure out what I can do to stand out. I've been told that I should go to conferences, so I applied to two and got accepted. Are conferences helpful or do you feel like it doesn't make much of a difference? Should I try publishing more? Researching (you know, outside of my future dissertation work)? If so, how do I start approaching professors or institutions, in general, to start doing that? After graduation, should I apply to a post-doc program? If so, do you know of any stand out ones that I should aim for or even what people look for when hiring post-docs or do you just feel like post-docs are unnecessary? My fellowship requires me to teach one semester gratis. Should I attempt at teaching more? Older students in my department have suggested getting a masters in another department (i.e. English, French, Anthropology, Theatre, etc.) to further diversify myself and make more valuable connections, but I'm not sure if tagging on another year or two to finish another degree for the sake of networking is that beneficial especially when comparative literature programs require you to take courses outside of your department anyway. Should I start building more experiences outside of academia (In undergrad, I was an EIC of a publication for a year, I've also worked in publishing, tutoring, mentoring, and led a social justice/community service non-profit organization for a year, and I minored and worked in social media for a bit-- should I keep doing more things like that in grad school or is it time to refocus and just build on one or two things?) If I sound really young, lost, and a little overwhelmed, it's because I am. I graduated from a private university with a degree in English (writing) in three years and was accepted straight-way into this Ph.D. program when I was 20 going on 21 years old. My program requires 48-course credits, after this semester (I entered in Fall 2017 right now I'm in Spring 2018 semester) I would have 24 credits so I'm approaching that halfway mark with my coursework (I probably need to slow down a bit, but I can't hold a job on this fellowship minus departmental related research/internships relevant to my career so I don't have anything really going on at the moment). I'm required to take a minimum 9 credits Fall/Spring each and a minimum 6 credits in the summer so I'll be at 30 credits when the Fall 2018 semester commences. I'm not at a prestigious ivy league school; I'm in a very small program at a pretty large public university. I don't feel like me being young with a good fellowship is enough to really stand out. So if anyone knows about ways I can further build my CV and experiences to become a better applicant for future jobs, that info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately, I haven't been contacted by the only school I have interviewed with; however, I've come to terms with it (ish-- it changes hourly, lol). Saying this, does anyone know of any good listserves or job boards for RA's/Fellowships/Lab Coordinator positions that I could get on or look at to help find my plan B? I have a Master's Degree so I'd prefer something that is not just Bachelor's level. What have you guys done in your years between application cycles? Any tips/advice/websites would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I am starting this thread for those interested in discussing the future of the field of comparative literature. Here are some possible topics: Is it a dying field? If so, will its members be absorbed into English, language departments, etc.? Is it growing? If so, where and how? How is the job market? E.g. I have heard the market is terrible for women, but men are finding positions in comp/lit, English, and language departments. Can anyone confirm/deny this rumor? Looking forward to hearing your perspectives.