Writing career goals in SOP

[indoorfireworks]

So it's getting down to the wire and my WS is done, transcripts and CV are uploaded, and SOPs are 90% good to go. I'm just stressing one last bit - When writing my career goals, should I state a TT job, but mention an alternative I'm considering so I don't seem unrealistic? Or will that look like I'm waffling? 

[Karatani]

Personally, I used my statement primarily to outline my academic history/preparation and long-term research goals. In terms of career plans, I more vaguely wrote that my doctorate would prepare me for a career as a “literary critic.” I went with this because TT jobs are nearly non-existent, so I don’t sound presumptuous while also alerting them to the fact that, one way or another, my career will be centered around reading books and writing about them.

[Glasperlenspieler]

If we're talking about PhD programs, then I don't think it's really necessary to talk about your career goals. A PhD in the humanities is essentially a vocational degree and the admissions committee will probably just assume that if you're applying, it's because you want to be a professor. And if you have alternate career goals, that might actually be something that makes an admissions committee look on your application less favorably (for all the talk about alt-ac, professors often look down upon non-academic jobs). Use those few lines of your SOP to more fully articulate your interests, your project, or your fit for the program.

[mobydickpic]

3 hours ago, Glasperlenspieler said:

If we're talking about PhD programs, then I don't think it's really necessary to talk about your career goals. A PhD in the humanities is essentially a vocational degree and the admissions committee will probably just assume that if you're applying, it's because you want to be a professor. And if you have alternate career goals, that might actually be something that makes an admissions committee look on your application less favorably (for all the talk about alt-ac, professors often look down upon non-academic jobs). Use those few lines of your SOP to more fully articulate your interests, your project, or your fit for the program.

I agree with this, and two advisors in my undergrad gave me this exact advice after proofreading my SOP. However, I've noticed that some department websites explicitly ask for this info to be covered in SOPs. Some of them include it in a list that is framed as suggestions, whereas others imply that the SOP should address every question. I wonder if such programs would find it off-putting to ignore the question.

That said, maybe one way to interpret the question (which is usually more like "what would you do with the degree?") would be not to use the formulaic "I want to be a TT professor but could use my degree for xyz alt ac things," but rather to describe the specific ways that resources in the school would inform the specific research or teaching you'd want to do in your career (for example: digital humanities, emphasis on archival work, etc. etc.)

Finally, and sort of contradicting my first point, one thing I've noticed is this: my undergraduate advisor is the DGS for our school's PhD English program (which is an R1 program that I've seen many students here applying to). A lot of the time, when I've referenced the requirements listed on the webpage of our department, she's responded as though the website is out-of-date and isn't necessarily relevant to her expectations. (For example, our program says that the GRE subject test is strongly recommended, whereas she said that most students don't submit it, and she literally never thinks about it). That may be specific to her personality/how our department is structured (and sometimes, our department feels more informal than many similar ones, based on impressions I get from research and conversations), but either way, I wonder how common it is for department webpages to be less-than-perfect gauges of departments' true expectations. 

 

[indoorfireworks]

Thanks, @Plurabelle @Glasperlenspieler @mobydickpic  I just avoided the discussion of career altogether, and instead focused on how my research fit the department. I feel a lot better about it now.