Joining the Grad Student Committee: CV builder or time suck?

[hejduk]

As the title asks, is it worth to join, or just another thing pulling time away from studies, family, etc? Seems like it'd be helpful, especially in the sense of networking (at least on my campus), but the potential added time away from other things is big negative.

[MoJingly]

As the title asks, is it worth to join, or just another thing pulling time away from studies, family, etc? Seems like it'd be helpful, especially in the sense of networking (at least on my campus), but the potential added time away from other things is big negative.

If the only reason you would want to join is to build your CV, don't do it. Really, you shouldn't do things simply to add them to your CV... it will make you miserable! If, however, you WANT to join, go for it. (and hopefully you do, seeing as how you got into grad school for a reason )

[runonsentence]

Probably depends on several factors. The "time suck" component will depend on how active your school's committee is, and the worthwhile-ness will probably depend on what kinds of things your committee accomplishes.

This might also depend on whether you're talking about a governance group for your program or university-wide. The latter will be more heavily lined with beauracratic red tape and probably require a greater time commitment.

In the case of the former, I've found the grad student governance member group for my own department to be very worthwhile, though it has occasionally been a time suck. But I've really enjoyed being a part of a group with the power to make positive changes for the department—in the past two years, for instance, our group has proposed (and had faculty approve) a new advisor/mentorship system and successfully lobbied for having the entire year's (tentative) course schedule released every summer so that PhDs can carefully plan their coursework and maintain a good time to degree. It's been a good chance to get to know faculty better, as well.

The university-wide governance at my school has also had some successes in the same span of time, but they're much harder fought for. (Think of comparing a small-town council to a state governance, for instance.) But it would, as you mention, provide even better chances to network with grad peers and with university administration.

[StrangeLight]

it really depends on how much the grad student committee does.

in my own school, the university-wide grad student organization meets once a month. that's it. if the meetings drag on more than two hours, people just start leaving. if you want to join sub-committees that meet much more frequently and do much more work, you can, but you're not obligated to. our university GSO had probably 30 members, and yet the same 8 people served on all the sub-committees. no biggie, really.

if it's your department grad student committee, you'll have to ask them and previous reps how often they meet. once a month is manageable. once a week with take-home responsibilities is not. my program's grad committee determines fellowships and admissions, and the grad students aren't allowed to sit on those meetings, so they're only at 3 or 4 meetings all year.

being the president of one of these committees is a lot more work, though. it is not worth the time or the effort unless you're actually interested in the job. that said, it can be almost fun. you will get to know more of the professors in your program since you'll be the go-between for your department and the grad students.

i will say that having service on your CV is never a bad thing. when job committees are looking over CVs, if they see absolutely no service contributions, it can be seen as a negative. they want to hire a colleague that will contribute to the department and, frankly, will do some of the grunt work they don't want to do anymore. never let yourself be their workhorse, but do demonstrate at least a willingness to participate in your department outside of research and teaching. none of these service obligations should ever deter from your research or coursework, however. being the rep on a million committees will never get you hired, but great research and good teaching will.