Friends don't let friends get a PhD

[grad4life]

Hey all,

I am frustrated with the academic job search, not fun at all. This is my third year on the market, and it just seems worse

Sometimes I wonder was it all worth it? PhD in hand, and yet I am not where I thought I would be, ugh.

So, I have started to vent by making a few t-shirts and items for sale via my zazzle account.

Yes, this may seem lame of me to post this here, but if you dig any of them, you are free to pick something up.

http://www.zazzle.com/diorules

I hope you are all are ok.

grad4life

[Eigen]

Maybe you should modify your premise a bit to "Friends don't let friends get degrees there is no market for"- something that's true at the undergraduate and the postgraduate level.

That's not to say that there aren't some degrees that you find personal worth in getting, regardless of the job prospects, but it seems like there are an astounding number of people that don't do any research into the marketability of a degree before they get it.

[johndiligent]

I suggest a longer T-shirt:

Friends Don't Let Friends Develop Unreasonable Expectations About the Job Market, No Matter How Much Easier It Is to Pretend That You and Your Friend Are the Exceptions to the Rule and You'll Both Get Jobs Because You're Both Brilliant and The Unemployed People are Just People Who Aren't as Academically-Gifted As You Are. Instead Friends Acknowledge to Each Other the Exceptional Difficulty of Getting an Academic Job, Call Bullshit on Each Other When Appropriate, and Help Each Other to Professionalize Early and Often. Further, Friends Will Also Remind Each Other that While Getting a Funded PhD, You are Actually Getting Paid to Live Your Dream, If Only for a Short While, So While Academic Jobs May Be Few, It Was Still Worth It For the Opportunity You Did Get to Engage With Academic Discourse on a Daily Basis.That Said, Friends Certainly Don't Let Friends Get Unfunded PhD's. Nor Should Enemies For That Matter.

[coffeeplease]

I suggest a longer T-shirt:

Friends Don't Let Friends Develop Unreasonable Expectations About the Job Market, No Matter How Much Easier It Is to Pretend That You and Your Friend Are the Exceptions to the Rule and You'll Both Get Jobs Because You're Both Brilliant and The Unemployed People are Just People Who Aren't as Academically-Gifted As You Are. Instead Friends Acknowledge to Each Other the Exceptional Difficulty of Getting an Academic Job, Call Bullshit on Each Other When Appropriate, and Help Each Other to Professionalize Early and Often. Further, Friends Will Also Remind Each Other that While Getting a Funded PhD, You are Actually Getting Paid to Live Your Dream, If Only for a Short While, So While Academic Jobs May Be Few, It Was Still Worth It For the Opportunity You Did Get to Engage With Academic Discourse on a Daily Basis.That Said, Friends Certainly Don't Let Friends Get Unfunded PhD's. Nor Should Enemies For That Matter.

This is going to be my mantra. My really, really long mantra.

[whirlibird]

I suggest a longer T-shirt:

Friends Don't Let Friends Develop Unreasonable Expectations About the Job Market, No Matter How Much Easier It Is to Pretend That You and Your Friend Are the Exceptions to the Rule and You'll Both Get Jobs Because You're Both Brilliant and The Unemployed People are Just People Who Aren't as Academically-Gifted As You Are. Instead Friends Acknowledge to Each Other the Exceptional Difficulty of Getting an Academic Job, Call Bullshit on Each Other When Appropriate, and Help Each Other to Professionalize Early and Often. Further, Friends Will Also Remind Each Other that While Getting a Funded PhD, You are Actually Getting Paid to Live Your Dream, If Only for a Short While, So While Academic Jobs May Be Few, It Was Still Worth It For the Opportunity You Did Get to Engage With Academic Discourse on a Daily Basis.That Said, Friends Certainly Don't Let Friends Get Unfunded PhD's. Nor Should Enemies For That Matter.

Very nice! Considering all the nuance that had to be lumped in...it's almost succinct! And would make a very interesting shirt. I agree with everything, but just want to reinforce the most important part for those of us applying this year: "Friends Certainly Don't Let Friends Get Unfunded PhDs." Don't be enticed by the brand name or the stroking of your pride! See through the smokescreen!

[antecedent]

I suggest a longer T-shirt:

Friends Don't Let Friends Develop Unreasonable Expectations About the Job Market, No Matter How Much Easier It Is to Pretend That You and Your Friend Are the Exceptions to the Rule and You'll Both Get Jobs Because You're Both Brilliant and The Unemployed People are Just People Who Aren't as Academically-Gifted As You Are. Instead Friends Acknowledge to Each Other the Exceptional Difficulty of Getting an Academic Job, Call Bullshit on Each Other When Appropriate, and Help Each Other to Professionalize Early and Often. Further, Friends Will Also Remind Each Other that While Getting a Funded PhD, You are Actually Getting Paid to Live Your Dream, If Only for a Short While, So While Academic Jobs May Be Few, It Was Still Worth It For the Opportunity You Did Get to Engage With Academic Discourse on a Daily Basis.That Said, Friends Certainly Don't Let Friends Get Unfunded PhD's. Nor Should Enemies For That Matter.

This reaffirms why I'm applying to grad school despite the poor market prospects. Doubleplusgood

[far_to_go]

I suggest a longer T-shirt:

Friends Don't Let Friends Develop Unreasonable Expectations About the Job Market, No Matter How Much Easier It Is to Pretend That You and Your Friend Are the Exceptions to the Rule and You'll Both Get Jobs Because You're Both Brilliant and The Unemployed People are Just People Who Aren't as Academically-Gifted As You Are. Instead Friends Acknowledge to Each Other the Exceptional Difficulty of Getting an Academic Job, Call Bullshit on Each Other When Appropriate, and Help Each Other to Professionalize Early and Often. Further, Friends Will Also Remind Each Other that While Getting a Funded PhD, You are Actually Getting Paid to Live Your Dream, If Only for a Short While, So While Academic Jobs May Be Few, It Was Still Worth It For the Opportunity You Did Get to Engage With Academic Discourse on a Daily Basis.That Said, Friends Certainly Don't Let Friends Get Unfunded PhD's. Nor Should Enemies For That Matter.

Grad4life, if you make a shirt of this, I will buy it and wear it every single day and give it to all my friends.

[thestage]

what is going to eventually happen (in the humanities at least, and probably some of the social sciences) is that getting a PhD is going to be seen less and less as a career move, and more and more as a kind of elaborate and lengthy sabbatical for masochists and aethiest ascetics. in a sense, of course, this is already the case (ask your friends, and detect the whiff of condescion and concern as they inevitably see you as malformed and infantile), but eventually that line will be crossed for good and the jig will be up. one of the reasons the job market sucks is because we're all going to get these damn degrees no matter what happens in the end. sure, the numbers might shrink some, but they will forever outstrip the demand.