Are we all crazy? Or just idealistic? Or both??

[ProfLorax]

I thought I'd share this colorful infographic about the current job market for PhD's. I'm not sharing it to be a downer, but as a conversation starter. I know all of this information, and yet, I am still applying. I'm still hopeful that the academic landscape will be different in 5-6 years.

Also, ironically enough, I'm applying to PhD programs to get out of the adjunct game. I am going onto my third year as an adjunct, and I'm already over the low pay, lack of benefits, and job instability. Jeez, I just applied for a temporary full-time English instructor position at a local community college, for which I am incredibly qualified, and I didn't even get an interview. Also, as an adjunct, I am given no resources for my own research, so a PhD program will give me an opportunity to pursue research and writing while mastering my teaching practice. Will I be leaving one adjunct chase for another? Sigh, I'm not sure, but I'm still going for it-- and going for it full throttle. Am I crazy? Probably. It seems like a little bit of crazy is necessary to survive the application process alone, let alone the classwork, dissertation, and job search. So I say, let's all hold hands, take the leap, and see where we land (while also bugging our lawmakers and administrators to direct more funding towards higher education, of course).

[NowMoreSerious]

I thought I'd share this colorful infographic about the current job market for PhD's. I'm not sharing it to be a downer, but as a conversation starter. I know all of this information, and yet, I am still applying. I'm still hopeful that the academic landscape will be different in 5-6 years.

Also, ironically enough, I'm applying to PhD programs to get out of the adjunct game. I am going onto my third year as an adjunct, and I'm already over the low pay, lack of benefits, and job instability. Jeez, I just applied for a temporary full-time English instructor position at a local community college, for which I am incredibly qualified, and I didn't even get an interview. Also, as an adjunct, I am given no resources for my own research, so a PhD program will give me an opportunity to pursue research and writing while mastering my teaching practice. Will I be leaving one adjunct chase for another? Sigh, I'm not sure, but I'm still going for it-- and going for it full throttle. Am I crazy? Probably. It seems like a little bit of crazy is necessary to survive the application process alone, let alone the classwork, dissertation, and job search. So I say, let's all hold hands, take the leap, and see where we land (while also bugging our lawmakers and administrators to direct more funding towards higher education, of course).

Trying to weed a few of us out, eh? Nice play.

I'm kidding, but to answer your question, yes, and yes.

[TakeruK]

I am also hopeful that the academic landscape will be different in 5-6 years, but I'm also hopeful that the economy in general will be better so that more non-academic opportunities are available. But I believe that even if these things improve, there will always be more PhDs than jobs that need PhDs. Things might not be as bad as they are now, but they are never going to be good. Maybe I'm just pessimistic!

For me, the numbers say that roughly, you have to be in the top 16% of graduates and be willing to relocate anywhere to get a professor-like job. This is going to be pretty hard! When I applied for PhD programs, I only applied to programs that I felt could help me get a professorship job (i.e. both big brand name and good research match). I didn't want to apply to schools just so I could go to school since I'm not going to school just for the sake of going to school. Hope that made sense? I decided to let the application process "weed me out" -- if I didn't make it into a top school, then I wouldn't bother getting a PhD -- time to change career paths! Luckily for me, I managed to get into a good program, so my "dream job" is still a slight possibility.

I guess I am still a little idealistic that I'm hoping a PhD will earn me a good job doing something I like. But I'm not idealistic in the sense that I'm entering academia for the sake of research. In some sense, I'm doing it for the money. I'm not doing it to make a ton of money, but the goal of my education is to get a career that will feed my (future) family and allow me to not hate my job.

Although I do love my work, it's not the main reason why I am doing this. So, when I was considering grad school offers, I made my decision with equal weighting to quality of life/location as I did for research match. I didn't want to be even more poor (and thus delaying my life further) or be miserable in a city I don't like for 4-6 years for only a "chance" at the dream job.

Now that I'm in a PhD program, my next "weeding" step, assuming that I complete my PhD, is the post-doc applications. We (my partner and I) are only going to consider post-docs that both pay well and are in places we want to live. Probably means I have to compete for a fellowship to satisfy both of these criteria. If I can't get any post-docs that we both want, then it's probably a good time to quit academia/research and look for a job with the PhD. If I have to quit during my PhD, at least I have a Canadian MSc that can get me some work, hopefully (but that might be the idealism talking again).

I guess what I am saying is that my partner and I know that the "dream job" is a really long shot! So, to minimize risk, we are setting ourselves up to have "outs" along the way. Also, since the whole academia route means not really settling down for potentially 7-10 more years and usually requires a lot of sacrifices, we have decided there are some things we will never compromise on (e.g. a timeline on having children). So, if my pursuit of a PhD and an academic job ends up being no fun/not worth it, or forces us to compromise on our minimums, then I'm ready to quit and follow whatever backup plan makes the most sense.

So yes, it's crazy, and our plans are still a little idealistic, but I think having a way out makes us feel better about making the leap! I feel like the "dream job" is such a high goal that I'm happy that I even made it this far, and that I'm ready to leave the dream with no big regrets if it becomes necessary. I think the most idealistic part is our thinking that my current education is still enough to get a decent job. But maybe I'm already too crazy to realise the other crazy and idealistic aspects of our plan!!

[alleviate]

Like TakeruK, I have planned to have a "way out" - I did my MLIS (librarianship) degree so that I can do library work if humanities teaching jobs are hard to come by.

[ProfLorax]

Trying to weed a few of us out, eh? Nice play.

I'm kidding, but to answer your question, yes, and yes.

Ha! Your response made me snort. I wish I were such an evil genius, but alas, I am not! Plus, I think I may be the sole applicant for Rhet/Comp PhD programs starting Fall 2013 on these boards.

I am also hopeful that the academic landscape will be different in 5-6 years, but I'm also hopeful that the economy in general will be better so that more non-academic opportunities are available. But I believe that even if these things improve, there will always be more PhDs than jobs that need PhDs. Things might not be as bad as they are now, but they are never going to be good. Maybe I'm just pessimistic!

TakeruK, I really appreciated your honesty with your response! Like you, I have a long-term partner (we just got married a few weeks ago!), so I also have other people to think about in this process. It sounds like you have an optimistic, but also very pragmatic, approach to the academic insanity, so kudos and good luck to you!

[Two Espressos]

Trying to weed a few of us out, eh? Nice play.

Haha!

Plus, I think I may be the sole applicant for Rhet/Comp PhD programs starting Fall 2013 on these boards.

Remember also that comp/rhet Ph.D.'s have a much better job market than the literature people do, although we don't like talking about that.

But to address the overall concern of this thread: no, the job market probably isn't going to get much better, if at all, and will likely just get worse. Personally, I think the bottom 50% or so of Ph.D. programs would need to disappear before we could even begin to address the overabundance-of-Ph.D.-holders problem.

Edited August 21, 2012 by Two Espressos

[1Q84]

There's always overseas, guys... .that's my backup plan. They literally throw money at you until you tell them to stop in Hong Kong and Japan.

[Historiogaffe]

We're pretty crazy. BUT I found this quite odd (olol our souls are too crushed for optimism) career forecast on the Canadian government's career stats page for professors:

"Outlook

Job prospects in this occupation are good.

(Update: January 2011)

After dropping slightly over most of the last decade, the number of university professors has increased slightly. These movements can be explained by changes in government spending, the number of university-age young people, the school attendance rate of young people aged 20 to 29 and the highly skilled labour supply. Given the expected changes in these factors, the number of university professors is forecasted to rise significantly over the next few years."

So, uh... What? This is, of course, for professors across disciplines, but (as the infographic proflorax provided shows) the crisis is all o'er the place, if more so in the humanities. Hopefully these changes (???), if they're real, hop on across the border and the pond.

[Lycidas]

Not to drag politics into things, or to point to any one politician in particular, but I feel that the way the US political scene shakes out over the next few years will have a big impact on professorships, especially for people in the humanities. There is a growing movement that says something along the lines of "if your degree won't make you a lot of money, don't get it." Proposals such as only offering federal financial aid to students with "marketable" degrees could really threaten humanities departments at public schools. Not to mention proposals to do things like shut down the National Endowment for the Humanities entirely. That would be a blow to private and public humanities departments alike.

[Two Espressos]

Not to drag politics into things, or to point to any one politician in particular, but I feel that the way the US political scene shakes out over the next few years will have a big impact on professorships, especially for people in the humanities. There is a growing movement that says something along the lines of "if your degree won't make you a lot of money, don't get it." Proposals such as only offering federal financial aid to students with "marketable" degrees could really threaten humanities departments at public schools. Not to mention proposals to do things like shut down the National Endowment for the Humanities entirely. That would be a blow to private and public humanities departments alike.

I agree completely, of course, which is why this year's election is so critical! By the way, I wouldn't worry too much about politicizing things: literature departments aren't exactly the most politically diverse segments of academe, and I imagine that most everyone on here holds contempt for a certain well-known politician who has advocated the elimination of the NEH...

[ProfLorax]

Not to drag politics into things, or to point to any one politician in particular, but I feel that the way the US political scene shakes out over the next few years will have a big impact on professorships, especially for people in the humanities. There is a growing movement that says something along the lines of "if your degree won't make you a lot of money, don't get it." Proposals such as only offering federal financial aid to students with "marketable" degrees could really threaten humanities departments at public schools. Not to mention proposals to do things like shut down the National Endowment for the Humanities entirely. That would be a blow to private and public humanities departments alike.

Please drag politics into this! The crisis of higher education is deeply political. How we spend money as a nation reflects our values, and higher education and the humanities specifically are being quickly tossed aside as bourgeois frivolities rather than social necessities. And as the infographic illustrates, this is about so much more than our employment prospects; adjunctification and decreased education spending affects students. Unfortunately, no one, at any level in education, is able to just teach anymore; now, we must also be lobbyists and advocates, each year desperately proving the worth of our programs and positions in the face of budget cuts.

[Two Espressos]

Please drag politics into this! The crisis of higher education is deeply political. How we spend money as a nation reflects our values, and higher education and the humanities specifically are being quickly tossed aside as bourgeois frivolities rather than social necessities. And as the infographic illustrates, this is about so much more than our employment prospects; adjunctification and decreased education spending affects students. Unfortunately, no one, at any level in education, is able to just teach anymore; now, we must also be lobbyists and advocates, each year desperately proving the worth of our programs and positions in the face of budget cuts.

Exactly.