Job possibilities outside of academia?

[ArthChauc]

I seem to recall this sort of anger from last year--people get pretty heated around this time. Good luck, guys. Honestly, I do believe that we're all in this crazy Humanities boat together, however fluffy that sounds.

 

I can't even imagine how this could get downvoted. Because I've overused my optimism (ie: upvotes) today, consider this my upvote. 

[Tweedledumb]

I can't even imagine how this could get downvoted. Because I've overused my optimism (ie: upvotes) today, consider this my upvote. 

 

I upvoted it. There was no reason for a downvote.

[danieleWrites]

For the first bunch of week in boot camp, someone would invariably sputter: but my recruiter said....

The RDC (Navy for drill sergeant) would invariably roll his eyes and reply: your recruiter lied.

This was followed by an intense look of betrayal and, usually, a lot of push ups.

We use words like "warn people" and "reality check" and pass judgment about that. Language is populated---overpopulated---with the intentions of others. However, at some point, we must all acknowledge the lies floating around. Society promises that college education = better job. It's simple math. Society promises that we're all individually valuable, and that the word "doctor" comes with respect, and that the costs of college in money, time, and emotional stress are worthwhile.

Everyone's experience is different, but every single one of us believes that we'll be one of the lucky few to get tenure in the field we love, otherwise, we wouldn't be here. We jockey with each other with words like "top tier school" and "prestige" or any number of symbols that we place into complicated formulas to measure probabilities. But when it comes down to things like academic jobs and non-academic jobs, there is one, objective reality. There simply aren't enough professorships and many non-academic employment opportunities open to BAs or MAs are shut because of the PhD. No, it's no one's responsibility to "warn people" about this reality. It's not a public service. It's not fun to see these Donnie Downer posts here, or the articles in Chronicles of Higher Ed. But, these "warnings" are also nuggets of information with which people can add to their personal formulas to make decisions with.

It's also a shared experience. We are all working our way through a decade or so of university education, through a lot of money, blood, sweat, tears, and time to reach for a dream. We are all sitting here, hoping and planning, that this decade doesn't turn into a mistake, and we don't end up as over-educated baristas by day and adjuncts by night. Whether these "warning" posts have a point seems less important than having shared a problem that, for most of us, the people that support us don't really feel. Perhaps we might even find some solutions that don't require legislative action (like that will happen; they can't even make a budget). Yes, I'm an optimist and all of my clouds are full of silver linings and when my parade is rained on, we all do a Buzby Berkeleyesque rendition of Singin in the Rain.

[ArthChauc]

Yeah. This is definitely trolling.