Discussion thread on placement

[jazzrap]

Department placement figures are obviously very very important and useful, but they are still a proxy to get at the job market success of an X person with similar attributes to future you. That is what we all want to learn, right? This is why we often want to learn about the subfield placements as well as the overall placement records. We naturally think that -say- the IR placement record would be more relevant for us if our subfield is IR. 

 

One way to diminish some of this uncertainty is to check the placement records of your POIs or people with whom you think you are likely to work. Such data is seldom available through departments, so you kind of have to ask the person herself about her students. I want to suggest another way:

 

ProQuest has a dissertations and theses database. I don't know if the database includes all dissertations completed in the US, but I think it is fairly close (if not exhaustive) for the past 10-ish years for most of the top-50 or so institutions. The search engine allows you to search dissertations by adviser. Now this kind of data doesn't go too far back, but I would argue that the most important part is the post-2007 period anyway. Moreover, for the past 5 years or so, many records on dissertations also include committee members (so not just chairs), which is extra useful. Using this tool, you can compile a list of all the students who completed their dissertations under the POI(s) that you want to work with. Then, you can simply google these people, check their CVs and see where they initially placed at. It is not terribly hard to get at, if a bit time consuming.

 

A second step can be that if some of these people who were advised by your POIs have dissertations that are sort of in the same research area as your interests, you can just e-mail these people and ask about their experiences and suggestions. They may not reply or provide useful advice, but then again, maybe they will.

 

I found this to be a useful method, hope it helps you too.

Thanks. Can you post a direct link where I can search by advisers? 

[zudei]

I cannot be certain, but I believe he was referencing this: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/search.html

Also see here: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/pqdt.shtml

 

You can also search by committee member btw. You need to type "commitee=Last name, First name" (capital first letters) after "http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/results.html?"

Edited February 26, 2014 by zudei

[TheGnome]

I think the open access one has limited data. If you are affiliated with a university / living close to a university or a good public library, you can benefit from their institutional subscription to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database (the one in this link - http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/pqdt.shtml). You can just go to your library website and access the database through there. 

[CGMJ]

FWIW, I think the UCSD honest grad numbers haven't been updated recently. Here are the stats updated through this year (although the market isn't quite over): http://polisci.ucsd.edu/grad/placement/Placement%20table%202.27.141.pdf. 

[chiz13]

Just to add on to the point about searching for informations on dissertations and committee members. Some schools might have an internal repository which contains digital copies of the past year dissertations and thesis. I found one such database in Pitt, and it allows search by department, advisor or committee members.

 

Not sure if all schools have such a database or the same search function, but I thought it was worth a try