Job Prospects for Sociology PhDs Compared to other Social Sciences?

[Pennywise]

I recently talked with a Sociology professor at a state research university in a major city, and he told me that in the past year there were two tenure-track job openings in his department, for which they received hundreds of applications from people so insanely qualified that he felt "humbled to be sitting in judgment of them. And I've been in the game for quite a while." This was his way of explaining how desperately bad the job market is for new sociologists in major cities, where there is unbelievable competition.

 

Because of my husband's career, I would have to work in a major city, so I'm starting to get really worried. This professor suggested I focus more on quant, since I have the raw ability to do that, and many sociologists do not (any feedback on this advice?). He also thought that being more of a generalist could help, or shifting to a different social science.

 

Any big-picture feedback on urban job prospects for Sociology PhDs compared to, say, Criminology or Geography or Public Health or Public Policy PhDs? I am new to all this and still trying to get my head around how employable I would really be in four or five years. I'm coming from a humanities background to the social sciences because I thought the social science job prospects wouldn't be as bleak. My emerging understanding is that that's true for Economics, but maybe not the other Social Sciences. Any recommendations for articles or books to read about this? Thanks in advance!  

Edited February 25, 2014 by grrlfriend

[Darth.Vegan]

The ASA has exact data on this. From the last stats I saw, of all the social sciences, sociology had the best job prospects save for maybe economics. I don't have the link, maybe someone else here will. Job placement is rough for sure, but it's not that bleak. If you insist on getting a job at an R1 in a major urban city, your outcome may be bleak. If all you're looking for is a tenure track job, the outcomes are better if you go to a good program with a good history of job placement. Myself, I only hope for a tenure track job in either North America or Australia, I am not pickier than that. 

[Pennywise]

Thanks for the feedback, darth. I was really scared by the idea of being one of 200 applicants for a job at an R3 (with my competition being from Princeton and Berkeley with 5000 first-author pubs, etc.). I am certainly open to tenure-track jobs at non-R1s, but the location is the non-negotiable part for me.

 

I am going to try to find the ASA data you mentioned, thanks. I do have research interests that I am passionate about, but I'm pragmatic enough to take job prospects seriously, too. It's not too late for me to shift to another field, so I need to really do my research on those numbers...

 

I also need to do more research about the job prospects outside of academia. Maybe the competition at think tanks, etc. wouldn't be quite as stiff.

Edited February 25, 2014 by grrlfriend

[Darth.Vegan]

Thanks for the feedback, darth. I was really scared by the idea of being one of 200 applicants for a job at an R3 (with my competition being from Princeton and Berkeley with 5000 first-author pubs, etc.). I am certainly open to tenure-track jobs at non-R1s, but the location is the non-negotiable part for me.

 

I am going to try to find the ASA data you mentioned, thanks. I do have research interests that I am passionate about, but I'm pragmatic enough to take job prospects seriously, too. It's not too late for me to shift to another field, so I need to really do my research on those numbers...

 

I also need to do more research about the job prospects outside of academia. Maybe the competition at think tanks, etc. wouldn't be quite as stiff.

 

 

I would suggest looking at job placement of the programs you are applying to. If they don't offer this information on their website, ask for it. Irvine is one of the few programs that offers placement information for ALL of the students that complete their PhD's. A lot of the time, even when programs do have placement info on their website, they only show the successful placements. 

If you look at this page you'll see that for 2013 graduates, 5/6 got tenure track jobs

 

2012: 4/12 got tenure track jobs, 2/12 got post-docs, 3/12 took adjunct positions (2 of which were in California), and the other 3 got full time jobs in some sort of academic capacity. 

2011: 7/8 got tenure track jobs, 1 got a post-doc

The feeling in the department is that the placement is quite strong, particularly relative to the ranking and the amount of time that the program has existed (only been graduating PhD's for 10 years). There is also a general sense that students that are willing to be flexible in location, will typically find tenure track jobs. Many of the adjuncts are people who did not want to leave California for whatever reason. 

Anyway, job placement is an important consideration and was one of the main reasons I chose Irvine over other programs I was accepted to. 

http://www.sociology.uci.edu/soc_grad_placement

 

Edited February 25, 2014 by xdarthveganx

[Darth.Vegan]

Hey y'all, 

I did some digging and found that link with the stats I was talking about: 

http://www.asanet.org/documents/research/pdfs/2011_2012_ASA_Job_Bank_Survey_Brief.pdf