Life of an academic (reflecting on it and is it worth it?)

[anthropologygeek]

You stress out about getting into grad school. Then you stress about the classes. Next up is some form of comprehensive exam at the end of your classes, about 2 years in. Then you stress about your research for your dissertation. After that you stress about writing your dissertation. Then comes the defense. As your writing you better be looking for a job thus added stress. With that comes the interview process stress. Then about the time you finish writing your dissertation a job offer comes through stress. Negotiation brings even more stress. Then a month or so after agreed upon terms it becomes official which brings even more stress. If its a tenure job, how many publications do I need? Where I'm I going to live? How I'm I going to support myself during the gap of moving there and getting my first check which will be a month after you start? I am to the point of waiting to graduate, job is official as of three weeks ago when I signed my contract and I have found a place to live but how can I afford it until the first check comes. I'm graduating shouldn't I not have to worry about being poorer than when I was in grad school for the first month? As you can tell I'm at the end stage. I figure I have three years to publish like a mad person and hopefully score multiple grants. Plus I have to negotiate the department politics which are unknown to me currently. Is all this stress worth it? I calculated I have been in school 23 years of my life. What's life outside of being in school? I'm just reflecting and wondering is it worth it? I hope and believe it is since I love what I do. What's everyone else's thoughts on this matter?

[TakeruK]

I'm not in anthropology but I have the same worries. My plan is that I will only stay in this as long as it is fun and I still think I am doing the right thing. I figure that the long track of an academic career is only worth it if you can get out whenever you find a better opportunity or decide that this path isn't providing the right opportunities any more. For me, this started with selecting PhD programs--my plan was to not even go to a PhD program if I could not get accepted by a program that I really fit well with. Right now, I will be ready to quit my PhD program if I ever felt that it's no longer worth it to do a PhD. At the postdoc stage, I'm not really willing to move my family (it's only 2 now but could be more by this time) all over the world for a bunch of 2 year stints that might not go anywhere--so if I don't get postdocs that will lead anywhere, I would be ready to leave academia. 

 

In short, what gets me through these worries is to take it one step at a time. Doing a PhD doesn't mean I am locking myself in academia for 10 more years (phd+postdocs)--it gives me relief to know that I can leave whenever I need/want to.

[42ed]

I love my field (medical) and I am trying to be very strategic in terms of setting myself for high-demand positions in public/comm. health and policy, along with professorships. Also, I agree with TakeruK, and I will only be doing the things that I feel are rewarding and if that stops, if it goes from "good stress" to too much bad stress - I'm done. Personally, I am loving the journey so far and I don't really have an end-goal per se, but I am privileged in terms of my living and current job situation. I think the worst thing about all of this is that there isn't a lot of flexibility due to a dearth of jobs. You have to always be working towards tenure; you don't have the freedom to take breaks or find another desirable position at the drop of a hat like you can in another position, despite your enviable resume.

[spunky]

What's life outside of being in school? 

 

AWFUL. i tried it for like a 2 yrs and it just made me realize just how much more awesome academia is...

 

... the lack of intellectual stimulation in the average job is so palpable that it makes you want to cry. i ended up selling my business (to my husband)) so i could run away from it all. 

[VioletAyame]

AWFUL. i tried it for like a 2 yrs and it just made me realize just how much more awesome academia is...

... the lack of intellectual stimulation in the average job is so palpable that it makes you want to cry. i ended up selling my business (to my husband)) so i could run away from it all.

I feel you. It took working for about a year for me to realize how much I actually enjoy school and decide to apply. Now that I'm about to start my program, among all the self-doubts and the bleak job market, I have to remind myself how bored and apathetic I was to rekindle my desire to go back to school and be in a line of work where I can constantly learn something new. Edited April 20, 2014 by VioletAyame

[anthropologygeek]

Life outside of school is a tenure job in a university so ill still be in academia

[AKCarlton]

When I registered for this Fall, I was in shock that 3 courses that meet once a week in the evening for a couple hours was considered full-time...then I was reminded I'll be a research assistant and researching for my thesis, however, it still doesn't feel normal to me.

 

Currently, I intern in the archaeology department at a museum in the city I live in, and my mentor mentioned how it took him 5 years to complete his bachelors because he didn't want to take more than three courses a semester. I took five to six courses a semester...I just can't fathom what it will be like only having three still, despite telling myself I'll be busy...

Edited May 24, 2014 by AKCarlton

[maelia8]

I've been out of school for two years working as a teaching assistant at a high school, and although the work is fun (I get to lead discussions, read essays, teach kids new information, etc.), it's got nothing on academia. When you teach at the high school level it feels like the same old stuff every year, and you feel like you're half-assing it for not pushing the kids to the level of analysis of the subject matter that you know as possible (even though you also know that that level of analysis would be way over their heads). Academia just allows you to push the limits of scholarship as well as your own personal limits of achievement and excellence in a way that most other jobs don't, even other jobs in education, and I need that too much to give it up.