What's the dream?

[doubledogd]

This may be kind of a goofy question, but I crave some whimsy as I begin the process of hurrying up and waiting for admissions results.

I've been thinking about the "future career goals" part of my SOP and wondering at its lack of sharp detail. Without knowing where I will get in, if anywhere, any five- or ten-year plan seems so hazy. I thought I'd turn to this forum (especially since it has been a bit quiet recently) and ask: what is the career dream? Is there a specific idea you have of where you'd like to end up and what you'd like to be doing? If you had to describe a day in your future ideal life, what would it look like?

[silenus_thescribe]

My dream is fairly vanilla, but it is what it is: a tenure-track job at a good school with a perfect teaching/research balance. I know that's a lot to ask for at the moment, given the job market, but simple as it is, it sounds delightful.

[1Q84]

^{Quiet, you fool... she'll hear you!}

[haltheincandescent]

1 hour ago, silenus_thescribe said:

My dream is fairly vanilla, but it is what it is: a tenure-track job at a good school with a perfect teaching/research balance. I know that's a lot to ask for at the moment, given the job market, but simple as it is, it sounds delightful.

Pretty much the same.

Not exactly sure how I'll work it in, but I'd also like to continue to be involved in academic publishing (where I am now), and not just as, obviously, an author, or even the usual prof position of series editor or reviewer, but do something to really work to bring publishers and the scholarly communities they work with & for together. Because man is there a huge disconnect between cultures sometimes, and I hate it. (Also my research deals with the history of publishing practices--albeit mostly involving fiction, but, still. There's a pretty direct connection between this work and my research--bring the latter theorizing into some sort of practice.)

[EmmaJava]

This is a great idea for a thread!

I want what you want. Plus to write creatively and be a sort of ivory tower novelist and poet, sequestered snugly between workshops and seminars. And I want to become famous doing all of this. Wait what?  Well are we dreaming or aren't we?

[AppliedScience]

Hypothesis: Even in a "dream" scenario, there will be no indication of wanting to benefit people who did not have the same opportunities.
Theory: There is no correlation between intellect and morality.

[EmmaJava]

23 minutes ago, AppliedScience said:

Hypothesis: Even in a "dream" scenario, there will be no indication of wanting to benefit people who did not have the same opportunities.
Theory: There is no correlation between intellect and morality.

Well no, I wouldn't think there'd be a correlation between intellect and morality. Why would there be? That said, I believe that the philosophical parlance, here, is "necessary, but not sufficient" - as in, it would have been necessary for us (me) to have stated my selfish fantasies but not sufficient for those fantasies to preclude something...I don't know...more altruistic?  But I don't really have a fight here because I actually agree with your theory (in its most literal sense) and I have no stake in defending any kind of idealism. Like, none. Like, I may very well be the amoral and/or immoral person that you're suggesting, and would readily concede that. So..if your intentions are hostile, you've unwittingly found friendliness; if they're not, then your scientific moniker suits you. Lastly, "same opportunities" is leaving yourself rather wide open on a number of fronts. 

(Sorry for feeding a troll, I know I'm not supposed to do that but this one is a sort of cute fuzzy troll and I wanted to pet it)

[doubledogd]

1 hour ago, AppliedScience said:

Hypothesis: Even in a "dream" scenario, there will be no indication of wanting to benefit people who did not have the same opportunities.
Theory: There is no correlation between intellect and morality.

I don't think a lack of indication necessarily implies a lack of desire or determination to help others, but I suppose this is a good reminder to indicate those things. 

[haltheincandescent]

5 hours ago, AppliedScience said:

Hypothesis: Even in a "dream" scenario, there will be no indication of wanting to benefit people who did not have the same opportunities.
Theory: There is no correlation between intellect and morality.

Let us also remember that the first response, the one with which we've all concurred, pointed out dream for a balance of everything with teaching--this is the area in which my profs/teachers have had the most impact on me and many of my friends/peers, as students that ourselves started out without certain common opportunities, and this is the area (one of several) in which I hope to benefit others by working to give students like myself the opportunities I missed. I have a longstanding fascination with pedagogical theory, and I intend to keep it up.

Further, I could have, yes, indicated how my publishing plans above intend ultimately to improve accessibility to scholarly work, both in terms of $ and in terms of having, alongside more traditional and technical monographs, well-researched but popularly written works that could help give more readers access to contemporary research and it's impact (both in humanities and sciences; I find the latter to be far more incomprehensible when wrapped in technical monographic garb, but, hey, I'm not an expert in that, so maybe this desire for at least a portion of academic books to be more popularly-accessible is, in fact, partly selfish in that I personally want a better understanding of topics that I haven't fully put in the time to study from the ground up)

So, I want to benefit people through education--in my mind all of these things were implied in "teaching" and "improving academic publishing," and, yes, I could have spelled it out, but I was writing a brief dream, not a full 10 year proposal.

[Dr. Old Bill]

While I would love a TT job, my dream is just to teach college period. Part of that dream is coming true next year, as I am lined up to teach 101, but I'm quite sure that I'll be perfectly happy teaching undergraduate English courses -- preferably some literature, and REALLY preferably some Shakespeare or Renaissance surveys -- so long as I have a consistent appointment (which does not, contrary to popular opinion, need to be a TT position). 

If I have to get an alt-ac career due to an increasingly abysmal job market, I will at least be somewhat content adjuncting a course or two per semester. The big takeaway is that while I love research and love writing, my main interest is (and has always been, from day one of my academic endeavors) in teaching at college level.

[ProfLorax]

My dream is fairly specific and not realistic, ha! I would love to teach community college students at an institution with course offerings, funding, and support for research similar to an R1. And on the West Coast. And TT. I think the closest is a Cal State or a UC. I'd also be happy in a TT WPA-type role. 

Basically, I want to teach first-generation college students and also have support to research and write and raise our daughter on the West Coast. I WANT ALL THE THINGS!

[ProfLorax]

Plan B: I'd love to be a florist and own my own floral shop. Not even joking. 

[kurayamino]

54 minutes ago, ProfLorax said:

Plan B: I'd love to be a florist and own my own floral shop. Not even joking. 

I was a florist for a couple of years! I've always thought I'd like to return to it if the whole academic thing doesn't turn out. This time of year was always crazy, but it was a good crazy.

 

As for my dream, well.. I'm kind of living it. I've wanted a PhD since I was a little kid and realized you could get a higher education and not be in medicine. For me, the journey is the reward and all that.

If I telescope out from that, honestly, I just want a job where I make more than $20k a year, which is what I made for the last 8 years as a working stiff. I would love to teach and become a professor and (to respond to the troll---teaching is service which is paying back to the community and paying it forward) get my ideas out into the world. But I'd probably be just as happy if I could one day own a home, even if I had to work a corporate job to do so.
 

 

 

 

 

[AppliedScience]

10 hours ago, doubledogderrida said:

I don't think a lack of indication necessarily implies a lack of desire or determination to help others, but I suppose this is a good reminder to indicate those things. 

When I saw the thread title, I thought I might encounter some some really positive/helpful scenarios. Notice that the slightest criticism inferred from my post resulted in condemnation (name calling) by the privileged, self-centered element.

I probably am in the wrong place to expect more. In real life: In Public Health, graduate students (who do not expect to make much money) express their goals of helping the less fortunate on an almost daily basis.

 

[EmmaJava]

5 minutes ago, AppliedScience said:

When I saw the thread title, I thought I might encounter some some really positive/helpful scenarios. Notice that the slightest criticism inferred from my post resulted in condemnation (name calling) by the privileged, self-centered element.

I probably am in the wrong place to expect more. In real life: In Public Health, graduate students (who do not expect to make much money) express their goals of helping the less fortunate on an almost daily basis.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone besides me called you a name, if identifying the troll is name-calling (and I think you're positively adorable). I'm quite familiar with the self-righteousness of the medical and health-related communities. Yet the name-caller is also the one who openly agreed with you, and everyone else seems extremely tactful and polite going about their business. They raise good points, too. And let's be real, this wasn't "the slightest criticism inferred." This was judgment from the self-righteous, otherwise known - yes - as trolling on the interwebs. None too articulate, at that. I mean, you could have just asked nicely and gotten a really productive conversation going in the direction that you (no, not the OP, but you!) so humbly and selflessly desired.

But so what I'm hearing you say is that there's more to life than being really really ridiculously good-looking?!?! CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE?

[ProfLorax]

As the season goes on and the stress increases, I've noticed that the relatively calm, mild posters sometimes end up amplifying potential drama by jumping and piling on quick critiques and slings by newcomers or outsiders. How about we ignore the derail (AppliedScience isn't even in our field) and stick with the topic? 

[jrockford27]

Tenure, health insurance, and about $50,000 a year and I'm set.

A mentor of mine who worked at a community college once told me that he didn't know anyone with a PhD who didn't get tenure as long as they were willing to go where the job was.  That might mean Calgary or Topeka or Fargo, but I don't care as long as I have the above.  Most of us wont be upper middle class and living in a cosmopolitan metropolis.

[doubledogd]

Right now I'm adjuncting at a CC teaching comp courses. While I'd like to eventually also teach lit courses and need to have a little more job security, I'm positive that I could very happily do that at any kind of higher ed institution.

The dream, though, is probably a SLAC (due to nostalgia from my own undergrad, a focus on teaching smaller class sizes, a general liberal community feel). 

[EmmaJava]

6 minutes ago, ProfLorax said:

As the season goes on and the stress increases, I've noticed that the relatively calm, mild posters sometimes end up amplifying potential drama by jumping and piling on quick critiques and slings by newcomers or outsiders. How about we ignore the derail (AppliedScience isn't even in our field) and stick with the topic? 

Alright, my bad. I was worried about that, to be sure. But I think another fair point, which is often made explicit, is to feel a sense of solidarity, as that is indeed one of the positives of the whole experience. I think that categorically chalking certain responses up to stress or the time of the season or whatever is another interesting and somewhat presumptuous move in its own right, but I can't say it's altogether wrong, and I can see how proper etiquette calls for a very regimented attention to the topic at hand, the most effective policing out there. Of course many outsiders endear themselves and become insiders simply by playing nice, but I'll take the point and move on, drama-free for the remainder.

Another aspect of my dream is to tie my research and pedagogy together and to combine each of these with a sort of alt-ac trajectory that involves the development of education abroad programs. The amount of moving parts involved in this throws it into dream status in the hard sense. And I want to do all of this while living in seclusion, either near a beach or high up in the mountains.

 

[ProfLorax]

8 hours ago, kurayamino said:

I was a florist for a couple of years! I've always thought I'd like to return to it if the whole academic thing doesn't turn out. This time of year was always crazy, but it was a good crazy.

Was it amazing?! I love the idea of being paid to surround myself with flowers all day. 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Thinking more about it, my dream of all dreams would be teaching Early Modern courses at my alma mater, which is a fairly prestigious SLAC. I positively adored my mentor there (who is also an Early Modernist), and the thought of working alongside her would be...well...a dream come true.

A side dream would be doing the above, then winning the lottery and buying a giant used bookstore that I can run on the side without having to worry about whether or not it turns a profit.

Oh, and maybe have a music studio in the basement of said bookstore so that I can dust off my prior degree in music production and put it to good use, recording local bands on weekends.

 

Edited December 16, 2015 by Wyatt's Terps

[kurayamino]

1 hour ago, ProfLorax said:

Was it amazing?! I love the idea of being paid to surround myself with flowers all day. 

It really was once I got past the apprentice part. That involved cutting a lot of greens and "greening" center arrangements for Christmas, Easter, Birthdays etc. But out of all the retail positions I've had, that was by far my favorite.

 

1 hour ago, Wyatt's Terps said:

A side dream would be doing the above, then winning the lottery and buying a giant used bookstore that I can run on the side without having to worry about whether or not it turns a profit.

Ooooh used bookstore dream is a good dream. I'd love to have a Black Books store.

[heliogabalus]

My dream is to teach translation theory courses in a leper colony--take that Applied Science!

[unræd]

It's funny. There was a moment at one of my interview weekends last year when one of the current students was driving me and another prospective around. To make conversation, he asked what we would be doing if we weren't headed off to study medieval lit, if we chucked it all and did something wild and crazy. That moment's stuck with me a lot, because I'm a (slightly) older student who went to college to major in Medieval Studies at 28, leaving a perfectly successful career in restaurant work to pursue academia. Which is to say: this is it. This is my chuck it all to do something wild and crazy, work as a florist or own a bookstore or move out to the country and run an orchard.

I'm living my dream, man!

[__________________________]

On 12/16/2015 at 8:16 PM, kurayamino said:

I'd love to have a Black Books store.

A Black Books situation is the most comfortable translation of the sense of responsibility and self worth that I already experience as a graduate student.

Edited December 28, 2015 by mollifiedmolloy