Let's get ahead of ourselves!

[melusine]

Just another little thread to pass the time..

Regardless how far down the line it might be, I'm sure we've all more or less considered and taken into account our professional futures when applying to our respective grad programs/schools.

So my question would be: what do you picture yourself doing with your degree?

Edited January 10, 2010 by melusine

[coyabean]

OOOOhhh fun. I love imagining even if I'm now learning how woefully bad humans are at doing it.

I really think I will like teaching. I've done corporate training and it is still my favorite job, and I've had lots. So my ideal is probably like most people's: a small, quaint, progressive, well-funded, diverse liberal arts school* -- maybe even an all-girls school! -- where I have an office full of blond wood, books and natural light. I teach wonderfully engaged students and when I get tired of that I take a semester for "deep hanging out" so that I can work on my next revolutionary book.

More realistically I can imagine being happy in a some kind of public intellectual role, too. Maybe working for a university-based social science research lab with a strong outreach initiative? Maybe as some kind of liason to the public?

If all else fails I'll go the dark side: administration or government work.

*I am fully aware such a thing does not exist. Do not burst my bubble, please.

[Pamphilia]

So my ideal is probably like most people's: a small, quaint, progressive, well-funded, diverse liberal arts school* -- maybe even an all-girls school! -- where I have an office full of blond wood, books and natural light. I teach wonderfully engaged students and when I get tired of that I take a semester for "deep hanging out" so that I can work on my next revolutionary book.

Gosh, wouldn't that just be the tops? Your vision is so evocative!

I teach at an academic center now, and I do loooove teaching. I teach a large range of ages, from 4 to 32, but my favorites are the older high school and college-age students (little kids are cute but boring!). I'd love to teach at the university level.

But then again, what else does an English PhD do? She teaches at the high/prep school or college level...or works at Starbucks.

[melusine]

yay! thanks for answering, you guys!

coyabean- that's funny, I also have an eerily clear vision of what my office should look like! I've actually known since my first day of undergrad when I walked (by mistake) into the Comp Lit graduate administrator's office at my first university. I saw the big wooden desk, the clean white walls, the friendly yet demure green plants, the even friendlier stacks of books with familiar titles, heard tchaikovski's Seasons playing faintly from a smooth silver laptop, and saw the big airy window with its thin gauzy drapes barely veiling the sky and pine trees beyond. *sigh*

that's when I knew I'd come home!

my second epiphany came this summer when I took a class for visiting-superstar-scholar in my field who proved to me that my longtime dream of working and living both in Europe (home) and the US (where the "money" is) is indeed possible: she teaches from september to april in the Sorbonne and may to august in NYU.

and thus, the dream lives on!

Edited January 10, 2010 by melusine

[JustChill]

I'm more looking forward to doing research and writing articles/books as opposed to teaching.

[coyabean]

@melusine:

Are you kidding me? I'm pretty much exchanging my life for an office! LOL I'm so not ashamed of it, either.

One of my mentors has an office that would make you sign up for an online PhD in ESP if it guaranteed one like it. It's a corner space in the second level of a modern theater conservatory. It's large enough for a desk, bookshelves AND a table and chairs for guests. And the windows curve around and are almost floor to ceiling. And she always has tea and just the book you need. It's like...like...nerd girl porn. I love it so.

[JennyFieldsOriginal]

I want my life to be my work. I want tenure at an serious research institution I want to crank out books published by fancy presses. I want to run around to conferences. I want to be an inspiring teacher. I want to have fulfilling social/professional relationships with brilliant, awesome people who always have something interesting to say. Basically, I want a great "life of the mind", as the saying goes.

At least right now that's what I want. I've always been obsessive about academics and I have a hard time imagining anything else.

Of course, I know this is just a fantasy. I'd feel incredibly fortunate just to be able to get my PhD, and spend these next years of my life as a student. I've got the professional dreams as well, but for now they're overblown and grandiose. It's fun to imagine though.

Edited January 10, 2010 by JennyFieldsOriginal

[digits2006]

I want to teach college! While teaching I want to continue doing research. After making a name for myself, I hope to try and become a Trial Consultant. Also, you never know when a law degree might pop up!

[Sparky]

ANYTHING on the planet besides teach middle/high school.

I would rather scrub out Johnny-on-the-Spots than force myself to deal with teenage social drama w/o hurting someone.

Seriously, though, I would like to teach at a lower-ranked university or CC in a fairly major city--defined as, one important enough that its main airport has DIRECT flights to most other cities in the U.S.

[Sanssouci]

I'd love to work in academia.. until recently I've thought of a professional career, but the more I think of it, academia is the way to go. Maybe tenured professor at a school with a good reputation in or near a fairly major city in the US... or if I REALLY follow my dreams.. the Sorbonne!

[johndiligent]

Ideally, I'd like to teach at a medium-sized Canadian comprehensive university, with a small to medium Religious Studies department (maybe 5 or 6 people in the department), larger courses with students from across a wide-range of disciplines on general interest topics in the history of western religions. In the summer, I'd like to colloborate with Classics and/or Archaeology to do a field school on an early Christian site that we return to year after year, doing a little more work each time.

That's the ideal, of course, and I'm in Humanities, so odds of anything even resembling that ever happening are bad. My back up plans are plenty.

[Caligula]

I want nothing more than to be a tenured professor at Wellesley. I want to have a bright, naturally-lit office full of books. And when I'm not in my office, I want to be in the library, completely disconnected from reality

[jacib]

ANYTHING on the planet besides teach middle/high school.

I would rather scrub out Johnny-on-the-Spots than force myself to deal with teenage social drama w/o hurting someone.

Dude, tell me about teenage social drama! I think I offended my favorite student last week. I mean it's cool now, but I felt really really guilty.

I'd like an office where people could visit and be unnecessarily nervous before entering (like I was outside all my favorite professors' offices). And I'd like this office to be floor-to-ceiling filled with neatly organized books.

[a fragrant plant]

I hope to teach and conduct research at a university. I'd die for a tenured professor position but if I can't reach the star I would be happy to teach at a good community college. In my lifetime I hope to publish a few books that will be read beyond the academia.

If 7 or 8 years later I find that academia is just not for me, I hope to work for the UN (world health organisation). I am also very open about job positions outside America.

Edited January 11, 2010 by peanuttheanthro

[a fragrant plant]

Seriously, though, I would like to teach at a lower-ranked university or CC in a fairly major city--defined as, one important enough that its main airport has DIRECT flights to most other cities in the U.S.

I hear you. I don't want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere.

[tinuvielf]

@melusine:

Are you kidding me? I'm pretty much exchanging my life for an office! LOL I'm so not ashamed of it, either.

One of my mentors has an office that would make you sign up for an online PhD in ESP if it guaranteed one like it. It's a corner space in the second level of a modern theater conservatory. It's large enough for a desk, bookshelves AND a table and chairs for guests. And the windows curve around and are almost floor to ceiling. And she always has tea and just the book you need. It's like...like...nerd girl porn. I love it so.

Hahaha... One of my UG professors had an office that sounds a lot like that. It was the most envied office of the department. He wasn't the dept. head, but he was sort of the grandfather of the department, so was allowed to have the best office. It was amazing. And his office television seemed to be always on.

He was also very gothic. A Romantic genius. At his house in the livingroom (where the English Club often met) he had a throne...

Edited January 11, 2010 by tinuvielf

[melusine]

lol @ tinuvielf! Thanks- now I won't be able to picture my "happy place" office without a throne!

@ Sanssouci - do you have a specific Sorbonne in mind? I started my undergrad at Paris III and it was the most unpleasant, chaotic, disorganized environment I've ever had to study in. That's actually part of the reason I left France (where I grew up) to study in Canada. Not a lot of people outside France seem to be aware of the fact that behind its prestigious-sounding name, the Sorbonne is in fact a public university which accepts pretty much any loser who managed to pass their BAC (equivalent of the SATs). Big auditorium classes are a mess of people talking, throwing stuff at each other, fighting, disrescpecting each other and the profs, and it's often so noisy you can't even take notes.

Sorry if I went a bit on a rant here, but years of having to justify my choices ("omg!! you left PARIS and the SORBONNE to study HERE??? why????") will do that to ya!

[LateAntique]

I've wanted to teach at a university since my first day of undergraduate education. Ideally, I'd like to hold a dual appointment in Classics and Religion at a big state university (I've gotta get my ideas out to as many people as possible!). I also hope to write books that help continue a dialogue already in progress between New Testament studies, Early Christian studies, and Classics.

[alexis]

I have a few different futures I see for myself depending on how things go. If I get into certain programs, it's more likely I (may) get a teaching position at a decent R1 university and go that route someday. Or maybe I'll end up at the program (still a respectable one) where I'm currently getting my master's at and teach there, or go somewhere similar. I really like teaching to working adults: I don't feel like there are enough top programs in my field that caters to those and offer them research opportunities. I'd like to keep doing research, and I love to write, so it would be great to publish a book someday, whether in my field or even just an indulgent work of fiction. I'm also open to doing consulting work, since there are many opportunities for that as well. Honestly, there are quite a few things I'd be happy doing, which is kind of a nice feeling. I just need to get that PhD first!

[NEPA]

I envision myself having a primarily teaching load as a professor. Not that I don't love research (getting a PhD would be pretty silly, and painful, if I didn't!), but if I could work at a medium-sized university like the one where I've done my undergrad, where research is expected but there's a bit more emphasis on teaching, I'd be happy as a clam. I'm also open to State Department or intelligence analyst work for at least a few years out of grad school.

Edited January 13, 2010 by rwfan88

[Pamphilia]

I envision myself having a primarily teaching load as a professor. Not that I don't love research (getting a PhD would be pretty silly, and painful, if I didn't!), but if I could work at a medium-sized university like the one where I've done my undergrad, where research is expected but there's a bit more emphasis on teaching, I'd be happy as a clam.

That's precisely how I feel, and I also know that those feelings are shaped from my undergrad experience. It was a good one!

[kismetcapitan]

this may sound odd, but I'll come back to doing exactly what I'm doing now - running my alternative school. Basically, I want to improve and refine my teaching methodologies, and although I'm doing just fine right now without a grad degree, will I be able to evolve and grow in the next ten years without further education?

Plus, I want to establish relationships with people in educational research, and get more involved with that. There are several studies I've dreamed up that I'd like to do, find some answers.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

I'm swaying back and forth between academia and government. I like the aspect of conducting my own research in academia, but a job in the EPA etc. might be more pertinent to my community (and pay a helluva lot more!)

My mind's open at this point.

[jmb04]

I want students to quiver with fear at the thought of my presence, and exclaim, "Read the (insert my last name here), or you'll never pass this class!"

*snicker snicker*

But on a more personal level, I want to teach and in some way have a lasting, relevant, life-altering effect on my students the way professors, classes and books had on me when I was an impressionable young undergrad.

I want to read and write into the wee hours of the night, sleep for 3 or 4 hours, frantically put together a lecture, run to class and deliver it effortlessly, then spend the rest of the day intimidating students during office hours or lounging around in a cafe with fellow academics.

[katalytik]

I want to be an academic physician: teach, research, publish, and patient care

Or the government or non-profit: Health and Human Services, or World Health Organization