What's your end game?

[Jack Horner]

It seems like most people here are applying to Ph.D. programs (although it could be that the Masters freak-out cycle doesn't start until March). Assuming that you're accepted into at least one of your programs and emerge a few years later with a graduate degree, what are you hoping to accomplish with your degree? Professorship? Non-university teaching position? Private research? Starbucks barista?

There are so many different people here, applying to so many different programs -- this thread might be interesting.

So, what's your end game? I'll post mine in a few...

[origin415]

Professorship. Nothing else to do with a PhD in pure mathematics.

[pea-jay]

Managerial / administration work in the public sector, hopefully. My master's is for career enhancement and increased pay.

Eventually, I would like to get a PHd and teach urban planning / public policy students, but that would be more than 15 years from now.

Edited February 16, 2010 by pea-jay

[far_to_go]

I'm also hoping for professorship. Working for an organization that would let me do anthropological research full-time, esp one with an activist bent, would also be great. If all else fails, trophy wife.... nah, I'm pretty sure I couldn't pull that one off!

[1f3_2kf2]

I want to be a post doc for about ten years of my life, moving from state to state every two years because postdoc positions are not permanent. Eventually I will stop trying to get a TT position at a top university and start teaching at my local community college where all my "loser" friends from high school attended. Those "loser" friends have already made more money than I ever will in my life.

Oh wait maybe I'm being too realistic.

I WANNA BE A PROFESSOR AT STANFORD!!

[hydrangea]

I expect to be a professor, at a four or two year institution. I also wouldn't mind the idea of developing science teaching programs for K-12 school districts. (PER stands for physics education research.) I currently work in a math tutoring center, and there have been plenty of times that I have been working with someone who is clearly struggling with algebra (but working at it, to their creddit) and I hear them say, "I just need to get past the CBEST." It's a teaching credential test in California. I cringe at the idea of this person giving our youth their first exposure to math and science. Then again, I wouldn't be the best person to be teaching them how to spell. Ideally, I would want our elementary school teachers to be comfortable with math, to see it as a tool and not as a hurtle.

Interestingly enough, in the beginning math was just a thing I did, like using MLA format for a paper or learning the correct spelling of a word. It was little more than a tool, but once I got to calculus it opened up into being a way of thinking. It was years and years of practice before it actually became a rich experience. There must be a way to get some of that experience across at the elementary level. But that's just kind of a pipe dream at the moment.

Edited February 15, 2010 by hydrangea

[socnerd]

Professorships are so few and far between I feel it is a completely unrealistic goal for me. Most people who want to be professors never make it and end up making themselves miserable running around as adjuncts for years. I am more practical and want to get a job doing research for the government or the private sector, wherever I can find something.

[jeanne]

Getting a professorship is definitely one of my possible goals, but I'd think it would be really cool to form my own primary school system. (I'll be in an ed psych program.)

[varekai1018]

I'm going the professional doctorate route in public health, and would love to end up at a health & human rights NGO (more policy focused) or an international/regional organization working on health programming for migrant and/or refugee/IDP populations (ideally in Latin America, though my experience is more in SE Asia and East Africa- so I'm not sure how difficult it would be to transition to a different region...here's hoping).

I'd love to teach a specialized class or two as an adjunct instructor in a school of public health, but I'm not looking to do anything with TT positions.

[juror#1]

I am not sure exactly. Probably being a professor, though I have also considered either conducting research for or becoming a Victim Specialist for the FBI. All need PhDs, and I have a good 5 years to decide for sure .

[noojens]

Goat farmer in Jamaica.

I just want some war wounds before I bow out of the system. Plus, it'll give my cantankerous rants so much more authority when I'm a crotchety old curmudgeon.

Just kidding, sign me up for "professor at Stanford" too.

[American in Beijing]

With a PhD in history, professorships are pretty much the only thing you could possibly do (unless you want to get another degree in archaeology or as a museum curator and work at a museum). However, I'm fortunate enough to be in love with a field that tends to be the exception to the "life of academic poverty" route that many seem prepared to follow. Chinese history is a relatively small field in the U.S., but given China's rising importance also a field that is currently in growing demand (I'm told even in spite of the financial crisis). Do I expect to come straight out of grad school and become a tenured professor at Harvard? No. But I am expecting to be able to find a relatively stable job at a minor university and maybe even work my way up to the "top", !

[hkitsune]

My dream job is actually to move to Europe and work at MPI (Leipzig, probably, but I'm not terribly picky) forever. Great place to research, and that's largely all you have to do. Otherwise, professorship somewhere.

[tarski]

Professor, pretty much the only career a philosophy PhD leads to . Wherever they'll take me. Don't even really have high school as a fallback because it's taught in almost no high schools.

[Jack Horner]

Professor, pretty much the only career a philosophy PhD leads to . Wherever they'll take me. Don't even really have high school as a fallback because it's taught in almost no high schools.

If it comes down to that, you can look into International Baccalaureate World Schools. Philosophy is part of the IB curriculum ("college level"), and schools often have a hard time finding qualified people to teach philosophy. Oh, and they have IB World Schools in countries throughout the world.

Just a thought.

[tarski]

If it comes down to that, you can look into International Baccalaureate World Schools. Philosophy is part of the IB curriculum ("college level"), and schools often have a hard time finding qualified people to teach philosophy. Oh, and they have IB World Schools in countries throughout the world.

Just a thought.

I thought of that, actually. It's a possibility, but not even all IB schools offer philosophy. I did IB, at two different schools through grades 11 and 12, and neither one offered philosophy (or psychology). They also offered the normal local high school programs, and in an effort to combine IB classes with that, they only offered 'traditional' subjects.

I guess there are some out there, though.

[hydrangea]

Goat farmer in Jamaica.

I just want some war wounds before I bow out of the system. Plus, it'll give my cantankerous rants so much more authority when I'm a crotchety old curmudgeon.

Just kidding, sign me up for "professor at Stanford" too.

There's a quota for positive votes??!! That's pretty weak. What's it gonna hurt if I think this is a cool comment? (Maybe they are trying to force me to leave this web page! In that case, thank you all for the lovely weekend. Back to work and being too busy to sit online all day.)

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

Professor, Novelist, and whatever else I can do. I love research, teaching, and writing. I doubt I'd be going for the PhD otherwise! (although I have heard of some English PhDs working in the publishing industry)

[pea-jay]

I currently work in a math tutoring center, and there have been plenty of times that I have been working with someone who is clearly struggling with algebra (but working at it, to their creddit) and I hear them say, "I just need to get past the CBEST." It's a teaching credential test in California. I cringe at the idea of this person giving our youth their first exposure to math and science...There must be a way to get some of that experience across at the elementary level. But that's just kind of a pipe dream at the moment.

Some of my math teachers put the fear of math into me. I'm not inept at the subject but usually never get math concepts the first time or even the second time. With enough explanation and practice I would, but those teachers and even one college prof had moved on to the next subject and left me in the dust.

It would be nice to fix our approach to teaching the subject.

[solairne]

Like everyone else out there I'd like to get a professorship. I have a little bit of a leg up because I'm open to (and sort of want to) moving anywhere in North America or Europe and would be ok working in a francophone university. So that opens a few more doors for me. Honestly, getting in somewhere is my first hurtle. I'll worry about the abysmal job prospects further down the line.

While I would love to be a professor, I'm open to any position that would pay me well enough (reasonably so) and would allow me to do research in my field.

Edited February 16, 2010 by solairne

[jaxzwolf]

I'd like to do field research, hopefully tied to conservation. I would love to work for a big conservation organization-- WCS, WWF, NWF, TWS, WCI, etc., or perhaps a government organization, such as the Smithsonian.

[hl348]

Working for an international organization! ..... very ideal...far from being realistic considering my current, low intellectual capacity and other necessary skills...

[Mercer]

If it comes down to that, you can look into International Baccalaureate World Schools. Philosophy is part of the IB curriculum ("college level"), and schools often have a hard time finding qualified people to teach philosophy. Oh, and they have IB World Schools in countries throughout the world.

Just a thought.

My school was part of the IB program and has philosophy classes. I took one of them and it was one of the more interesting high school classes that I experienced.

P.S. Jack Horner rules. He was one of my heroes when I was a teenager.

[coyabean]

I'm a planner.

Plan A:

Kick academic arse; take the world by storm; prestigious post-doc and a tenured position with a 2x2 load and conference cash. My first book gets picked up in the pop academic market and I start writing more. Take the occasional sabbatical to respond to the many requests of my time and brilliance.

No?

Plan B:

Parlay my quantitative and qualitative research experience into a government or consulting position on issues of education reform and achievement; expense account, autonomy, still a few moderately successful books, some citations on google scholar and I build a tiny home on a cozy lot in a walking community.

No?

Plan C:

Parlay my grant writing experience and PhD status into a non-profit consulting and grant writing. Work mostly from home and abroad.

No?

Plan D:

Parlay above grant writing experience into a series of successful grants to fund my own non-profit for the study, inception and successful management of educational outreach initiatives.

No?

...

Yes, I could keep going. Plans help me sleep at night.

[jmb04]

Oh ye of little ambitions!

Why stop at TT professor of Stanford?

After gaining tenure and publishing non-stop, I want to settle into a cushy chair in my office as the university president!