In this week’s installment, Kaylen Tucker reminds us all that exploring the world of post-academic life can actually be kinda fun:
When green graduate students used to ask me advice about how to get through the Ph.D. program with dignity and sanity intact—you know the conversation that is fraught with tears when people are on the verge—I’d often give them a pep talk that ended with them needing to put this grad school thing in perspective. I have found that graduate students in general need to loosen up a bit. In their Herculean efforts to succeed they—more than other categories of post graduates—have a hard time letting go.
Law students notoriously party hard. Grad students—not so much. Except for those MFA candidates; they were always starting out at a “workshop” and ending up at the bar. Or workshopping in a bar. English grad students, on the other hand, group up to go to department pot lucks or to book readings. These activities do not count as letting loose and getting a life.
I blame the inability to get a life on the fact that there is no natural break until the Ph.D. is in hand. Every summer break, weekend, holiday, and snow catastrophe feels like another opportunity to catch up on reading or get through those edits. And if you continue down the tenure track, then there’s the next article or book chapter to worry about. One is never off duty. Five o’clock never comes.
But back to my point: Graduate students—in general, and especially those who are plotting their escape from the academy—need to get a life because it not only will help their physical and emotional health, but it will also go a long way toward positioning them for a post-academic career.
Here’s how getting a life helped me: I went out more and was generally more social, which some people call networking. And because I was sometimes bored and often broke, I was always looking for a job. And I didn’t limit myself to assistantships which never seemed to pay enough money for all the hours I was putting in grading, preparing, and conferencing with students. I opened myself up to opportunities that seemed fun and interesting, even if they weren’t the traditional pathways to the tenure track. I also took advantage of the fact that I was subsidized and took entry level positions just for the experience. Here’s a sampling of some of the jobs/experiences I had while I was a graduate student:
- Alumni fundraising
- Museum docent
- Taught summer academic enrichment to middle school students
- Box office manager for a theater company
- Editorial assistant for a science journal
- Programming for an education non profit and for a university department
- Public relations for an entertainment firm
- Spent a month learning Spanish in Barcelona
- A host of freelance writing and research projects
These experiences helped me immensely when I decided that I wanted to join the un-academic work force for reals. So, while I was getting a life, I had time to think about what I liked (editing, writing, research, association work, and supporting the arts) and what I didn’t like (working with young children and calling people asking them for money). If I had stuck with the party line, I would have only acquired a narrow category of research and teaching experience. Which is a good thing to have, but not if you have decided that you do not want to teach.
It’s never too late to start getting a life, and developing interests and skills outside of the academy. The point is to resist being overly measured and plotting every point (as you’ve no doubt been conditioned to do). Instead, take some chances, using wide, messy brush strokes to venture outside of your comfort zone.
Kaylen Tucker, Ph.D., is a communications professional based in Maryland who is working to bridge the gap between academia and the world beyond it.
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