A reader contacted me last week to share the photograph on the right and a reflection on leaving academia. I thought it was a nice day to end of the work week:
I thought I would share with you a photograph I took that captures my leaving-academia sentiment. I took this photograph on campus while I was doing my Master’s there. I like the juxtaposition between the cold, set sidewalk and the friendly dirt path that students have worn in the otherwise manicured lawn. To me it shows that you can create your own path even when the university is bent on you following the path they have laid out for you.
I’m still at the beginning of my PhD, but I do not plan to continue in academia when (if!) I complete it. Like you, I enjoy research, writing, teaching; a friend recently referred me to your site and I am appreciative of it because the PhD, while it has components I enjoy, also tends to beat me into the ground and is primarily my way of biding time while I figure out what else I can do with my life. I know I can and will create my own path; I have come to that realization after a very difficult first year in the PhD. Deciding that I won’t be continuing in academia is actually the key to me being able to relax, enjoy myself, and believe in myself.
With that, I’m going to suggest that you give that a try this weekend: relaxing, enjoying yourself and believing in yourself. See you next week!
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There was a piece in the Chronicle last week by the pseudonymous Margaret Tennant that I found both illuminating and a bit of a bummer. Tennant is a Ph.D. candidate in sociology and has been writing accounts of her search for a tenure-track job. Spoiler alert: Margaret ends up with a 2-year post-doc, she reveals at the end of the article. If you’re feeling anxious about your own academic job search, you might not want to read her piece, as it might just whip up your own desparate feelings of worry. But I guess you could read it in a positive light: some people are still finding work in the academic job market!
The disturbing part, for me, came with this little ‘graph:
And that’s where things stood as I waited to hear something from my last, best hope for employment this year. While I waited, I began to think about my options. And by “think about my options,” I mean thoughts like: “Am I too old to sell my eggs?,” “How much cash can I get for participating in research studies on campus?,” and “Why am I having to consider how much money an exotic dancer makes?”
Seriously, Margaret? Okay, probably not. Half-serious, Margaret? Perhaps.
Truth be told, I remember back to my early days as a grad student, running through the income-generating options I felt were available to me, and they were exactly the same: selling my eggs, participating in research studies and sex work. Now, I never did any of things–or never had to.
I do understand the sense of fear, desperation and complete uselessness that Ph.D.s feel. That’s a huge part of the reason why I do the work that I do. Yet as illuminating at Margaret Tennant’s article was–all the tongue-in-check humour notwithstanding–I found it just a bit sad that non-academic careers did not even appear to be on her radar.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger used to say in the pre-Governator days: listen to me now and hear me later. The choice is not between the tenure track and selling your body for research, eggs, organs or sex, okay? YOU HAVE GOT OPTIONS. Trust me! I’ve talked to former academics who are now TV executives, writers, entrepreneurs, life coaches, researchers, editors, curators, headhunters, filmmakers, salespeople, conflict resolution workers, social workers, and on and on and on. For god’s sake, look at Monday’s post: David Duchovny is one of us! Brian Freaking May is one of us! Dr. Martin Luther King is one of us! Is it not time to dump this kind of narrow attitude towards what the hell kind of work a Ph.D. situates you for?
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