Everyone who knows me also knows that I have had my doubts about graduate school. It's been a long road, and even as I come to the finish line, I have deeply mixed feelings about the experience. Of course, if I get a wonderful tenure-track job at a place where Dave can also do his research, fantastic! Everyone should get a PhD! It always works out in the end! If I end up scrambling on the VAP/adjunct circuit for the next five to eight years and miss my fertility window? Well, I'll be wearing my bitter pants every day. Clearly, this is an oversimplification, and I choose to believe that I have some measure of control over my destiny. And yet.
Before I came to graduate school, this is how I pictured my life would be:
Beautiful libraries! Big artsy glasses! Contented smiles that go along with the acquisition of both knowledge and wisdom!
There's some truth to that vision (I love the things I've studied; I've acquired a number of beautiful books; my eyesight continually deteriorates, to the extent that I realized last week I should not be driving at night with my glasses, which seriously need an updated prescription). Perhaps equally distorted is the vision offered by reading the Classics job market blog. It is not for the faint of heart (or stomach). A recent conversation in the comments looked like this (warning: strong language):
Anonymous said...
Does anyone know of any job anywhere doing anything for any amount of money I could fucking get with this worthless, piece of shit Classics PhD?
This is almost certainly the naïvete of the first-time job-seeker, but I'm truly planning on not becoming one of these commenters. Before that happens, please, please help me leave the field (though apparently my PhD really is best put to use in the very field that rejects my qualifications), help me leave the work force, whatever it takes! ;) This year I have multiple interviews, so there's still a breath of hope in these sails. I do want to make it in this field, and I'm getting some encouraging signals! But we'll see how I do in January, when the interviews are done, and I stare in vain at the waning battery icon of my cell phone.
Before I came to graduate school, this is how I pictured my life would be:
Beautiful libraries! Big artsy glasses! Contented smiles that go along with the acquisition of both knowledge and wisdom!
There's some truth to that vision (I love the things I've studied; I've acquired a number of beautiful books; my eyesight continually deteriorates, to the extent that I realized last week I should not be driving at night with my glasses, which seriously need an updated prescription). Perhaps equally distorted is the vision offered by reading the Classics job market blog. It is not for the faint of heart (or stomach). A recent conversation in the comments looked like this (warning: strong language):
Anonymous said...
Does anyone know of any job anywhere doing anything for any amount of money I could fucking get with this worthless, piece of shit Classics PhD?
- Anonymous said...
- Does anyone know of any job anywhere doing anything
for any amount of money I could fucking get with this worthless, piece
of shit Classics PhD?
Sorry, a lot of us are asking that question. And the answer is -- no, not really.
-
Anonymous said... - I'm finding that even for minimum wage jobs I have to explain
what I've been doing for work in the last few years. There doesn't seem
to be any way around that.
And the minute you mention getting a PhD they think you are lying, making fun of them, or that there is something seriously wrong with you. No matter what, you don't get the fucking job.
-
Anonymous said...
- This is a big problem. It's not limited to classics. A good resource, in case anyone's actually interested is
http://versatilephd.com/
-
Fallen Classicist said...
- No. Don't be tempted by versitile phd and the like. Do not
think that there are jobs out there for PhDs in classics. Or, better,
don't count on it. And do not spend this time of the year thinking
about it.
With a PhD in classics you are most qualified to be a classics professor. Not a banker. Not a spy. Not a management consultant. A classicist. The job market is predictable and people actually get jobs. Not as many as we all would like, but still.
There is nothing predictable about a job search outside of classics. There are opportunities out there. Some, certainly, are more lucrative than classics. As noted, I have a classics PhD, and am now working in an entirely different field.
But if your goal is employment, any employment, your best chance is in classics. And the time before the APA is not to be spent wondering what else might be possible. Do that AFTER the APA. Spend your time preparing for interviews, tailoring your letters, and the like.
Now, if you have decided that classics was a mistake and you want to move on, by all means, explore your options, but also give classics a second look. For all its faults, you have trained for it and are qualified for it.
-
Anonymous said...
- Fallen, remember that only 13% of qualified applicants are
getting a tenure-track job in Classics each year (on average since
2008). Less than 30% are getting any job at all, including VAPs without
benefits, for that same range of time.
And most of us don't have any interviews to prepare for. We're just paying hundreds of dollars we don't have to go to the APA and have cocksuckers like that HC bitch laugh at us under their breath.
-
- Anonymous said...
- Death is, of course, the best option. Dead people don't even need jobs. But I'm too much of a fucking coward. Seneca is probably rolling over in his grave.
This is almost certainly the naïvete of the first-time job-seeker, but I'm truly planning on not becoming one of these commenters. Before that happens, please, please help me leave the field (though apparently my PhD really is best put to use in the very field that rejects my qualifications), help me leave the work force, whatever it takes! ;) This year I have multiple interviews, so there's still a breath of hope in these sails. I do want to make it in this field, and I'm getting some encouraging signals! But we'll see how I do in January, when the interviews are done, and I stare in vain at the waning battery icon of my cell phone.
Hey at least I could show you how to change an iPhone battery. Actually, you could probably make 50-100% profit changing people's iPhone batteries for them at $40 a pop. Or learn from the Flower how to become a hedge fund manager, except the inefficiencies you exploit are in the second-hand baby product market--140% profit today!
ReplyDelete"wearing my bitter pants" -- haha! the classics phD has a way with words ;)
ReplyDeleteyou're approaching this just right... give it your very best shot, have hope, but if all goes downhill, cut your losses before you feel like you've become someone you don't want to be.
besides, who knows what lies ahead of us? maybe letting go will only allow you to see the other possibilities out there. remember what we said about Newt Gingrich-- does anyone remember he has a phD in modern european history and that his dissertation was entitled, "Belgian Education Policy in the Congo 1945–1960"? does anyone think he's a failure in life because he was denied tenure at West Georgia College, and because he's not teaching Belgian history at some college somewhere right now?
haha, actually, the tiny club of people in the ivory tower talk about newt's stint at west georgia college a lot. as in, "if that school had only given him tenure, he might still be stuck in georgia!" ;)
Deletewow! i had no idea newt did a phd ... nor that it was on belgian education policy in the congo!
Deleteeven if that tiny club remembers it, the point is that this thing that seemed like a HUGE part of him didn't end up being that important after all, and he's far from a failure career-wise!
ReplyDeleteThat sloth looks so full of felicity! It is probably a last resort in your mind rather than a first but you can always adopt or at least keep it in the back of your mind.
ReplyDeleteWow. Yes, we'll certainly let you vent if you're feeling frustrated, but definitely hope you don't end up as bitter as those people! (i.e., Happy to offer an occasional "Snap out of it, Katie!" if the need arises :) You do the same for us!) I'm sure that one day, you will fondly look back on these blog entries and the ups and downs they tracked :)
ReplyDelete