#problems finding a tenure-track job in academia

[centrally-unplanned]

could you explain more about the incentives for universities not to hire candidates unless they got academic jobs immediately upon graduation? I don’t know much about academia and this is fascinating

Sure! It definitely doesn't have 'one' answer or anything, but most of it stems from the fact that universities, pretty-much uniquely, are hiring people for lifetime appointments. The idea of a tenure-track position is that you will work at the university for your entire career. This pretty radically changes what you are looking for in hiring - you care way less about what they are going to do for you now, and instead care about their 'potential' along that 30+ year trajectory. A few things flow from that, and different people think different things matter:

Some would argue that one's talent is both locked-in by the time you are a ~30 year old graduating academic, and that said talent is visible to hiring committees. Essentially, if someone is going to be a rockstar academic, you can tell right out the gate, they would have shown the signs already. There are no "diamonds in the rough" out there who don't get hired, so you shouldn't really bother with them. As such hiring committees spend their time going through the pool of unclaimed talent to find the next crop of high performers. Since I, as a uni, can capture the *entirety* of your career output, I only care about that full potential - if someone is a bit better at this-or-that today by being 3+ year more experienced, I don't care.

The above is probably a factor, but imo its not the full story by any means. Another factor is institutional fit - think of who is doing the hiring. Budget committees and managers? No, they only have advisory say - faculty are hired by other faculty. Which means you are hiring a coworker, co-author, co-teacher for the next several decades. You want someone who is essentially fresh and impressionable, who is going to mold into your organization, adopt research interests that align to your dept strategy, and make all that easier for you. This is a bit of a principle-agent problem moment, but also for something as personality-based and locked-in as academia having a department that gets along is valuable.

For my own perspective, I personally think for a lot of places in academia success is a bit arbitrary. Talent matters ofc but at the margins everyone is talented, and people get their prestige from the institutions they work at as much as their ideas themselves, and those higher-ranked institutions give them greater resources to make their ideas work. As far as this is true, then who they hire kind of doesn't matter, right? They just have to be good enough. As such if the committees have weird opinions about this-or-that thing, they never suffer for it, it never gets 'punished' by reality. They could choose any of their candidates and be fine. Like the first belief, about how 'talent outs quickly' - is that true? Probably to some extent, but also it doesn't matter as long as uni committees believe it's true - they don't have to be right.

Finally, academia in most places is an employer's market; the supply of candidates always massively exceeds demand. This works similar to the last point - they never need to challenge their own ideas about what is optimal hiring because they have their pick. In particular, why was someone not hired for 3 years? Luck? Probably, honestly. But what are the odds it's because they have some defect that is hard for me to see? Its possible, right? So why take that chance, I don't have to. I have total control. In unbalanced markets marginal issues can be elevated to dominant concerns because there is no price to paid for that.

I'm sure there are more issues, it's a diverse world after all and each academic discipline has its own norms. Just some of the factors at play!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Zack K. De Piero

Published: Dec 23, 2023

Looking for a job in today’s politicized job market?

Prepare to submit a résumé, cover letter, references — and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement: A page-long explanation of how you intend to bring those three seemingly benign principles into the workplace.

DEI statements have become standard practice in academia, but a tide might be turning: UNC and UMass Boston recently un-required mandatory DEI statements for student admission, employee recruitment and faculty promotion. 

Here’s hoping this sets an industry precedent — a step towards reining in DEI in every sector. 

When I taught at Penn State Abington from 2018-2022 as an English professor, their obsession with DEI created a hostile work environment teeming with discrimination.

Case in point: writing faculty were subjected to a video called “White Teachers are a Problem.”

After making my opposition known, I was retaliated against.

My perceived insubordination was branded on Affirmative Action Office notices, and I was sanctioned by HR as well as on my annual performance review. 

Penn State’s stance was clear: Blind loyalty is required by the DEI machine. 

The premier job board across academia, HigherEdJobs, shows how deeply entrenched compulsory left-think has become.

Whether you want to teach French at SUNY Oswego, Dance at Chapman, Soil Science and Nutrient Management at Colorado State, or Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse, your prospective employer will expect a DEI statement, so prepare to bend the knee. 

Even if you aspire to become the Beef Center Assistant Manager at Washington State University: Yep: DEI statement.

And these are just a few random examples posted since Thanksgiving.

It’s an epidemic. 

Make no mistake, the DEI machine has always been about toeing an ideological line — never any meaningful change.

Consider the case of Dr. Tabia Lee — a former faculty member of De Anza Community College in California.

While facilitating a “Decentering Whiteness” event featuring a BLM co-founder, Lee (who’s Black) made waves by allowing students to ask unscripted follow-up questions. For doing so, her tenure was sabotaged.

Despite being “diverse,” it turns out that Lee’s actual diversity didn’t gel with De Anza’s agenda.

A commitment to actual diversity requires respecting diverse viewpoints.

But wrong-think isn’t tolerated by the DEI Industrial Complex. 

Fortunately, federal law has something to say about that: neither De Anza nor Penn State has the authority to suppress Dr. Lee or my speech, nor can they discriminate on the basis of race.

That’s why she and I — supported by the nonpartisan group, the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism — are bringing lawsuits against our former employers. 

Pull back this sacred academic curtain, and see the emperor’s new clothes for yourself.

In 2021, Pennsylvanian’s taxes and students’ tuition went towards workshops on microaggressions, intersectional feminism, anti-racism, and white privilege led by the Penn State Abington DEI grifters.

Its leader’s Juneteenth email directed white faculty and staff to “stop talking,” “find an accountability partner,” and “stop being afraid of your own internalized white supremacy.” 

Such DEI efforts ooze with divisiveness, so yes, DEI statements are clearly a form of compelled speech, and thus, a violation of First Amendment free speech protections.

[ Dr. Tabia Lee says her tenure-track position at De Anza College in California was derailed after she failed to conform to DEI orthodoxy. ]

What’s worse, though, is the type of educational environment that DEI-ified initiatives create for students — and the culprit is the “E”: Equity. 

Here’s how “equity” played out in the misguided minds of my DEI-obsessed former colleagues. A former supervisor, who endorsed the view that “reverse racism isn’t racism,” also announced that “racist structures” exist “regardless of [anybody’s] good intentions” and that “racism is in the results if the results draw a color line.”

The apparent guiding subtext here: students should be graded on the basis of race so all achieve similar outcomes.

Suppose you deflated the grades of Asian-Americans — a group that often disproportionately excels — much like Harvard deflated their acceptance rates until the Supreme Court put a stop to race-based admissions.

That’s somehow acceptable in the name of “equity?” Of course not, but disagree with enforced equity in education and in the eyes of antiracist activists, that makes you – you guessed it — a “racist.” 

Alternatively, performative equity could be achieved by inflating everybody’s grades — straight A’s all around! 

Harvard’s almost there: in 2020-2021, 80% of all grades were A’s, according to an October article in the Harvard Crimson. 

The road to equity is paved by the soft bigotry of low expectations.

And in a world where grit, labor, and integrity win the day, academia’s obsession with “equity” breeds a “survival of the weakest” mindset. 

Nevertheless, the DEI machine continues to reign supreme.

Over a five-year span, Ohio State’s DEI annual budget bloated to $20 million with nearly 200 DEI bureaucrats who cite the leftist scripture of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo.

But before we can enter their church, us natural-born sinners must repent by issuing performative DEI statements?

Yeah. No thanks.

Paradoxically, the more elite institutions obnoxiously virtue-signal their allegiance to DEI, the less committed they are to actual diversity and inclusion — and the more they obscure actual equality in the process. 

These institutions aren’t hiding what they’re doing.

Even in the throes of my lawsuit, Penn State Abington has doubled down on DEI: there’s now a sister office — the Office of Inclusive Excellence — complete with its own cabinet-level director. 

Folks: this isn’t going away unless you take action.

Here’s a start: if you’re ever asked to submit a DEI statement, don’t bend the knee to their “E” — Equity.

Reframe their game, and tell them how and why you stand up for the honorable “E”: Equality. 

Zack K. DePiero (Ph.D, M.Ed) teaches writing at Northampton Community College. 

[theiibms]

Why should you Earn a Doctorate in Management Studies

A Doctorate in Management Studies is a prestigious academic qualification that signifies advanced expertise in the field of management. It is designed for professionals who aspire to make significant contributions to the theory and practice of management. This rigorous program typically involves in-depth research, critical analysis, and the development of innovative solutions to complex management problems. Graduates of this program are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and credibility to pursue high-level positions in academia, consulting, or senior management roles in various industries.

Pursuing a Doctorate in Management Studies (DMS) could be a transformative experience that opens up a world of opportunities. Are you contemplating whether to pursue a doctorate in management studies? Making such a decision requires careful consideration of various factors, including personal aspirations, career goals, and the potential benefits of advanced education. Here are ten compelling reasons to embark on this academic journey:

Expertise in Management Theory and Practice: A doctoral program in management studies provides a deep dive into theoretical frameworks, research methodologies, and practical applications relevant to the field of management. You'll gain a comprehensive understanding of key concepts, enabling you to contribute valuable insights to academia and industry.

Opportunity for Specialization: Doctoral programs often offer opportunities for specialization in areas such as strategic management, organizational behavior, human resource management, or entrepreneurship. By focusing your research and coursework on a specific area of interest, you can become an expert in that niche and make meaningful contributions to knowledge within the field.

Career Advancement: Earning a doctorate in management studies can significantly enhance your career prospects. Whether you aspire to pursue a tenure-track faculty position at a university, lead research initiatives in a corporate setting, or consult for organizations worldwide, a doctoral degree can open doors to exciting opportunities and higher-level positions.

Research Skills Development: Throughout your doctoral journey, you'll develop advanced research skills that are invaluable in both academic and non-academic settings. From designing rigorous research studies to analyzing data and interpreting findings, you'll gain proficiency in conducting scholarly research that addresses real-world management challenges.

Networking Opportunities: Engaging with faculty members, fellow doctoral students, and industry professionals provides abundant networking opportunities. These connections can lead to collaborations on research projects, access to job openings, and invitations to present at conferences, ultimately expanding your professional network and enhancing your career prospects.

Contribution to Knowledge Creation: Pursuing a doctorate in management studies allows you to contribute to the advancement of knowledge within the field. By conducting original research and publishing your findings in academic journals, you'll have the opportunity to shape scholarly discourse, influence managerial practices, and contribute to the evolution of management theory and practice.

Intellectual Stimulation: Engaging in rigorous intellectual inquiry and scholarly debate can be intellectually stimulating and personally fulfilling. Doctoral programs provide a supportive environment for exploring complex ideas, challenging existing assumptions, and pushing the boundaries of knowledge, fostering intellectual growth and development.

Higher Salary: Understandably, the more qualifications and credentials you gain, the more chance you have of securing senior level positions, which in turn will provide you with a higher salary. Employers know that those who complete advanced degrees will demand a higher salary. In many large companies, six figure salaries tend to be the norm, with smaller companies even paying out more to DMS degree holders.

Open Multiple Career Paths: Completing a DMS degree will not only identify you as an expert in your sector, but results in a tangible set of decision-making and management skills that may help when it comes to seeking a senior level leadership position. You also have the option to apply for a researcher or consultant role. Once you’ve finished your DMS, you will be well prepared to go into any industry, whether it be business, education, government, or healthcare. A DMS will help you to understand the various challenges that are prominent in these sectors, as well as providing you with the practical skills required to complete any type of challenge. Having more career opportunities open to you can only be a good thing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, pursuing a doctorate in management studies is a significant commitment that offers numerous rewards and opportunities for personal and professional growth. Whether you're driven by a passion for research, a desire to make a positive impact, or a thirst for knowledge, a doctoral program in management studies can provide you with the skills, expertise, and opportunities you need to achieve your goals and make a meaningful contribution to the field.

[avtarcheema]

What is the Career after Ph.D. CSE?

Geeta University is one of the leading institutions in India that offers various academic programs, including Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). After obtaining a Ph.D. in CSE from Geeta University, graduates can pursue various career paths in academia, research, and industry.

Academic Career Options:

One of the most common career paths for Ph.D. graduates in CSE is an academic career. The Ph.D. program prepares graduates to conduct independent research, publish academic papers, and teach at the university level. Graduates can start their academic career as assistant professors, lecturers, or researchers in academic institutions.

Assistant Professor: Assistant professors are entry-level faculty positions in academic institutions. They are responsible for teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, conducting research, publishing academic papers, and serving on various committees. Assistant professors are expected to work towards getting tenure, which typically takes five to seven years.

Associate Professor: Associate professors are the next level up from assistant professors. They have usually demonstrated a strong track record of research and teaching and have achieved tenure. Associate professors are responsible for teaching, conducting research, and mentoring graduate students.

Professor: Professors are the most senior faculty positions in academic institutions. They are responsible for teaching, research, and service to the institution and the community. Professors are expected to have a significant impact in their field of research and be recognized as leaders in their discipline.

Research Career Options:

Best university for phd in Haryana graduates in CSE can also pursue a career in research. They can work in both academic and industrial research labs. Research positions offer opportunities to work on cutting-edge technologies and contribute to the advancement of the field.

Research Scientist: Research scientists are responsible for conducting research, publishing papers, and presenting their findings at conferences. They work in research labs in academia, industry, or government agencies. Research scientists collaborate with other researchers, engineers, and scientists to develop new technologies and solve complex problems.

Research and Development Engineer: Research and development engineers work in industrial research labs. They are responsible for developing new technologies, products, and services. They collaborate with other engineers, scientists, and product designers to create new solutions for the company's products or services.

Industry Career Options:

Best university for phd in Haryana graduates in CSE can also pursue a career in industry. They can work in various industries, including software development, data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Industry jobs offer opportunities to work on real-world problems and contribute to the development of new technologies and products.

Software Engineer: Software engineers develop software solutions for various industries, including healthcare, finance, and entertainment. They are responsible for designing, developing, and testing software applications. Software engineers work in teams to create software that meets the needs of the end-users.

Data Scientist: Data scientists are responsible for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting large datasets to extract insights and make data-driven decisions.

[fiftysevenacademics]

As the previous two replies have said, this is not a problem at all, as most problems people research are very large and benefit from multiple perspectives, variations in hypotheses and methods, and point in time when the data is collected.

Also, from personal experience I can say it's not always helpful for your career to do diss research that is too unique. Mine was genuinely unique within my field, for its time, groundbreaking, really, though nowadays this line of thought is so common as to be almost trite.

But back then, people in my field literally didn't know where to pigeonhole me or even how to evaluate my research (a journal I submitted a paper to couldn't even figure out who to send it to for review so it got sent to a lawyer and a couple other people who weren't really appropriate), which means I had great trouble networking, collaborating, or getting interviews for tenure-track jobs.

Others in my grad school cohort, who trod a slight variation into paths our academic forbearers carved, went on to have nice careers while I washed out. If you don't fit cleanly in an academic lineage, your chances of success are much lower. I don't mean this in a snotty way, it's just how academia works, almost like clans. You need to be in a clan.

So my advice is, pick a topic that is a Traditional Known Area of Interest in your field, identify one question within it that hasn't been sufficiently explored, find a professor either broadly interested in that topic or in your own niche question, and approach them about studying under them for your PhD. A good dissertation contributes to a lively ongoing discussion, offers something people can build on, and moves the discussion forward. It doesn't have to be one of a kind.

hey very stupid question coming up

but god im genuinely so stressed out about this. i wanna do a phd and i have ideas for a dissertation and i checked and yes as far as i can tell its a genuine research gap. but. how do i know that someone else is not already writing/planning to write the same topic for their dissertation at a completely different university on the other side of the world? and we just dont know about each other?? like what if two years into my program i found out someone else is doing this what the fuck do i do then????

[jeannereames]

Hello, Dr. Reames. I have a question I would like to ask you. How is it like to work as a historian? I'll be finishing high school soon and i thought a lot about studying history at college, but I really don't know much about how it really is to work in the field, so if you could tell me how is it like, at least from your experience, I would really appreciate it 😊

(The following was written to reply to a query from a high school student, but is aimed broadly at anyone pondering the value of a history degree at various levels: BA/BS, MA, and PhD, written by an older professor who’s also served as Graduate Program Chair. PLEASE SHARE.)

First, by “working in the field,” I’m not entirely sure what you mean, and maybe you’re not either. And that’s okay.

So let’s talk about what “working in the field” could mean.

The common assumption about majoring in history is that it leads only to teaching high school, college, or working in a museum. (Maybe archaeology…but that’s actually a different degree.)

FACT: MOST history undergrad majors do not teach history or work in museums. Look at this helpful little illustration below. Note that only 18% work in education. Maybe some of the 10% administration are education administration. But even if we assume half are, that’s still less than ¼ of history degree recipients going into education, plus that 18% includes library science.

Now, some of the things on that list have little to do with history directly. Yet some have connections the average person might not think of: both legal and protective services, for instance. Legal = law, and protective services = FBI/CIA/other policing. The FBI loves historians as analysts, so does the CIA. History uses the same skill-set as police detectives. In addition, several (working and former) lawyers I know who were history majors all say their history degree gave them a leg up in law school over colleagues who’d done poli-sci or criminology.

Why?  CRITICAL REASONING. We teach you to think about what you’re reading/seeing/hearing, then how to write about it. Those skills are imminently useful in a number of careers. (To be fair, philosophy is useful for much the same reason; don’t knock a philosophy degree!)

So if you want to study history…it’s not going to hurt your job prospects, especially if you mull over how to “professionalize” yourself. Below, I’ve put a link to the American Historical Association’s website talking about just that: career development. If you have other skills such as IT, or are multi-lingual, it makes you even more valuable. Lots of work in the fields of digital humanities (which involves history), archiving, and public history. Also, sometimes scientific skills pair well, particularly for archaeology: LiDAR and GPR, for instance. Chemical analysis, dendrology, etc., etc., etc.

 American Historical Association Professional Development

Now, let’s say you are thinking about going on to teach history in college (at least in the US). My best advice?

Don’t.

That may shock, from a history professor, but the plain fact is that not only is history (and the humanities) undergoing seismic shifts on campuses, but college itself is altering profoundly. I call it the “Wal-Martization of Higher Education.”

Administration is bloating. Just look some time at the various administration levels in most any college: how many assistant deans, and senior-vice chancellors, etc. It’s crazy. There were half that (or less) when I was hired at UNO 20 years ago. Meanwhile, fewer tenure-track positions are opening in departments (that aren’t big grant winners). If anything, colleges are cutting those. More administrators! Fewer professors! Sure, that’s the ticket….

Why’s this happening? Administration has learned that, especially for entry-level courses (1000-, sometimes 2000-level), they can hire part-time lecturers, pay them peanuts, not pay them benefits…and rake in the same tuition. Bean counters don’t help, where they look at “Butts in seats,” enrollment figures, retention, and shortening the “Time to Degree.”

College is increasingly expensive, students want to cut corners and save bucks. I don’t blame them, but AT THE ROOT is the Almighty Dollar.

Education has become a “commodity,” a mere certificate to get you a job. Quality pedagogy is increasingly sidelined. From enrollment to graduation track is emphasized. This is a discussion all its own, so won’t go into it. (Again, this is a HUGE philosophic debate.)

The teaching of intro-classes by grad students/newly minted PhDs has been A Thing for decades. It’s not new. But back when I was doing it, it was considered job training and critical experience for my resume to get a “real”—e.g., tenure-track—job that had benefits and job security.

Pay your dues. Okay, fair enough.

BUT around the time I got hired by UNO (2000) and even a little earlier, college administrators began to suss out that they could cut tenure-track jobs by hiring an endless (desperate) string of part-time lecturers to teach entry-level classes. The idea spread slowly, but by c. 2010, it was entrenched. Too many PhDs, not enough jobs, so to make ends meet, those lecturers would take 4, 5, 6 classes (at various schools) at a couple thousand a class. Without a spousal unit, many live at the poverty level…WITH a PhD. Increasing numbers simply bailed on academia after several years on the job market, taking other jobs as they could, but (in some cases) trailing enormous tuition debt. Some still write and publish, and are content with that.

The field has wised up, but too many PhDs (or even MAs) were caught in that trap as it became clear what was happening—hundreds competing for a handful of jobs a year. I’ve run job searches (just did one, in fact). We can regularly expect 80-120 applications for one job—higher for Americanists. Yet this will be one of a handful of tenure-track jobs that year. Think about that: c.100 applicants for…5 jobs, 6, 7…10 if you’re lucky in a “hot” field.

Yet some unscrupulous professors STILL turn out oodles of MA or PhD students because it looks good for them. Beware of such! I’ve worked with a few. If ANYbody tells you there are easy jobs to be had and don’t give you a version of “The Talk” above (which I gave ALL my MA students) they’re in it to pad their CV, not to take care of you as their grad student. Find a new advisor ASAP.

Some fields are more “hot” than others, but this varies, and you can’t assume a “hot” field when you start won’t be a “saturated” field by the time you finish. It’s unpredictable.

This is all bound to implode sooner or later, and the pandemic may very well push that along.

So YES, there will continue to be jobs open for history professors. But they’re many fewer than in the 60s. 70s, 80s, or even 90s, and most will go to students from top tier (private) universities. Yes, dammit, people pay attention to the name on the kidskin. There will always be exceptions. So if you work your ass off and are truly driven, you could secure one of those jobs. When hiring, I look at what you DID/published/presented, not just where you got your degree.

So if you really want to teach at the college level—are driven enough—you’re going to ignore everything I just said and get that PhD anyway. But at least you’ll go in with your eyes wide open, knowing it’s a volatile field with “college” itself in flux. I’ve no idea what the institution will look like by the time I retire in 10 years (or less now).

Jump at every opportunity. Present papers at salient conferences, seek grants, try to get published if you can (mostly PhD level). It’s still possible, just understand the competition is STEEP.

I’m here to prove a first-generation college student with NO useful language got a full-ride scholarship to Penn State in the ‘90s, secured a tenure-track job at U-Nebraska, Omaha. Not a Research 1 university, but still tenured at a school with a History MA and research time off, then started the Ancient Mediterranean Studies Minor/Program here, and served as grad chair.

But I’m RARE, and come from an earlier era.

How much are you willing to buckle down and kick ass?

It’s an uphill climb. I won’t lie. Your odds are bad. So you have to REALLY WANT IT, to go on to an MA then PhD.

Teaching at the high school level is more attainable but comes with its own freight of baggage.

SO… getting a BA or BS in history, or even a minor in history, at the undergrad level is NOT a useless degree. For that matter, an MA in history isn’t. But the PhD is increasingly becoming The Hunger Games to find a job after. How much will you sacrifice?

[mediaeval-muse]

Academic Book Review

The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your PhD Into a Job. By Karen Kelsky. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2015. Pp. x + 438. $16.

Argument: Each year tens of thousands of students will, after years of hard work and enormous amounts of money, earn their Ph.D. And each year only a small percentage of them will land a job that justifies and rewards their investment. For every comfortably tenured professor or well-paid former academic, there are countless underpaid and overworked adjuncts, and many more who simply give up in frustration. Those who do make it share an important asset that separates them from the pack: they have a plan. They understand exactly what they need to do to set themselves up for success.  They know what really moves the needle in academic job searches, how to avoid the all-too-common mistakes that sink so many of their peers, and how to decide when to point their Ph.D. toward other, non-academic options. Karen Kelsky has made it her mission to help readers join the select few who get the most out of their Ph.D. As a former tenured professor and department head who oversaw numerous academic job searches, she knows from experience exactly what gets an academic applicant a job. And as the creator of the popular and widely respected advice site The Professor is In, she has helped countless Ph.D.s turn themselves into stronger applicants and land their dream careers.

***Full review under the cut.***

Chapter Breakdown: This book technically has 63 chapters, so I’m going to briefly describe each major section.

Section 1: Dark Times in the Academy Overviews the decline in tenture-track jobs in higher education, as well as the challenges facing PhDs, from adjucting to the feeling of losing one’s identity.

Section 2: Getting Your Head in the Game A guide to the realities of the academic job market, including what it is, what unspoken rules/assumptions are present, what grad students tend not to understand or habits that make them a poor candidate, institution types and rankings, and how to (generally) build yourself up as a candidate.

Section 3: The Nuts and Bolts of a Competitive Record Covers the importance of building a CV, getting teaching experience, publishing, obtaining grants, cultivating references, and going to conferences. Also contains advice on how to take control of these situations.

Section 4: Job Documents That Work Advice on how to compose cover letters, CVs, teaching statements, evidence of teaching effectiveness, research statements, diversity statements, and dissertation abstracts.

Section 5: Techniques of the Academic Interview Information about interview basics, including what kinds of questions are likely to be asked (and how to respond). Also includes information about conference interviews, campus visits, job talks, teaching demos, talking to deans, etc. Also contains advice on how to handle outrageous questions and what to do after the interview.

Section 6: Navigating the Job Market Minefield Covers topics that could cause additional stress in the job market search, such as inside candidates, unresponsive references, poor campus climate, department politics, pregnancy, finances, etc. Also contains advice on how to dress professionally and cautions against attitudes like narcissism, grandiosity, self-juvenilization, etc.

Section 7: Negotiating an Offer Advice for negotiating job offers, including sections on partner (formerly, “spousal”) hires and rescinded offers.

Section 8: Grants and Postdocs Contains templates for writing grants as well as an overview of how postdoc applications are different from a job application.

Section 9: Some Advice About Advisors Overview of what kinds of advisors are “good” (one that has your best interests in mind) as well as a section on how advisors/departments discuss PhD debt (and what that can tell you about job prospects).

Section 10: Leaving the Cult Advice on leaving academia, including a list of transferable skills. More focused on “giving permission” to leave as opposed to traditional job search advice (like how to write a non-academic cover letter).

Reviewer Comments: Despite the intimidating size of this book, The Professor Is In is probably the most useful text I’ve come across (so far) in terms of career advice for PhDs. It contains practical information about preparing academic job materials, as well as insights into unspoken assumptions about the job search from the perspective of the hiring committee. It also does not hesitate in talking about the dismal state of higher education, and is very clear that the contents of this book (and individual action) can’t fix systemic problems.

The tone of the writing is appropriate for its audience. Kelsky doesn’t attempt to give readers an inspirational pep talk, nor does she ignore the fact that readers may have very real, pressing anxieties about their futures. Instead, she lays out the facts of the job market so that readers can make informed choices about how to proceed. I liked that Kelsky’s prose was so down-to-earth and blunt, not trying to coddle PhDs but also not trying to blame them for things beyond their control. Instead, Kelsky was able to balance “tough love” with true empathy and compassion, which made me not only feel open to reflecting on my own flaws as a PhD job candidate, but also respected as someone with real concerns. For some, the tone might be off-putting, as it does, admittedly, come off as “angry” in many ways, but I honestly prefer that over other books I’ve read that tries to “cutesify” the problems in academia. I also appreciated that Kelsky offered stats and secondary sources to illustrate everything point she made, so her advice felt less anecdotal and more rooted in research. As PhDs, most of us like supporting research, so I may be a bit biased; I just don’t find anecdotes that inspirational.

While this book is aimed at PhDs from various disciplines, the sheer amount of information and practical writing advice made it *actually* useful. As opposed to books which tend to offer general pointers like “tailor your resume,” Kelsky has specific advice, like “email your letter writer and ask for 15-20 minutes of their time” or “here’s an example of a diversity statement as well as a brief analysis of what it does and does not do.” Kelsky clearly lays out not just what candidates *should* be doing, but also *why* they should be doing it, which makes concepts easy to grasp and see the value in.

The only major thing that made this book discouraging to read was the implicit suggestion that if you haven’t been building your academic job profile from the beginning (or even before entering graduate school), you’re basically f*cked. Looking over some of the advice, I couldn’t help but feel like I had missed out on some things and couldn’t rectify them because I’m out of school. Maybe that’s true, maybe it isn’t, but either way, I wanted to see it addressed (or maybe it was and I missed it?). If I can’t get accepted to lead a conference panel in the top conference in my field, what then? What if I apply for tons of grants and don’t get many? What if a journal holds onto my article for 2 years with the promise of publishing it but never moves forward (something that actually happened to me)? What if my dissertation topic is interesting to me, but doesn’t follow popular trends? Am I a bad candidate? Should I give up? Things like that.

Overall, I think this book is one of the most practically useful guides out there, and if you’re a grad student who does not have a supportive job placement program at your institution, this book is invaluable for beginning to understand the realities of the academic job market, as dismal and unfair as it is.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if

you’re a graduate student or adjunct going on the academic job market

you’re a grad student thinking ahead about how to use your time in graduate school effectively

you’re a PhD thinking about leaving academia

you working in career advising (including positions such as dissertation director or department head)

[superlinguo]

Linguistics Jobs: Interview with a Learning Scientist

Language lessons with Duolingo and other language learning apps can sometimes go so well that you can forget that there are people who make them happen. One of those people is Cindy Blanco, a Learning Scientist at Duolingo.  You can follow her on Twitter (@YeahThatCindy) or just think fondly of her and the team next time you enjoy a good lesson in Duolingo. Anyone for some Welsh? High Valyrian? Hawaiian? Swahili? How many languages do I have time to start right now? Here’s Cindy with what it means to be a Learning Scientist.

What did you study at university?

I majored in linguistics at UNC-Greensboro, which had a linguistics program at the time. I was already majoring in English and Spanish, with a minor in Russian, but since the language departments were focused on literature, it was a while before I learned what linguistics was. I was obsessed with capital-L Language and with languages, but I was shaping up to be a pretty bad literature student - I would get so consumed with words and usage and differences in language across periods and regions that I couldn't focus on the actual reading! I still remember taking a class called "The Structure of English," which was a covert intro to linguistics, and by the end of the first day I realized, "THIS! This is what I am: a linguist."

I later began a PhD program in Spanish Linguistics at Penn State, and in a moment of panic over a life in academia, I stopped after the MA and took some time off. I taught Spanish full time, worked as an instructional designer, and translated as an administrative assistant for a law clinic in Texas. Even though I was never far from languages and linguistics, I wanted to keep learning about linguistics and language science. I returned to graduate school when the opportunity arose to work in labs focused on child language and psycholinguistics. My dissertation was on speech perception in bilingual children and adults, and I graduated with my PhD in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2016. After the PhD, I conducted research as a postdoc in cognitive psychology at Northwestern University.

What is your job?

At Duolingo, I work as a learning scientist. It's taken me a while to grow into this title, because in academia I identified as a language scientist - but part of transitioning to industry has involved learning to talk about my skill set in an applied setting. None of my degrees say "learning" so it didn't feel right to call myself a learning scientist... but 8 years of experimental research on language learning definitely do make me an expert in my favorite kind of learning!

I think I have the best position at Duolingo: my job is to inform product development in linguistically- and pedagogically-sound ways to improve learning outcomes for language students worldwide. I work very closely with some of my product teams; with others, I'm more of an on-call consultant to answer questions, give feedback, and brainstorm new approaches. I work with teams of engineers, designers, and product managers to find creative, effective technological solutions to the puzzle of language learning. There is no typical day, but in any given week, I will brainstorm prototypes of new products, manage teams of freelance language experts and translators, lead workshops on language acquisition, and develop guidelines for new lesson types. I also conduct user experience interviews (translation: qualitative research) and research on learning outcomes. I'm also really interested in building more direct links between the work I'm doing now and the academic community, so I regularly attend conferences, I co-organize Duolingo's colloquium series, and I am working to build partnerships locally in Pittsburgh.

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

I use my training every day, in every meeting, and I love that I can still be both researcher and instructor. I've designed research studies, written up reports, and presented my findings to experts and non-experts alike. I'm using the principles that I learned in classes on second language acquisition, speech perception, and psycholinguistics to inform new, better ways to teach languages. Right now I'm even preparing a company-wide workshop on phonetics and L2 phonology! I've honed so many new skills at Duolingo, and that has been really fun and rewarding, but here I'm a linguist through and through. I even hold linguistics office hours, where my colleagues can drop by to ask me linguistics questions, related to our work or otherwise. I've recently chatted with coworkers about grammatical gender, Proto-Indo-European, and the regularization of verb paradigms!

I was recently in a situation where I was helping a team brainstorm new ways to teach grammar. We knew we wanted to improve learning outcomes for a particular topic related to verb conjugations, and so I briefed the team on how the particular grammatical feature works, how it varies cross-linguistically, and some of the main challenges for learning it. I then worked with a designer to look at what our options were for creating new exercises and what the technological challenges would be for implementation. I also worked with a product manager to think about how we could scale different solutions across a huge number of language courses and language types, and what kind of guidance we would have to give to the language experts who create content for all those different languages (that's not me!). In these contexts, I have to think like a linguist, and when I do my job well I'm also teaching others about linguistics, and hopefully creating a new way for learners to engage with their new language.

Do you have any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

I wish I had been encouraged to think broadly and creatively! Languages and linguistics show up in more places than college classrooms, and the skills I built as a graduate student, researcher, and instructor do translate outside of academia. Really, they do!

I was a Duolingo learner for years before I realized it was a place I could make a contribution. It was just an app I used for fun, and it seemed so far from what my PhD research was about that I didn't consider myself a good fit. And it's true, I no longer plead with bilingual preschoolers to categorize my carefully-created allophones in timed tasks, but my whole job is thinking about how to capitalize on a learner's language background to help them learn a new language given limited time and resources. THAT is a problem I was trained to think through. My research and interests have moved in a new direction for sure, but what tenure-track professor's research interests don't also evolve over time? I'm learning and thinking through new problems, and applying familiar concepts to new domains, and that's what drew me to linguistics to begin with.

The best piece of advice I ever got was from another grad student who, reflecting on her own struggles in academic job markets, told me to get a summer internship before I finished the PhD. Internships are easier to get when you're a student, and having one on your CV (or resume) shows a potential employer that you know how to be successful in industry. I'm good at being a linguist, but I'm much newer to collaborating with people from very different fields (and not different like linguistics and psychology are different - I mean different different). I interned at a small start-up for two summers, and that's where I began learning that how you talk about your trade and your ideas to non-expert colleagues is at least as important as what your ideas are in the first place.

Any other thoughts or comments?

I kept returning to the academic path even after time away (and the occasional existential crisis) because I was really worried that I wouldn't feel challenged, engaged, or fulfilled in industry. Even when grad school and research was hard, I loved learning, and I had a good deal of autonomy in what I studied and how. I thought I'd have to give all that up.

That hasn't been my experience at all! And as a learning scientist I'm making a contribution to language learning on a scale I had never before imagined. I get to work on lots of projects, I have a lot of agency in the work I do, and I work with smart, talented people who know about things I'd never thought about. They are my collaborators now, and I have so much to learn from them. They are curious and capable, and they push me to think more, and think better, every day. They're helping me become a new kind of linguist.

Recently:

Interview with an Internet Linguist

Interview with a Lexicographer

Interview with a School Linguist

Interview with a Journalist

Interview with a PR Consultant

Check out the Linguist Jobs Master List and the Linguist Jobs tag for even more interviews  

[porcupine-girl]

It also helps to reconceptualize where your "potential" lies. My husband is a tenured professor. The entire decade+ I was in my PhD program, he was telling me that he didn't think I would be happy as a professor. Unfortunately, academia (and grad school in particular) pushes the idea that if you can't get/hold down a tenure-track job you're either not smart enough (I knew that wasn't the problem) or not "passionate" enough, and I thought that's what he was saying, and it pissed me off.

Finally, about 8-9 years in, I was diagnosed with ADHD. And understanding that aspect of my brain allowed me to understand two things:

a) He was absolutely right. As one of my profs once said, "the great thing about academia is that you can work whatever 80 hours you want." My husband does that, and he's very happy with it. I would go fucking crazy trying to do that. It's not because I'm not passionate about the topic - it's because my ADHD brain is passionate about so many things and I need time to devote to ALL of them! I need time to write (fanfic, original fiction, nonfiction), I need time to do some type of performance, I need time to devote to my academic research interests. I'm happy to do things for 80 hours/week, but not just things that would count toward tenure.

b) I cannot do the kind of work needed to get tenure, at the rate it needs to be done to get tenure. Generally, you go up for tenure after 7 years. You have to publish a certain amount of research in that time - this varies by field, in my field it's usually about 10 papers, give or take. The thing many people don't understand is that if you don't get tenure, you don't just keep working without tenure - you're fired. You either get tenure, or you find a new job, probably in an entirely different city.

The type of research I do takes time - it took two years to collect my dissertation data, so that's already a very tight schedule. Part of the reason I could not publish 10-ish papers in 7 years is because of Point A: I would go crazy spending 60-80 hours/week doing nothing but things that count toward tenure. But I also came to realize that it takes me longer to do some things, like read research for a literature review, because of my ADHD. Long enough that, even if I could stay focused on this stuff 60-80 hours/week and stay mentally healthy, it would still be very difficult and very stressful to churn out enough research quickly enough to get tenure. Much more difficult than for most of my peers. Maybe not possible at all.

Realizing that all of this is because of how my brain is set up was incredibly freeing. It's not that I have all this potential to be a world-renowned researcher at an elite university and I'm throwing it all away because I'm not passionate enough or don't work hard enough. I never had the potential to be that in the first place. It was an illusion based on the idea that anyone who is smart and passionate has that potential, and not fulfilling that specific potential means failure.

That sounds like it should be depressing, right? That should be a terrible thing to realize, that I was never going to be what I always expected to be. And it was a little painful.

But the thing is, realizing that freed me up to think about all the other things I can be. All the things I do legitimately have the potential to do, with the brain that I have. I'm still working through that, still figuring out how to work with my brain to reach those new goals, but I am so much happier than I was when I was striving for a goal I was absolutely incapable of reaching. I do have potential, it's just not where I thought it was.

As someone recently diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, one thing that’s been helping me grapple with the intense shame I have over all my “wasted potential” is accepting that potential doesn’t exist and never did.

This sounds so harsh, but please bare with me.

I procrastinated a lot growing up. I still procrastinate today, but less so. And yet, I got good grades. I could write an A+ paper that “knocked [my professor]’s socks off” in the hour before class and print it with sweat running down my face.

I was so used to hearing from teachers and family that if I just didn’t procrastinate and worked all the time, I could do anything! I had all this potential I wasn’t living up to!

And that’s true, as far as it goes, but that’s like saying if Usain Bolt just kept going he could be the fastest marathon runner in the world. Why does he stop at the end of the race??

If ANYONE could make their top speed/most productive setting the one they used all the time, anyone could do anything. But you can’t. Your top speed is not a speed you’re able to sustain.

Now, I’ve found that I do need to work on not procrastinating. Not because the product is better, even, but because it’s better for my mental health and physical health to not have a full, sweating, panicked breakdown over every task even if the task itself turns out excellently. It’s a shitty way to live! You feel bad ALL the time! And I don’t deserve to live like that anymore.

So all of this to say, I’m not wasting a ton of potential. I don’t have an ocean of productivity and accomplishments inside of me that I could easily, effortlessly access if I just sat down 8 hours a day and worked. There’s no fucking way. That’s not real. It’s an illusion. It’s fine not to live up to an illusion.

And if you have ADHD, I mean this from the bottom of my heart: you do not have limitless potential confounded by your laziness. You have the good potential of a good person, and you can access it with practice and work, but do not accept the story that you are choosing not to be all that you are or can be. You are just a human person.

[r0gue3ird]

“As a Dominican scholar, I am supposed to make a statement about Junot Díaz. But I am not going to make a statement about my brother. I am not going to comment on the accusations nor am I going to exculpate him for behavior he has already taken responsibility for and steps toward correcting. The only “Dominican” statement I will make to (and not about) Junot is to reaffirm that he is STILL my brother, despite the actions he courageously owned up. I do have two general comments to those of you who want to have a productive conversation about the structural violence in academia and the art world that allows on the one hand for assholian/bullying behavior to be, not only acceptable, but expected, and on the other for a dialogue about sexual violence that has dangerously begun to conflate micro-aggression and machismo with rape in the same breath. If you are a victim of rape, I assure you, it is not fun to hear someone equate a senior faculty yelling at you at an academic panel (otherwise known as a common MLA scene), with being drugged and raped at a party or with being molested as a child. While all of these violent actions are condemnable, we need to nuance the conversation and dislodge the words we are using, in order to respect the experiences of victims and address the ways in which structures operate in different spaces (academia, the art, the street, family, government) to inflict different forms of violence of people. So my initial thoughts are responding to two prompts from private messages and Facebook posts from friends:

1) How to teach Junot Diaz’s work now? To that I ask how have you been teaching Junot Díaz’s work until now? And more importantly, who else are you teaching? I find that in many syllabi Díaz is the representative of Latinx, if not minority, literature. That’s it. For those of us who teach Latinx literature, Junot then comes to occupy the Dominican spot. I imagine losing him would pose a problem if one knows no other Dominican author. There are many options there. While I don’t often teach Díaz’s work mainly because my own teaching and research practices lead me to teaching in justice which to me means picking lesser known authors, when I do teach his or anyone’s work I lead my students to ask difficult questions and to engage with the text critically. I do not agree with the mentality of only teaching people you like as human beings, that is a reductionist, and close-minded way to teach. It also means you are only teaching your friends. Both practices are detrimental to students. So for those who want to continue teaching Díaz (the way we teach Sarmiento or Penson or so many historical asshole men), I would invite you to continue to engage your students critically but more importantly to not make Junot Díaz the resident Dominican in your syllabus. He is the only Dominican-American male author. Why not live a little and read Josefina Baez, Nelly Rosario, Angie Cruz, Loyda Maritza Perez, Rhina Espaillat? 2) Questions of justice and possibilities/impossibility of redemption: I come from a place in which I was taught that you don’t meet violence with violence and that misconduct and mistakes, particularly when people own up to them, should be met with constructive dialogue that lead to justice and redemption. This is a conversation I have been immersed in since last year when Harvard revoked Michelle Jones’s admission. Jones had served twenty years in an Indiana prison for killing her 4-year-old child. While in prison Jones not only rehabilitated but became a leading scholar and researcher. Harvard’s decision made many of us professors and students upset. Why is Jones being punished all over again? When does a person end being punished and allowed a chance to proof themselves? I am interested in thinking more about the ways in which we, as a society, and we, as academics, deal with condemnation and punishment. More importantly, I am interested in thinking more about the unequal ways in which scholars of color seem to suffer longer sentences for their misconducts and crimes while white men (surprise, surprise) continue to walk and get away with hurting others. Many of the things Junot Díaz is being accused of, namely being an asshole, are the lived everyday life experiences of those of us on the tenure track as well as graduate students, more so if you are a woman of color. I open my own book with a violent experience I had my first week in graduate school at Michigan where a white man, a professor, referred to my country of birth as the source of “cheap whores.” During my years as a graduate student at Michigan, I had other white professors question my abilities, my research, and my place in the academy. After laboring for six months on a dissertation chapter, one of the professors I asked for feedback asked me if I had “problems writing because this is pretty bad.” Another told me that I was never going to get a job because “I was too close to the subject” and it was clearly not possible for me to write a good book. Later, when I graduated and opted to have a child, a senior female professor told me that “the pregnancy must have affected my brain cause I was writing pretty horribly.” To those examples, I can add the violent ones I have lived on the tenure track that ranged from racist and sexist micro-aggression to harassment. The perpetrators were not always men. They were not always white. If I thought calling them out on the twitter world would end the structural violence in academia, I would have. But we all know that is not how it will end. In fact, as we are too busy beating Junot while he is down, I have had two conversations with graduate student experiencing similar violence with their peers and professors and while it is courageous to speak up against a person, the real labor is in changing the structures, and that labor includes thinking together about justice and redemption.”

- Lorgia Garcia Peña

[andreagilroy]

On My Life

Some of you know about this because we have discussed it in person, and others of you have probably assumed this was the case, but I thought it was time to publicly and explicitly discuss what’s going on with me regarding THE FUTURE when it comes to career options, particularly the dreaded tenure track. This’ll be long, I guess. Read at your own risk.

Simply and shortly, it has been three years and I have applied for nearly one hundred positions in areas such as media studies, visual studies, American studies, cultural studies, contemporary American literature, comparative literature, and, of course, the few comic studies positions that have come up. I have applied across the country and internationally. I received one request for more information. I have never been invited to even one first round interview.

I was the interim head of a program since graduation. In my graduate years, I organized events, including a pedagogy conference. I am a member of a board of a conference in my field. I have letters from three luminaries in my field, two from outside my institution. I have an impeccable teaching record. I have a publication; and in my last round, I had two publications under review. I have multiple conference appearances. I have a strong service record in and outside academia. I had peers and colleagues look over my materials at multiple stages. I admit I did not pay Karen Kelsky hundreds of dollars to look at them.

I admit that I have not applied for every available position. Shaun and I decided long ago that our quality of life meant we would not be willing to live just anywhere. I have not applied for any and every visiting position (though I have applied for many). I did not apply for every adjunct position. I have a hard time, at my age, imagining moving across the country every year for a one-year position only having to start over and do it all again.

I admit that I could be publishing more. I know this, but my focus has always been on teaching and working with my peers in the field, and I think my record reflects this. Unfortunately, in the era of metrics publications are all that matters. I had hoped the excellence in other areas could overcome this, and that the presence of publications and promise of more (there are more on the way, still!) would work. It did not.

So it came to this: I knew the market was affecting my mental health (and thus my physical health) in seriously negative ways. I was spiraling. I felt like I was doing everything right, but getting nowhere. I would see people who I thought I was as good as getting positions, and I didn’t understand it. I was questioning my worth not just as a scholar, but as a human. I have, since I started grad school, fiercely protected my moments of humanity. I have a husband. I get to spend time with him. I get to sleep. I get to be a person. No job should take that away, no matter how much I love it. (I mean, obviously there are crunch times, but, you know what I’m saying). So I realized that I had to step away.

I realized that I could still find ways to teach outside of the tenure track. It would be hard and different, but I could do it. That’s one reason I’ve started my YouTube channel. Not everyone gets access to Comics Studies 101 in college. Maybe they can online! I’m also hoping to find ways to work with teachers at all levels who hope to teach comics, to help them teach comics better. I know there’s a demand for this in a lot of middle and high school classrooms. I know, based on my experience at conventions, people outside the college classroom want to discuss comics and fandom in serious ways. Helping out with Miss Anthology has been one of the most enriching experiences of the past few years. I look forward to finding ways more to do this kind of work.

I have also, in some of my alternative positions, remembered my wealth of other skills. I am very good at administrative and organizational tasks. I am LOVING my current work as an associate curator on the Marvel Show opening soon at MoPop. I would love to continue exploring this, for sure!

For that last three years, I have been stringing together one-term or one-year gigs with the hope it might lead to something permanent. Now, I know it won’t. I can work temporary teaching gigs knowing it is on my terms. There are problems with the “gig economy” – a lot of them – but I am happier knowing that I am working in an uncertain world -on my terms- rather than chasing some imagined carrot that may never materialize.

We also really like it here in the PNW. And for someone wanting to be involved in the comics world, it’s the place to be. I like working with creators and creatives, with people working directly in publishing (maybe someday I’ll get involved in that, too). I hope to continue to teach in the classroom, too—there are, after all, two comics programs right nearby and I’m qualified…no other area in the nation can say that! I’m happy to pick up classes (I’ll be doing one this summer for UO, in fact). I’m not giving up on teaching, just on tenure-track academia.

Anyway, that’s where I’m at!

[frankchurchillsaysrelax]

gmw au month: Oh the Humanities

At the small yet prestigious Adams College in small town Pennsylvania there is a group of young professors that make the School of Humanities the most popular on campus.

Riley Matthews attended Adams College, her parents’ alma mater before moving to New York to try and make it in the theatre world. After her 27th birthday, with one off-broadway play and a few hundred auditions under her belt, she moved back and took a job in her old department. Now, five years later she is on track for tenure and takes her job very seriously, doing her best to teach her students even though most of the time she feels like a failure and a fraud. The department chair is one of her old professors, a grumpy old man close to retirement who still treats her like a student and takes every opportunity to drop department issues into her lap. When she quite literally runs into the new English professor at the school’s start-of-the-year event everything changes.

Maya Hart moved back to Pennsylvania with her lifelong best friend and got a job with the college after a few years of barely leaving her studio. Last year she didn’t take teaching very seriously, but slowly she has come to love her students and wants to do for them what her professors did for her even if that means dealing with departmental politics. Something she is serious about though is the decades long feud between the studio and performing arts. Riley may be her best friend but that won’t protect her from the epic pranks she and her students have planned. 

Farkle Minkus spent his whole life being trained to join his father at the family company. His family was surprised when he decided to abandon that plan and study science. They were even more shocked when he changed his major after a single Philosophy seminar during his sophomore year. After earning his PhD he knew he wanted to continue in academia to try to understand all the mysteries of the universe and accepted a position at Adams. He is waiting to find out if he is going to offered tenure for next year, and at 33 he would be the youngest professor in the school’s history to receive the honor. Finding his way to Adams also meant reconnecting with his old family friend Riley Matthews who makes sure he has a social life.

Isadora Smackle is a literal rocket scientist. A full time employee at NASA she also travels the country as a guest lecturer. Adams College is a favorite due in no small part to the presence of Farkle Minkus, her former nemesis in college whom she’s never quite forgiven for abandoning their shared love of science in favor of philosophy. Graduating high school at 15 she didn’t have many friends when she got to Princeton. Farkle, although he was a year ahead and four years older, was nice to her and challenged her. After a few months of friendly rivalry though he switched majors and stopped talking to her. He is never anything but kind to her on her twice annual visits to Adams, but her pride won’t allow her to give him a second chance.

Zay Babineaux came to Adams looking for a new path after a knee injury ended his dancing dreams. Sometimes he really feels like a cliche. He started the same year as Riley and at first the two could barely tolerate each other. After being forced by their department heads to direct and choreograph Pirates of Penzance together they developed a solid working relationship and eventual friendship. He still teases her daily that musicals are the best theatre and dancing the best form of performance art. He’s surprised when Riley introduces them to the new English professor, seeing his childhood best friend for the first time in years.

Lucas Friar never saw himself being where he is today. After flunking out of veterinary school, unable to handle the pressure, he fell back on his second love. Everybody loves a good story. He quickly becomes known as the cool teacher™ much to Maya Hart’s annoyance. He’s always had a problem with his temper but he’s come a long way with it. Zay remembers him as an angry teenager though and it takes longer than he’d like to convince him that he’s changed. At the school’s start-of-the-year event he runs into a pretty brunette who incorporates him into her world and changes everything. 

[ireadathing]

Loleen Berdahl and Jonathan Malloy, Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD

This book has been so helpful to my thinking. After spending the late winter and spring of this year trying to write a SSHRC application, I started feeling so... frustrated and not excited about so many things--about my research (and my vague sense of it); about my prospects of being in the world if I pursued a PhD; about the UofT Archives, oddly, because I know there's cool stuff in there, I just wasn't finding it; about the relevance of my research interest and the way I'd have to warp my interests, which are ultimately more divergent and creative than traditional “research”, for academia. 

So I picked up this book, and the more I read the more clear eyed I felt about pursuing academia vs. not. I made a list of pros and cons. The list of cons was expansive compared to the pros.

I decided to think on it. On Wednesday of that week I talked to some friends of mine on the phone and the fact that I was thinking about not doing a PhD came up. I didn't want to be boring or take over the conversation with it, but they asked and so I sort of word vomited about my thinking. About how I want to be doing something concrete in the world - I've been thinking this in particular in light of the pandemic. And how it's occurred to me that not doing a PhD doesn't mean I won't be a person who thinks and reads and produces things. I can do all of those things in a different way, in a different context.

I also had an interesting conversation with Andrew on one of our walks about how I've felt a certain amount of pressure to do something extraordinary - for reasons I won't get into here. And that has prevented me in some ways from logically seeking out more practical options.

I want to be of use in the world. And I'm already excited about the things that I can do with my life that aren't this.

I think I would like to write an email to the professors who wrote this book to thank them. It’s so clear, logical, straightforward and practical. I’ve honestly never thought practically or intentionally about my life. I’ve never planned for things, at least not far in advance. I think I’ve been scared to work with the actual substance of my life and instead of staying hidden in a few removed dreams.

I'll also write a few notes from it here, because I think it’s so generally useful:

---

Chapter 1 - Get What You Want from your PhD

“Rather than moving through your doctoral program with your eyes solely on the next step, we will push you to maximize your personal agency and strategically position that next step into the larger context of your career trajectory. What those steps and trajectory are is ultimately up toy ou; this book is oriented toward helping you decide what is best for you.

To achieve this, we structure our guidance around an overarching question for you to continuously ask yourself:

Given both my future goals and the information currently available to me, what is my best decision right now?

...The question forces you to explicitly consider your future goals, and to be realistic as you do so. It pushes you together whatever information is available to you and to go beyond relying on what you presume to be true or what your well-meaning but perhaps not fully informed professors and fellow students are telling you. T he question demands you to use the information you find to weigh your options as you make your choices. And the question requires you to continually reassess your decisions and to make corrections to your path as new information emerges, as circumstances change, as your goals evolve.”  (2-3)

“Making the best decision for yourself will not necessarily result in the exact outcome you predict; life lacks guarantees, and this certainly applies to the advice we provide. But ideally, by asking yourself this question about both your large and small decisions, and by continually returning to the question to reassess and change course as needed, you can avoid any future feeling of regret with respect to your career choices. You can also develop a sense of confidence that you are capable of making the best decision for yourself and that you can strategically pursue your own best interests.” (3)

“Table 1.1 Worksheet: Considering future goals and available information

Given both my future goals and the information currently available to me, what is my best decision right now

Questions to get you started:

Future Goals:

What kind of tasks do I want to be doing in my future work life?

What would my ideal work day look like? How do I envision balancing my future work and personal lives?

Where do I want to live? How important is that to me?

How much money do I want to make? How important is that to me?

What kind of difference do I want to make in the world? What do I consider to be meaningful work?

What do I like doing, both day to day and over the course of a year or more? What motivates and energizes me? What does the opposite?

Do I like immediate payoff and rewards? Or am I comfortable with investing for the long term, such as through a PhD, even if exact results are not guaranteed?

Information currently available:

What types of career skills are valued in the sectors that interest me? Do I feel I can build/acquire these skills?

What are the average PhD completion rates in my field? Time to completion rates?

In what careers do PhDs in my field work? Is a PhD necessary to do this work?

Who are recent PhD graduates in my field that I can identify as possible role models (or cautionary tales)?

What are my resources, personal priorities, and personal commitments at this stage in my life? How might they affect my pursuing a PhD?” (4)

“While many students have a single, narrow goal in mind--specifically, a tenure track university professor position--we encourage you to adopt a broader goal that takes into account all relevant information”  (7)

Proposed goal: a successful rewarding career that uses your talents and the skills that you’ve developed throughout your education

“Be conscious of current experience with particular competencies and what you can do to develop further. We suggest you create a portfolio that you update monthly with absolutely everything that is even remotely relevant as evidence of your competencies. Future You will be happy you did so” (13)

“Table 1.2. Worksheet: Creating your portfolio of career competencies

Career Competency | Examples of Evidence | Your current evidence | Options to build more evidence

Critical thinking and problem solving

written and oral communication skills

Digital technology

professionalism and work ethic

teamwork and collaboration

leadership

global / intercultural fluency” (13)

Informational Interviews

“One of the best ways to learn about career options and what specific careers are really like is to speak to individuals who are working in a field. Informational interviews are a standard way to do this: They provide inside information and allow you to build and expand your professional networks. The idea of cold calling strangers to ask to meet with them may make you uncomfortable, but informational interviews are common and you should not feel that you are making an unusual or outrageous request. In the early years of your program, such meetings will provide you with key insights on the competencies that are valued in different careers; in the later years of your program, these meetings may lead to critical networks that feed directly into your job search.

1. Establish a list of 20+ names

-brainstorm people you know personally

-ask those in your circle then move out to the true strangers realm

2. Make the request

-ask for a short meeting at their convenience, ideally in their office

-if in a different city, request a short telephone conversation

-clarify that you are not asking about a job, but rather than you are seeking information on careers more broadly

-request should be straightforward such as the following email:

Dear Ms. Adams,

I am writing to request a 20 minute meeting with you to learn more about careers in community relations. I am currently in the last year of my PhD in sociology and am curious to learn how community relations work. I am happy to meet with you in your office or speak with you by telephone at your convenience.

Thank you for considering this request. I look forward to hearing from you

Sincerely,

3. Prepare

-background research

-learn about org, field, individual

-prepare a specific list of questions to ask about what the job type entails what skills are involved and what the entry points are

-include in that list of questions a closing question that asks if they recommend addition people that you should talk to (and permission to use their name when contacting)

4. Work the interview

-use time to gather information and develop your professional reputation and networks

-arrive early but not too early, dress professionally, and be respectful of their time

5. follow up and reflect

-send a thank you email and keep a record for yourself of the date and details of the interview

-reflect on what competencies you learned to be valuable in that sector and consider how you might build experience with (and concrete evidence of) that competency

How can I cultivate a professional reputation

- a number of qualities tied to professionalism

-reliable, conscientious, and attentive to detail

-understand need for appropriateness relative to their circumstances and the importance of acting graciously

“at it’s core, professionalism is largely about treating others respectfully in a broad sense. When you make the effort to be punctual and to ensure that your work meets a particular standard and that your behavior is appropriate to the situation, you are showing respect for other people’s time, energy, feelings, boundaries, and so forth.” (138)

Adopting three mindsets will help you avoid unintentional disrespect:

1. Graciousness is not optional: A lack of attention to gratitude will seal your reputational coffin if you are not careful. Always say please. And, closing the loop, thank people when they do something for you, even if it is small, and even if they are your supervisor, instructor, or committee member. When people do things for you... they are giving you a gift of their time and attention... People typically notice when they are not  acknowledge for their efforts, and you can easily turn a potential champion into someone who has no investment in your success. If someone is helpful to or supportive of you, take the minute it takes to express your gratitude. IF someone provides you with detailed feedback on your work, provide a more lengthy posotive response (even if you don’t agree with their comments). If you intend to say thank ou but fail to actually do so, the person is left with the impression that their efforts are not valued by you or that you feel entitled, and that person will be unlikely to help you again in the future. Make it a habit to thank people within 48 hours for all things large and small. (139)

2. Your department is your workplace and the people in it are your colleagues... Professionalism requires a strong sense of context as well a respect for differences in power and authority. Here are somethings to avoid: being late; showing up at meetings unprepared, without a pen and paper or tablet / laptop and a clear purpose; profanity; discussion of illegal or illicit activities; sloppiness, be it in personal attire, non-proofread emails and materials, or data and file management; anything beyond light alcohol consumption.

3. All information is private unless you are told otherwise... you need to become highly sensitive to showing others respect by developing a hyper-instinct for discretion... sometimes it’s crystal clear; other times not. Always err on the side of caution, asking if something can be share. And if you are gossiping or voicing opinions about faculty, other graduate students, undergraduate students, staff or anyone else, know that it will get back to them or be repeated to someone else. If you wouldn’t say it to their face or send it to them in an email, rethink voicing it at all (140)

How can I be productive? 

Professionalism means doing what you say you will do and by when you say you will do it. You cement your professional reputation by getting things done--and done well, on or ahead of schedule. This requires the ability to manage time, resources, and energy to make things happen, over and over.

1. Make a list of what needs to be done

-write a list of everything you have committed to and the associated deadlines and organize the list by due date

2. Break activities down into smaller tasks, distinguishing between high- and low-energy tasks

create a more detailed list to create target completion dates to manage your time and energy

some taks must be done when you are at your peak and other tasks can be done when energy levels are lower

clearly label high and low energy tasks

3. Block work time into your calendar

the trick to getting things done (and don well and on time) is to schedule the work times into your calendar and to respect these times. Remember, an unstructured schedule and its illusion of endless time is yoru enemy; imposing structure on your day is necessary

- block off all committed times

-for each task and project, est. the number of hours you will need - because most things will take longer than you assume and to provide a cushion in case of unanticipated events - increase this number by 50%

-working back from the deadline, schedule task-specific working time in your calendar, assigning high energy tasks to the high energy time slot

this allows you to identify if you’ve taken on too much

4. Work your calendar

-execution takes discipline - honour your commitments

-many writing problems occur because people are trying to plan, write, and edit simultaneously. To get around this, start with a clear outline and then focus your daily efforts on small units within the outline. Allow yourself to put ideas in point form, making notes to yourself in the draft to be dealt with at a later time

-avoid the temptation to edit as you go

Networking

“you should develop equivalent summaries of yoru skills and competencies. Be able to speak convincingly and confidently about what you can do and why it is relevant and valuable. You set the tone. You’re a professional.” (153)

Launch your Career

“organizations...do not hire people for the sake of hiring them. They hire people because they have identified a need a gap--a problem-- and at least part of the solution is to hire someone to solve it.” (157)

Figuring Out What You Want to Do

-3 dimensions - activities, subject matter, work environment

Activities: What energizes you? What triggers your flow?  - look for ovrelap between dominant competencies and types of work that energieze you

-identify which activities jazz you up and which ones wear you out along with evidence and examples

Subject Matter -  What angers, inspires you?  areas you feel strongly about and where you dream of making a contribution

Environment - large or small? Dynamic or slower pace? Stability or change? Routine

Use this to identify 3-4 career options that might be a good fit for you - push yourself to break apart the components

After you narrow in on ideas, do additional roudns of informational interview, to gather information and build networks - research industries and sectors - listen to your gut

Approach as research challenge 

Tone: Optimism & Possibility

[mediaeval-muse]

Academic Book Review

So What Are You Going to Do With That? Finding Careers Outside Academia. 3rd Ed. By Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Pp. xii + 149. $16.

Argument:  Graduate schools churn out tens of thousands of Ph.D.’s and M.A.’s every year. Half of all college courses are taught by adjunct faculty. The chances of an academic landing a tenure-track job seem only to shrink as student loan and credit card debts grow. What’s a frustrated would-be scholar to do? Can he really leave academia? Can a non-academic job really be rewarding—and will anyone want to hire a grad-school refugee? With “So What Are You Going to Do with That?” Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius—Ph.D.’s themselves—answer all those questions with a resounding “Yes!” A witty, accessible guide full of concrete advice for anyone contemplating the jump from scholarship to the outside world, “So What Are You Going to Do with That?” covers topics ranging from career counseling to interview etiquette to translating skills learned in the academy into terms an employer can understand and appreciate. Packed with examples and stories from real people who have successfully made this daunting—but potentially rewarding— transition, and written with a deep understanding of both the joys and difficulties of the academic life, this fully revised and up-to-date edition will be indispensable for any graduate student or professor who has ever glanced at her CV, flipped through the want ads, and wondered, “What if?”

***Full review under the cut.***

Chapter Breakdown

Chapter 1: “Will I Have to Wear a Suit? Rethinking Life After Graduate School” Aims to help people assess their current situation and perspective on academia and post-academic careers. Contains sections on whether or not to finish the dissertation, using your grad years wisely, myths about post-academic careers, and questions to ask yourself about your gad work and your future.

Chapter 2: “How Do I Figure Out What Else to Do? Soul-Searching Before Job Searching” Overviews some self-evaluation exercises and some industries.

Chapter 3: “Asking the Big Questions: How to Figure Out If You Want Them and If They Want You” Contains advice on how to research organizations before sending out resumes, how to network, etc. Also contains discussion on how internships, part-time jobs, and volunteer work can help.

Chapter 4: “This Might Hurt a Bit: Turning a CV Into a Resume” Advice for writing a resume and a cover letter.

Chapter 5: “Sweaty Palms, Warm Heart: Hot to Turn an Interview Into a Job” Advice for job interviews.

Reviewer Comments: This book is basically a self-help guide to making the switch from academic job to non-academic (or “post-academic,” as the authors call it) job. With the academic job market the way it is, a book like this is very necessary: not all PhDs will find a TT job, so it’s important to look at options outside higher ed and think critically about how your skills can be transferred.

Overall, the core advice in this book was fine. The authors rightfully point out that many grad students have a number of assumptions about non-academic work, and acknowledge that there are a lot of complicated emotions bound up with the decision about whether or not to continue in higher education. There are also some useful tips on how to write a resume and cover letter, including some examples.

But as useful as I found these things, I’m going to be frank: I didn’t find anything that set this book apart from general job searching advice I read online or teach my undergraduates. Things like knowing your values, tailoring your resume, networking, etc. are all pretty standard tips for a job search. The major thing that made this book specific to PhDs is that the authors threw in some anecdotes and made references to being anxious about your dissertation.

The major thing that made this book unpleasant for me was that I found the tone insufferable. Phrases that assumed what I was thinking/feeling as well as the attempt to "cute-sify" real world problems (for example, by showing a diagram of a grad student's brain with things like "ramen," "Prozac," and "cute undergrad" taking up mental space - without any acknowledgement of the things that underlie those issues) came off less relatable and more patronizing than I think was intended. For example, there’s a section which advises PhDs to start networking (as if we don’t already do that at conferences, at professional events, etc.) by saying “You didn’t think you could get through a career guide without hearing about networking, did you? You are probably dreading what comes next.” Excuse me? Moreover, the idyllic “everything will be fine as long as you put in the work and change your attitude” attitude really didn’t work for me - though the authors defend their approach as “enthusiastic” and dismiss those who criticize them for “naive optimism,” I felt like it ignored my anxieties rather than alleviated them. Fear you’ll lose your identity outside of grad school? Here’s an anecdote about someone who “got over their elitism” and is fine now! While I get that the authors want to inspire positivity, and yes, many PhDs do find success and happiness outside of academia, the “think positive and apply yourself” mentality is the same pep talk I’ve been hearing since I was young. I much preferred the book’s more down-to-earth moments, such as the authors’ honesty about how most people change careers a lot or compromise on their values when finding employment, or the practical advice like how to assess your strengths and skills.

Speaking of the anecdotes, some people may find them comforting, while some people (like me) might find them frustrating. A lot of them painted a picture of a happy life in which PhDs found their perfect careers after some soul searching. For example, there was one about a man who became a CEO after leaving academia in 1975 and working his way up until he got the position in 1990. There was another about a PhD who became a private investigator, and her story included comparisons between the complexity of Renaissance sonnets and investigative work. Maybe I just don’t know much about PI work, but I felt like I was reading the plot of one of those shows where a professor or writer helps the police solve crime. I also didn’t appreciate the stories in which PhDs took a major gamble, such as becoming an entrepreneur or writing a screenplay or going to law or library school and accruing more student loan debt. In short, some of these anecdotes were helpful, but many of them felt out of touch and didn’t do much to make me feel less alone.

Finally, the fact that this book was aimed at all PhDs - regardless of field - made for advice that was way too general. I feel like trying to find a job as someone with a background in the sciences will be significantly different for someone with a background in the humanities, particularly when it comes to marketable skills. The fact that the authors gave blanket advice like “tailor your resume” and “volunteer while you’re in grad school to build skills” further highlighted how this book wasn’t necessarily offering anything different than other job search websites or books. I would have liked to see some advice that was directed at various sub-fields. For example, what kinds of transferable skills do humanities PhDs have that they might not realize? Having a chapter filled with links to various personality quizzes or self-evaluation websites is not that helpful - I can Google those things.

While I’m sure this book will be helpful to some, it personally did nothing for me. I’m trying not to be snobbish, but when you strip away the anecdotes, there just isn’t much that sets it apart from other career advisory books or websites.

Honestly, I much prefer free websites such as Imagine PhD than this book.

Recommendations: I would recommend this book if

you’re a graduate student who has become disillusioned with academia or who is having trouble finding meaningful employment in higher education

you’re a PhD who wants to leave academia

you’re an undergraduate questioning whether or not you want to go to grad school

[wellesleyunderground]

Ask Sylvie: Disillusioned by PhD program by Yael D Sherman ‘00 (@ydsherman)

Photo by Lili Popper on Unsplash

Hi Sylvie,

I write to you as a newish alum who is struggling with a lot of disillusionment during my second year in a STEM PhD program. The short version is that my supervisor is neurotic bordering on abusive, my project doesn’t interest me but I am bound to it because of funding, and I don’t feel motivated to work on it at all. I also have realized I have no interest in remaining in academia. Certainly a PhD in this field would not hurt in getting me where I think I want to go, which is project management in a technical field. But I feel so unhappy in this program and so distant from the confident and driven person I was when I graduated from Wellesley. I’ve considered trying to switch supervisors, as my current one has a terrible reputation in the department and has had a lot of attrition lately. She has become very paranoid about me talking to other faculty and how I use my time, and I do not know how I would approach this. I already discussed my dissatisfaction with her at the beginning of the year, and told her I wanted to leave the lab. But she told me anything else I might do would be a waste of time, and pushed hard for me to stay with her, which I agreed to, though I wish I hadn't. I suppose my question is “how do I know when enough is enough?” How unhappy do I have to be to st art making plans to leave, how much of these feelings are normal for PhD students, and how much of a sacrifice am I willing to make for a degree I am not even sure I need?

Signed,

Grad in Transition, 2016

Dear Grad,

Before I say anything else, I have to say how angry I am at your supervisor and how inappropriate and wrong her behavior is. She sounds emotionally abusive to me-- isolating you, manipulating you, telling you that anything else is a waste of time--that’s awful. It is not ok for her to treat you like this.

My instant response is to tell you to GET OUT NOW. GO. You do not need this degree. You do not need to stay in this program. And I’m saying that as someone who has been through a PhD program, albeit in the humanities. You are allowed to leave, and leaving does not make you a failure.

Having said that, that I want to fully address your question and outline your options.

First, If you want to stay in this program, you can find a different advisor. You are allowed to fire your advisor. This relationship is not working out for you. You are not bound to her. You do not owe her anything. You can find a different advisor to work with.

Second, If you want to change projects, you are allowed to do that. I know that funding is a real concern, but you are allowed to change your mind. You are not bought and paid for. You are allowed to say that you do not want to pursue this line of research, thank you very much, and that you will be working on something else. Figuring out what you want to do and how to fund it are two different challenges-- and you may or may not be interested in taking that on.  

You are allowed to leave the PhD program right now. You asked how unhappy do you have to be to leave, and the answer is any degree of unhappiness-- you are allowed to leave NOW. You do not need to suffer until you break. I am giving you permission to take your feelings and your experience seriously. You can leave because you don’t like it. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to try things out and decide, nope, that’s not for me.  It is OK to zig and zag on your career path. It is OK to leave the program now.

Let’s say you stick with it and get your PhD. What do you have to look forward to? For one thing,  it is really hard to get a tenure-track job. If you are lucky enough to get a TT job, the pressures around funding that you’re experiencing now won’t go away. If anything, they’ll intensify as a STEM professor, as you’ll be expected to bring in your own funding for research projects. That means researching and writing grants, constantly seeking new sources of funding. Or, if you are like the vast majority of PhDs who stay in academia, it means adjuncting and living on the margins.

I have a PhD in Women’s Studies, and while it’s different in the Humanities, I know what academia is like. People in academia tend to believe that that is the only worthy option, the only thing worth doing. But the truth is that that is the view from inside the fish bowl. There is a whole world out there, and there are many worthy things to do. You can leave and thrive-- I know because I did, and I promise, you can too.

My question for you is why did you choose to go to grad school in the first place? I think, for some of us (me included), being good at school is an incentive to continue-- our professors encourage us, we love school, we’re good at it, why not do more of it? But this is not  a good reason to choose a career path. In some ways, it’s harder to go into the unknown, the real world, than it is to stay in school. What pulled and pushed you into going to grad school? If you can figure out your own motivations-- what you really love, what you fear-- you can use that information to help chart your path forward.

Where else can you apply the smarts that you’re bringing to school? What kind of job do you want? Where do you see yourself in five years? If you need help answering these questions, you can start talking to people in different jobs and finding out what exists out there in the real world. I did a lot of informational interviewing when I was searching for a new path outside of academia. It was a lot of work, but it really helped me figure out how to move forward and make connections. Informational interviewing helped me fill in the dark places on my own map-- what else was out there that I might want to do? What do non-academic career paths look like?  

At the moment, Grad, I’m concerned by how worn down and tired you sound.  You are not motivated to work on your project, and when you look around, all you see are closed doors-- you can’t do anything, you’re stuck. To me, this sounds like depression. Temporary? Situational? Indicative of a larger pattern? I don’t know, and I could be wrong. But I want to call your attention to this, and ask you to think about whether you might benefit from some extra support-- therapy, grad student support group, weekly phone dates with a friend, a psychiatrist-- whatever that might look like for you. Even if you are just feeling beaten down by your situation-- which is perfectly understandable-- extra support could help.

There are also things that you can do for yourself while you are in this situation. You can aim to get eight hours of sleep at night. You can exercise for 30 minutes a day-- take a walk, go to a yoga class, lift weights at the gym-- the kind of exercise doesn’t matter, but moving your body, even when you don’t want to, will help. Nurture yourself. Eat your veggies. Prioritize your health and well-being, and say no to the things that will interfere. This may sound simplistic, but we need to care for our bodies. I’m not saying that doing these things will make everything better or solve your problems-- but they will put you in a better place to make decisions and take action.  

When you are struggling to stay afloat, it is really hard to make a decision. Everything seems hard and miserable. What you feel is painful but not permanent. You can change your situation. You can leave the PhD program and still be a smart, ambitious person who is going to do good and interesting things. You can fire your advisor and find another research project that you want to do. Remember that it is up to you-- only you can decide what you want in your life.

I have faith in you, Grad.  I want to hear what you choose to do next. And I know that whatever happens, this time will become a piece of your story, something you look back and marvel at, remember when I was in that PhD program? Can you believe that? And you will look at the life you have made and marvel at that too.

Take care of yourself and good luck. You can do it.

Love,

Sylvie

--

Want your question answered? Submit here!

[superlinguo]

Linguistics jobs -  Interview with a User Experience (UX) Researcher

Today’s linguistics job interview is with Abby Bajuniemi. Abby has moved from an academic position as a professor of Spanish and Linguistics to a user experience (UX) researcher. Abby is on Twitter, and uses Medium to blog. You might find her post “Applied linguists are the UXers of Linguistics” relevant to this interview! I also learnt that “Lusophone” refers to the Portuguese language (Lusitania being the Classical Latin for Portugal, Portugal being the modern term, basically the Kingdom attached to the city of Oporto around the 15th century).

What did you study at university?

My PhD is officially in Hispanic and Lusophone Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics, but I focused on Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics. My area of study was in Spanish specifically,  but I did do a lot of work with literature in the ESL and English linguistics space.

What is your job?

My day-to-day can vary quite a bit, but in general, I perform user research and work with fellow designers on web/app interface design. In user research, I do a lot of things I have done in linguistics research, from card sorts (where you get people to sort things into categories that make sense to them, used in semantics research) to ethnographies. I describe how systems are used to people who want to build software and digital solutions and make recommendations for that solution that will be easy for users to use as well as delightful to look at. If the business wants to do something with the software that won’t resonate with users, I am the users’ voice in advocating for the design that will be most effective for them while still meeting business needs.

My path to my current job is a bit winding. I was a VAP (Visiting Assistant Professor) at a Selective Liberal Arts College on a non-tenure track appointment, and I learned that there may not be possibility for renewal. I did a lot of research to find a non-academic career that would seem to be a good fit for the skills I developed in grad school. I made huge efforts to network and meet people in UX, which eventually paid off in a first job as a CX (customer experience) Insights Analyst, and from there, continuing to network, I made my way into my current role. I’m happy to talk to other linguists about how my career pivot!

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

Gosh, how DOESN’T it help me? I use my research skills all the time, from user interviews, questionnaire and survey design, quantitative/qualitative data analysis, problem solving skills, you name it. I also use my knowledge of language acquisition and sociolinguistics in projects that involve localization, learning new systems, and system design to match the user’s mental representation of what the system should look like and do. I rely heavily on my training in cognitive science every day.

I’ve also used my Spanish skills to conduct user research internationally and do some side work as a translator.

Do you have any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

YES! Linguistics is useful in so many non-academic industries. Content Strategy, User Experience Research, Copyediting, Technical Writing, you name it. We have tons of options to do cool things outside of academia. Make connections with professionals in any of these industries and explore what’s out there. If you’re dead set on an academic career, know that if it doesn’t pan out for whatever reason, there is interesting, exciting, and fulfilling work out there for you. If academia isn’t for you, you’re only limited by your imagination!

Also, networking is so, so important. It’s intimidating and can feel icky, but it’s a necessary thing to learn to do.

Any other thoughts or comments?

As for additional thoughts: there are lots of us outside of academia. Look around and find us! :)

Previously:

Interview with a Study Abroad Facilitator

Interview with The Career Linguist

Interview with a local radio Digital Managing Editor

Interview with a freelance translator and editor

Interview with an educational development lecturer (and linguistic consultant)

Interview with a client services manager

Check out the Linguist Jobs tag for more interviews