Lately the Chronicle of Higher Education has been filled with realistic, but depressing editorials and articles about the rapidly diminishing job opportunitiest for academic types-- particularly for individuals getting a PhD in the Humanities or other liberal arts fields.
As colleges and universities reduce costs, liberal arts program cuts seem to be at the forefront. A recent article presents an ongoing list of departmental/major eliminations including English, American studies, economics, classics and sociology. These cuts not only affect the number of students who will enroll in such classes in the future but also eliminate job opportunities for current and future PhD's.
A graduate student, Katharine Polak, tired of the ongoing negative rhetoric, appeals to the authors of these articles to help graduate students find an alternate path or a positive way forward.
I work with graduate students and each week I see some of the brightest and best doctoral students-- incredible researchers, gifted teachers-- who are worried about the job market. It's understandable-- for most of them, the PhD has been a professional track leading, in theory, to one ideal outcome: a tenure-track position at a prestigious university or college. But these students are faced with some scary scenarios: the prospect of only finding employment at a tiny college or low-ranking university in a small town or other less-than-desirable location (I'll let you fill in the details); a never-ending career as an adjunct or lecturer with limited pay and growth potential; or, no job at all.
Some individuals will take these less-than-desirable opportunities and carve out a satisfactory, even enjoyable career, in what they describe as a necessary compromise. They love their students, they love teaching, and/or they love their subject, and if they have to compromise on institutional or geographic desirability to stay in their chosen profession, then it's fine. Most of us make career compromises in our chosen fields. But if they make these choices only because they haven't thought of anything better to do-- well, that's a sad career decision.
A few years ago, while searching for career coaching books, I found an excellent book entitled Motivational Interviewing by William Miller and Stephen Rollnick. I mistakenly assumed it was a career book and pulled it off the shelf at my local Barnes & Noble. As I started reading, I quickly learned it was about treatments for drug addicts and alcoholics, not my usual clientele (at least to the best of my knowledge). Something about it intrigued me, though, and I discovered some interesting parallels between what the authors described as their "reluctant clients" (those individuals who resisted getting treatment for their addiction) and the students I worked with. My students, too, were "reluctant clients"-- avoiding and resisting the dreaded job market.
Increasingly, graduate students turn up at my door asking me directly, "What can I do now?" They are experiencing what I can only describe as the "career abyss": that black hole of nothingness they see beyond the academic world. Because most of them know nothing else. They made the decision to go to graduate school when they were 20 and enrolled in college-- before they had even tested the wide world of employment. They had already excelled in the academic world-- why not continue to live in it? Most confess to a few "unglamorous" jobs in high school or over summer breaks in college, but for the most part since they arrived at graduate school they have been teaching, researching, and taking classes.
The answer I give them? Open your mind and use your research skills. You researched something to progress through your doctoral process; now it's time to use those valuable skills to research your alternative career. But let's stop there: what if you didn't think of it as an "alternative" career-- but rather, the additional fields/careers which would benefit from your knowledge and skills?
Graduate students can be remarkably myopic about the world of careers. If I had to identify the one major stumbling block I see over and over with humanities/liberal arts graduate students it would be the notion that any career aside from "tenure-track professor" is somehow "less-than": a form of "settling" or worse yet, a source of shame. If that's what you hear in your department, or elsewhere, ignore it. It's not about you. (Remember the old saying, "what you think of me is none of my business.") You can, if you choose, craft an amazing career-- which may or may not please anyone else. I like to think of a PhD or EdD as an admissions ticket, so to speak, to play in the world of higher education and beyond.
I spend my first appointment with graduate students asking a series of questions. Many can't answer them on the spot-- but that's not the point. I put them out so they will ponder them for awhile and see what answers start to appear. If you're a graduate student, start pondering the following:
- What other careers did you consider prior to entering your graduate program? Take a few minutes to think what you might have done had you not gone to graduate school. Is that a road you would now consider?
- What has been special about your experience in grad school? Where have you received recognition? What have you done particularly well? What are your gifts? (Research? Writing? Teaching?) Why do you consider yourself especially talented in those areas? What have you most enjoyed about these areas?
- Why would an employer outside academia value the skills you've developed in your doctoral program? How would an employer benefit from your skills and knowledge? (Hint: let's assume employers will if you articulate them well.)
- When you have been at your all-time best, what were you doing?
- What geographic area would you prefer? (Once you aren't seeking academic jobs anywhere in the country, you can actually select a geographic area.)
- What types of people do you want to work around-- children, adolescents, college students, adults, researchers, business executives, people committed to a cause, etc.? Or are you more comfortable with statistics, research, data, computers, and so on? Identify companies, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, etc. that deal with your chosen population or interests.
- What causes, problems, or issues capture your imagination? What careers would put you in the middle of that issue?
- What are your strongest mindsets? Analysis? Problem-solving? What career fields need those mindsets?
- How does your field of study add a positive and unique perspective to a (seemingly) unrelated field of work?
- If you really like the higher education milieu, have you considered other career paths? There are jobs in virtually every field of higher ed-- admissions, development, student advising, etc.-- that offer rewarding careers which, ironically, may pay better than some academic positions. Personally, I have found the administrative side of higher education intellectually challenging, creative, and blessed with a remarkable degree of independence-- characteristics which fit my personality. I have never looked at my choices as creating "less-than" a tenure-track career.
Where do smart people go? Everywhere. You just have to be willing to think differently to construct a picture in place of the abyss. Identify the key themes in your life. (My book, You Majored in What? is newly released in paperback and contains a variety of helpful exercises to explore career options.)
