Posted on 05/26/2014 1:25:04 PM PDT by rickmichaels
Jennifer Polk was a few years into her Ph.D. in history at the University of Toronto when she attended a departmental meeting and heard that 50 per cent of the school’s graduates were getting tenure-track professor jobs. “They were patting themselves on the back,” she says. “I was sitting there horrified.” She realized she needed another plan. Since that meeting several years ago, the number of jobs for academics has fallen further. The chance of becoming a professor is now estimated to be one in four.
Charmaine Grant began her Ph.D. three years ago partly because she couldn’t get a full-time job after finishing her M.A. in literature at Ryerson University. “I said to myself, there’s no way I can go through another year of this, just sending my CV into cyberspace,” she says. “I thought my time would be better spent in school.” She was thinking less about whether she would become a professor and more about how exciting it would be to continue her scholarship on black women’s hair. Today, still unable to see herself as a professor, she’s quit the doctorate and begun a job search.
Both women say that the culture of academia has made the transition from graduate school to work more difficult than it ought to be. “Everyone asks you, inside and outside the academy, ‘So are you going to be a professor?’ ” says Polk, “When you get to the point where you realize maybe this is not for me, you feel like a loser.”
A couple of recent studies, The 2013 Canadian Postdoc Survey and Beyond Labs and Libraries: Career Pathways for Doctoral Students, confirm that many graduate students aren’t getting the support they need to prepare for non-academic careers.
The Postdoc Survey, a partnership between the Canadian Association of Postdoctoral Scholars and Mitacs (an organization that coordinates industry-university research partnerships, including internships) consulted 1,830 of the estimated 9,000 Ph.D. graduates working as entry-level “postdoctoral researchers” in Canada. They found that their average age was 34 and roughly two-thirds earned less than $45,000 annually, many without benefits. Half reported no exposure to non-academic careers and 87 per cent said they either had no access to career counselling or were uncertain thereof. Nearly seven in 10 said their career goal was to become a professor—despite the odds. While large numbers agreed they wanted training in things like grant or proposal writing and project management, few were getting any. Some of their comments were revealing: one said non-academic careers were seen as “selling out or failing.”
The good news is that most master’s and doctoral graduates who leave the academy eventually find high-paying work. Statistics Canada’s 2013 National Graduates Survey looked at where the class of 2010 ended up three years later. Among master’s graduates, 90 to 95 per cent were working full-time, depending on the province (the rest were unemployed or not seeking work). Among doctoral graduates, employment rates ranged from 90 to 100 per cent. Median pay was $70,000 for master’s graduates and $75,000 for doctoral graduates, compared to $53,000 for bachelor’s graduates.
The other good news is that a group of Ontario academics is working to develop training to ease the transition. Allison Sekuler, AVP and dean of graduate studies at McMaster University, is part of a project that will, this fall, launch 18 learning modules for graduate students covering everything from resumés to networking. “They have a lot of skills but don’t know how to adapt those for non-academic careers,” she says.
Polk struggled to figure out how to apply her skills outside of the academy. She hadn’t enjoyed teaching, but she did build writing skills and community building skills, not only through her doctoral work but also through her indie music blog and at a part-time job where she worked with consultants. “I went straight through: high school, undergrad, M.A., Ph.D.,” she says. “When I finished I was 32 years old. I mean, thank God for the music scene experience. Thank God for the consulting.”
She’s capitalized on those strengths by starting a new blog, FromPhDtoLife.com, which includes interviews with other people who transitioned out of academia. One of her favourites is from a guy who, at age 36, finished his Ph.D. and spent months working for his brother-in-law’s duct cleaning company—and enjoyed it. After that, he found work at a museum consulting firm. The blog helps her drum up business as a life coach. She charges by the hour to help young academics plan their careers.
Grant, meanwhile, is wary of her lack of experience outside the academy but exploring options. She’s glad she took on a Mitacs internship and other work with the Diversity Institute while doing her Ph.D. because it helped her build new skills. “I had to learn how to work within a team and ask for help when I needed it,” she says. Her work on the Black Experience Project also taught her how grant-proposal writing differs from academic writing. She’s thinking of applying those skills in her career or maybe trying something entirely new, like learning American sign language. Whichever direction she takes, after a decade of university, it’s going to be a big change.
I am retired and was looking into a PhD program to get a union card to teach at university, you know, to do something and I lectured at a few service schools over my career. Anyway, in the DFW area are many universities, too include Texas Women’s University.
They have a Women’s Studies PhD, real ‘ball-buster to get in’:
For TWU admission into the Ph.D. degree program in Women’s Studies:
A completed master’s degree
A grade point average of 3.5 or above on prior graduate-level course work
Two letters of recommendation from referees who can address the applicant’s past academic performance and future academic potential
A statement of purpose: a short essay (approximately 1000 words) discussing the applicant’s personal and professional goals and how TWU’s Ph.D. program in Women’s Studies can assist the applicant in meeting these goals
A writing sample: an academic paper not to exceed twenty-five pages, including notes and references
A current curriculum vitae or resumé
Real tough place. . .
Humanities Professorship = Suckling on the Govtit
I heard recently that starting salary for a petroleum engineer is $100K, so the blue bar is probably “starting salary”. The other would then likely be “average after x years”.
Yeah, as expected, that got zero coverage by the rat media.
Government subsidies keep unneeded professors employed turning cranking out degrees for which their is no economic rationale. It is welfare for college professors because they indoctrinate and spout leftist propaganda. Meanwhile, young lives are ruined.
Government subsidies keep unneeded professors employed turning cranking out degrees for which their is no economic rationale. It is welfare for college professors because they indoctrinate and spout leftist propaganda. Meanwhile, young lives are ruined.
I couldn’t get past that line. I really couldn’t.
omgosh! all they need to do is get on a team that writes proposals for grants... it is not that difficult... i have done it, and the only skills i needed were writing skills and taking direction... and the willingness to work around the clock until that proposal is out the door--even if it meant no bathroom break just yet! i didn't even choose that job... i literally got pulled into it the first time... "hey you! come here--we need you!"
Probably should have gotten a PHD in Modern Expressive Dancing and moved to North Dakota and got a job as a pole dancer/stripper at $2,500 a night .... providing you’re not excessively obese or two coyote ugly ... tattoos OK.
I have my PHD. I studied and wrote about Black Diamond Strings. Never did quite finish. The Black Diamond Strings kept breaking whenever I tried to tune them.
(Some of you older guitar players may be able to identify with me...)
FMCDH(BITS)
Charmaine Grant
I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'd say the chances are quite high. :-)
Nothing wrong with being a hairdresser if that is her interest, and a student for a hobby; unfortunately she appears to have squandered someone's money and her years
The better study grant....would be WHY and HOW does belly button lint get there????
The colleges and universities had no problems taking the taxpayer’s loan and grant money over the years.
Sooner or later, there has to be an education bubble to burst. This is truly the fleecing of America.
And I'm a professional working in a Hospital!!
Where can you get a PHD in...Militia Studies? LOL!
Say what?
How many real losers delude themselves by getting a "PHD" on a trash subject and expecting eventually to "win" a professorship on the subject?
Other that a well disguised welfare life tenure, what use is it?
How many millions more are there with totally useless college educations and degrees?
-PJ
Because it wants to?
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