tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post9101593806751946994..comments2024-03-12T03:41:35.856-04:00Comments on From Grad School to Happiness: This Year's Market ... Is Not For MeJChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04468758055878600762noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-22026452024513004172011-10-11T17:49:31.340-04:002011-10-11T17:49:31.340-04:00I think that recent PhD is right!! I'm often l...I think that recent PhD is right!! I'm often looking at the job market but while I see lots of jobs I can't see anything that either (a) appeals to me or (b) that I wouldn't have to pretzel myself and my academic interests into inorder to apply for it. <br /><br />I'd also agree with you about those colleagues of mine who are in tenure track jobs that none of them appears to be remotely happy. I've even checked out their faculty photos on their respective pages and they look downright depressed! What's with this?? Maybe its a genuine..ie in "in" look. I dunno. <br /><br />Oh well, the sane part of me still says...whoowhoo..since I know that I can't do the pretzel thing myself.antheahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10269725364477824869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3282788798018689873.post-33159525031158628982011-10-11T12:47:54.874-04:002011-10-11T12:47:54.874-04:00Yes 100% to this: "It's funny how much di...Yes 100% to this: "It's funny how much different the market looks, when you're not thinking 'oh my god, I need a job' ... but instead, 'what jobs would I actually want?'"<br /><br />That's always been my philosophy, even when I was more ignorantly optimistic about my chances of getting an academic job. While I've winnowed things down a lot this year, the most I ever applied for was during my first search ABD when I applied for about 27 jobs -- but I knew people in my same sub-field that year who applied for over 100 positions, including all the generalist, non tenure track, and other ones I ruled out.<br /><br />Other people's attitudes just seemed so ... unrealistic. And of the people I know who have landed academic jobs, there's only one I can point to for sure who is happy. Why? That person got a position in what was for hir a desirable location, got a tenure-track spousal hire for hir spouse (in a different department), and is at an institution with low research demands (ze got tenure without publishing a book, which gives hir freedom to do normal, "real life" stuff, like spend time with hir spouse and kids).<br /><br />So, yeah. And that was after two years of postdoc misery back in the early 2000s when the market wasn't _quite_ as bad as it now is. What are the odds for the rest of us today?<br /><br />The sane part of me says, "Who cares?" There is ZERO payoff to all the anxiety people expend on a job market that's rigged against us from the beginning.recent Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01076749808434578362noreply@blogger.com