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when i say the academic job market is brutal, i don't mean it's 'stressful'. i mean it is traumatic and emotionally violent to the point of physical harm. there is no "right" way. you either get lucky or you don't. it is a meat grinder. it is demoralizing and unfair.
if you do get a job, you're not better or smarter or better qualified than those who didn't. you didn't do something "right". you can't replicate your success for other people. it's roulette where the consequences of playing chicken can mean financial ruin, homelessness, illness.
to my friends who are grieving, i see you. take time away to feel your feelings. mourn. don't accept advice that sounds like it was written by people who haven't lived it (including me!!). but i believe in you. there is a fulfilling path for you. you are valued and valuable.
to my friends with jobs, especially those with tenure or equivalent, if you have ANY sway (like even just being able to speak up at meetings) you should be using it to change the system to make it less of a meat grinder. be creative. seriously. you have more power than you think.
If you'll permit me to take the capitalist view for a moment: Universities and funding agencies invest HUGE amounts of money into producing PhDs. Each PhD is a treasure trove of knowledge and skill. Then, that investment is throwing into a battle royale where only* luck matters.
Many valuable, hard-working, deserving PhDs are broken in the process. The investment does not produce more research, grant capture, or teaching staff. So why?
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*I consider privilege to be luck, but more predictable than random luck
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*I consider privilege to be luck, but more predictable than random luck
For those few years, they pour resources into students/junior colleagues and then throw them to the wind. Those resources could be redirected to more careful research, higher quality teaching, HIRING MORE FACULTY/STAFF. So, what's the point? Why is the market as bad as it is??
I don't get it. All capitalist logic I can muster from my experience says the return on students is lower than the return on well-resourced staff. So it's not about profit. What then? Tradition? PhDs struggle to get jobs outside academia in many fields, so it's not prestige.
Anyway, I'm not saying there should be fewer PhDs. All education should be there for whoever wants it. But maybe it shouldn't be constrained by bottom lines, student fees, and grant capture. Maybe that's not what education or science is about. Maybe we need to rebuild it all.
Postscript: Hire my friends you cowards.
Post-postscript: Do it for me, if you must. I do better work when I'm not vicariously suffering or having job market flashbacks. Also, I do better work when my collaborators are being paid living wages and my students have job prospects.
Post-postscript: Do it for me, if you must. I do better work when I'm not vicariously suffering or having job market flashbacks. Also, I do better work when my collaborators are being paid living wages and my students have job prospects.
