is anyone even talking about what the pandemic has done to the already bad alt-ac market? ffs, look at the museums/publishing/nonprofit job boards and you'll see it's basically as hopeless as the academic market right now

not to mention the hoards of people recently laid off now competing for what little's there—folks with years of direct experience

it's going to take years for recovery, IF these fields recover

Live music's another one—whew boy, have you seen the layoffs happening at places like Live Nation? Where are people whose resumes scream "I WORK IN THE ARTS" supposed to go?

whether by necessity or by choice, I'm basically leaving musicology. I'm working as a nanny. I no longer feel like there's any real empathy coming out of professional orgs—just kind of a wash of "well meaningness" that isn't very useful

someone wiser than me on Twitter, who I can't find now, said that we can't mentor our way out of a structural crisis.

and I think when people object to careers panels, it's not because the organizers didn't try to include a variety of viewpoints—because whether they succeed or not, I think they do try

it's that the end result just doesn't seem to deliver anything different year after year after year. That, and the point of view "I have no resources, and there are precious few outlets open for my expertise" isn't really represented when we focus on "success" stories

for me, and I think for a lot of folks unable to truly earn a living within the discipline right now and possibly forever, I think it seems like there's a lack of public mourning over what has been lost.

I dunno. I'm ranting because all of the conversations happening today hit a sore place but... I wonder how good it is for my mental health to just watch the exact same conversations happening over and over

I think when we appear to think that if we just compile enough resources, warn people hard enough, or add enough internships/mentoring to the curriculum that everyone will be ok... there's nothing explicitly wrong with those ideas but

...it feels super pollyanna-ish when you know you're probably already lost to the field and that for you, there is no "solution," even though you've done everything right.

and that's just going to add to the pile of mounting frustrations

I know that positive psychology encourages looking for solutions instead of discussing problems... but that can also be toxic, and most of the time, we're still not hearing from the people most impacted. I've had to basically drop out of everything for the last year...

and have really been discovering during 11 months of unemployment and bad internet access how much you're expected to *pay cash money* to be heard from.

In addition to having to withdraw from every conference I was accepted to this year because I was trying to live on $1200/month unemployment, I turned down an AMS council nomination because I couldn't commit to paying dues/registration fees for the next three years

and guess I am probably going to lose a committee assignment for the same reason. I know I'm not alone, because my inbox for months has been full of frustrated people who know the Duck will understand. It's not even just about the AMS and graduate education/careers...

I think it's a continuation of frustration that the people who are doing OK are the ones who generally control the conversations about those topics.

I'll stop ranting now as this has become a formless mass of frustrations . But I think...

we really need to
1) work on understanding how the pandemic has changed career paths connected to our discipline for years to come (or forever)
2) imagine new forms of scholarly mutual aid NOW
3) seriously change how we have been having career-related discussions

(of all the many typos, repeated words, and bad grammar in that whole thread, it's hoard/horde that is bothering me )