One of the biggest changes going on in many people's lives involves jobs. I know people who have lost their jobs, who have turned down department changes to stay home (i.e. lost their job in a less conspicuous way), who have chosen to find new jobs, and who are looking for new jobs while still in jobs. I guess one benefit of graduate school is a type of job security. In some cases, people LOVE graduate school - its flexible schedule, level of intellectual freedom with relative lack of responsibility that comes with running your own lab, and job security. At the same time, graduate school is this amorphous thing that has a beginning and no clear end. How do you figure out when you are done? Is job security the same as working towards no defined end? This part of graduate school drives me CRAZY.
In reality though, I do not anticipate having a tremendously difficult time finding job opportunities following my PhD, as post-docs research move forward just like graduate students. It did occur to me that in two to three years, there could be a back-up of post-docs who have been trying to find academic positions during this whole economic crisis. Oh well...I would rather graduate and search for jobs desperately three years from now than not graduate. :-)
I should probably also put my money where my mouth is and finish that cover letter and CV and send 'em off.
3 comments:
For me job security means that I can not worry about my job so that I can work toward other "ends" in other areas of my life. I'm pretty happy with my job so I'm not concerned about working towards further career moves. It's very liberating not to have to worry about that stuff. I worried about it a lot in my 20's.
We're worried about just that for Huz - all those who didn't get the academic positions this year that will still be in line ahead of him next year when he graduates. YIKES.
The impact of the economy on graduate student prospects has been occurring to me too recently. I will try not to worry about it until I really have to.
In the meantime, here in Canada the government is redirecting more money toward our science research granting agency, away from humanities. So. Check out Cdn universities. It's easier to get tenure here too.
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