Datasets:

---

ai2-adapt-dev

/

shp-formatted

like 0

Follow

AI2 Adapt Dev 52

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Burnout is basically depression (see here). It is a serious issue and spontaneous recovery is not likely, so I urge you to get help (therapy). The earlier you get help, the better it can be treated and the better/faster you can recover from it. It sucks, but if you have burnout/depression, you cannot power through it because normal coping mechanisms will not be enough. In light of recent events, I would recommend to contact a therapist outside of your work place (if possible). There are employers (HR included) who will hold any sign of weakness against you. I hope you do not have such an employer, but it does not hurt to be careful and test the waters a bit before revealing too much. A practical tip on therapists is that you should switch if it does not fit. This does not mean that you should be discouraged if therapy is hard (because it often is a lot of work), but that you should work with a therapist who you are comfortable with. For this, you have to feel that you are taken seriously and the therapists understands you. It might also be useful to look into the different therapy types. Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic theory have both been found effective for depression treatment (source). Hope you get through this!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "When burnt out, trying to continue to push through can make it worse and make it take longer to get out of. Can you take some time completely off, even if it's only a long weekend? The longer the better, usually, but any time where you are completely disconnected and away from what is burning you out is better than none. Also, therapy, if you haven't already.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Burnout is basically depression (see here). It is a serious issue and spontaneous recovery is not likely, so I urge you to get help (therapy). The earlier you get help, the better it can be treated and the better/faster you can recover from it. It sucks, but if you have burnout/depression, you cannot power through it because normal coping mechanisms will not be enough. In light of recent events, I would recommend to contact a therapist outside of your work place (if possible). There are employers (HR included) who will hold any sign of weakness against you. I hope you do not have such an employer, but it does not hurt to be careful and test the waters a bit before revealing too much. A practical tip on therapists is that you should switch if it does not fit. This does not mean that you should be discouraged if therapy is hard (because it often is a lot of work), but that you should work with a therapist who you are comfortable with. For this, you have to feel that you are taken seriously and the therapists understands you. It might also be useful to look into the different therapy types. Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic theory have both been found effective for depression treatment (source). Hope you get through this!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Taking \"a break\" or \"down time\" isn't sufficient. You need to do something really fun, like take a vacation or go to a music festival (if you love that kind of music). Don't even feel a little guilty, I promise it really works.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Burnout is basically depression (see here). It is a serious issue and spontaneous recovery is not likely, so I urge you to get help (therapy). The earlier you get help, the better it can be treated and the better/faster you can recover from it. It sucks, but if you have burnout/depression, you cannot power through it because normal coping mechanisms will not be enough. In light of recent events, I would recommend to contact a therapist outside of your work place (if possible). There are employers (HR included) who will hold any sign of weakness against you. I hope you do not have such an employer, but it does not hurt to be careful and test the waters a bit before revealing too much. A practical tip on therapists is that you should switch if it does not fit. This does not mean that you should be discouraged if therapy is hard (because it often is a lot of work), but that you should work with a therapist who you are comfortable with. For this, you have to feel that you are taken seriously and the therapists understands you. It might also be useful to look into the different therapy types. Cognitive behavioral therapy and psychodynamic theory have both been found effective for depression treatment (source). Hope you get through this!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Get evaluated for anxiety and/or depression by your primary care physician. I did, got put on a medicine that now allows me to function. I am tired but I feel much better!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My advice is keep small goals that you can reach for the week, by small steps you can accomplish big steps with time. Celebrate every win that you consider worthy and you might be able to see how awesome you are both by your wins and your accomplishments.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Get evaluated for anxiety and/or depression by your primary care physician. I did, got put on a medicine that now allows me to function. I am tired but I feel much better!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Had burnout during my doctoral studies, just after my first child AND during covid. 9 months off and couldnt get back on my feet. I chose to quit to get well and choose a profession that doesnt stress me like the path I had chosen. I wish you the best in your journey.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I am in a similar position, I am set to graduate from my Ph.D. position and will likely go to a good postdoc position based on the offers so far, however, I am deeply depleted in terms of energy and motivation. There are crippling feelings of mediocracy so much so that I am even considering going to a smaller lab for postdoc and giving up on some of the bigger places where I have gotten in. I have tried waking up early and doing the whole workout routine, but it has only helped in marginal ways. I barely feel joy and have a deep fear that my life passing by me. My lab recently had a student join in part-time as a Ph.D. student and they work in a FAANG company full time and are generally so happy. I envy the calm and normalcy that they project at least to the world outside. I hope you find answers, just wanted to say you are not alone.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I am in a similar position, I am set to graduate from my Ph.D. position and will likely go to a good postdoc position based on the offers so far, however, I am deeply depleted in terms of energy and motivation. There are crippling feelings of mediocracy so much so that I am even considering going to a smaller lab for postdoc and giving up on some of the bigger places where I have gotten in. I have tried waking up early and doing the whole workout routine, but it has only helped in marginal ways. I barely feel joy and have a deep fear that my life passing by me. My lab recently had a student join in part-time as a Ph.D. student and they work in a FAANG company full time and are generally so happy. I envy the calm and normalcy that they project at least to the world outside. I hope you find answers, just wanted to say you are not alone.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I use my digital planner and I journal....it is therapeutic I write down my thoughts and I prepare my todo list and goals for the next day. I prioritize and if I don't finish, I re-prioritize for the next day. I allow time for things I like to do like take a walk through the botanical garden, visit the museum, paint and sip, listen to jazz, dance around the house, read a novel etc. anything outside of your research to separate yourself and give your mind a break. If you feel you need to go a step further, speak to a therapist. They help you sort out your thoughts, feelings and actions. I am a grant writer (on hiatus) and typing content all day, month after month, year after year can give you anxiety and writers/creators block. You just have to step away, it will come back, I promise. You never loose your skill set, you are just overwhelmed. If you know you are a great researcher, don't look to anyone else to validate you. You just be the best version of You. Now step back in the ring when you are ready and be GREAT!!!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Had burnout during my doctoral studies, just after my first child AND during covid. 9 months off and couldnt get back on my feet. I chose to quit to get well and choose a profession that doesnt stress me like the path I had chosen. I wish you the best in your journey.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I use my digital planner and I journal....it is therapeutic I write down my thoughts and I prepare my todo list and goals for the next day. I prioritize and if I don't finish, I re-prioritize for the next day. I allow time for things I like to do like take a walk through the botanical garden, visit the museum, paint and sip, listen to jazz, dance around the house, read a novel etc. anything outside of your research to separate yourself and give your mind a break. If you feel you need to go a step further, speak to a therapist. They help you sort out your thoughts, feelings and actions. I am a grant writer (on hiatus) and typing content all day, month after month, year after year can give you anxiety and writers/creators block. You just have to step away, it will come back, I promise. You never loose your skill set, you are just overwhelmed. If you know you are a great researcher, don't look to anyone else to validate you. You just be the best version of You. Now step back in the ring when you are ready and be GREAT!!!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "By giving a break.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do you deal with burnout as a researcher? I am a postdoc and confronting a serious burnout situation. I cannot focus and become very depressed so frequently. I feel I am not so great researcher, colleagues do not respect me as a researcher, and I do not see hopeful future. The actual situation might not be actually that bad, but I am thinking that way very often probably by the burnout. I think I am worrying too much about bad things that are not happen yet. When I do a Zoom meeting, my energy goes down real quick so that after the meeting, I cannot do anything for the rest of the day. I tried multiple things to fix this situation, like working out regularly, waking up earlier in the morning, going to bed early, meeting some friends in person, purchasing things that I always wanted, etc. But these did not work. Do you have any practical recommendations? Would be good to hear from people who went through this.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I use my digital planner and I journal....it is therapeutic I write down my thoughts and I prepare my todo list and goals for the next day. I prioritize and if I don't finish, I re-prioritize for the next day. I allow time for things I like to do like take a walk through the botanical garden, visit the museum, paint and sip, listen to jazz, dance around the house, read a novel etc. anything outside of your research to separate yourself and give your mind a break. If you feel you need to go a step further, speak to a therapist. They help you sort out your thoughts, feelings and actions. I am a grant writer (on hiatus) and typing content all day, month after month, year after year can give you anxiety and writers/creators block. You just have to step away, it will come back, I promise. You never loose your skill set, you are just overwhelmed. If you know you are a great researcher, don't look to anyone else to validate you. You just be the best version of You. Now step back in the ring when you are ready and be GREAT!!!!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The fact that people have to resort to Reddit to find out answers to these questions tells you everything you need to know about just how much academic depts care about what happens to their PhD graduates after they’ve pushed them out of the door.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "> Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school. Depends where you are trying to teach. Public schools (in the US anyway) often require certification of some sort. But private schools do not. (My wife got a PhD in History but now teaches at an elite private school. She has never needed any kind of additional training or certification.) It would help to know what flavor of humanities you are — the options can vary depending on it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The fact that people have to resort to Reddit to find out answers to these questions tells you everything you need to know about just how much academic depts care about what happens to their PhD graduates after they’ve pushed them out of the door.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Policy analyst for a Govt department. Was sad to leave academia but now I get to do interesting work with intelligent people, clock off at 5pm, I'm paid a decent wage and get to live in the city I want to live in :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The fact that people have to resort to Reddit to find out answers to these questions tells you everything you need to know about just how much academic depts care about what happens to their PhD graduates after they’ve pushed them out of the door.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I manage the tutors at an online tutoring company. I wish I had had the foresight to pursue management consulting at McKinsey and the like, if only to pay off the debts of grad school before heading elsewhere.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The fact that people have to resort to Reddit to find out answers to these questions tells you everything you need to know about just how much academic depts care about what happens to their PhD graduates after they’ve pushed them out of the door.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I will soon graduate with a PhD in Spanish and I plan on exploring the field of localization. You obviously need to pay for these courses, but it's something to consider if you know a foreign language (especially Spanish), have experience translating, and would like to gain more marketable technical skills. Not sure if it's your cup of tea, but I'm considering giving it a try.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Policy analyst for a Govt department. Was sad to leave academia but now I get to do interesting work with intelligent people, clock off at 5pm, I'm paid a decent wage and get to live in the city I want to live in :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I will soon graduate with a PhD in Spanish and I plan on exploring the field of localization. You obviously need to pay for these courses, but it's something to consider if you know a foreign language (especially Spanish), have experience translating, and would like to gain more marketable technical skills. Not sure if it's your cup of tea, but I'm considering giving it a try.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Got my English PhD in 2018 from a non-elite Canadian institution. Decided I wanted to live closer to home (small city). Worked for a small market intelligence firm for a while. The work was interesting but it didn't pay much. Decided I wanted to work in public policy. Through a connection (prof i had RAed for during phd) got a postdoc focused on public policy. Now I am working on getting into federal gov as a policy analyst but there are still some barriers. Just got to the final phase in one process and they asked for undergrad transcripts to check I have enough coursework in economics, which I do not (I was clear in the application about what I have). So now l am enrolling in some online 1st year undergrad economics courses this summer to avoid this in the future lol I have a couple of friends employed at the university as dedicated writers for research institutes. Again, its interesting work but it doesn't pay well.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I manage the tutors at an online tutoring company. I wish I had had the foresight to pursue management consulting at McKinsey and the like, if only to pay off the debts of grad school before heading elsewhere.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Got my English PhD in 2018 from a non-elite Canadian institution. Decided I wanted to live closer to home (small city). Worked for a small market intelligence firm for a while. The work was interesting but it didn't pay much. Decided I wanted to work in public policy. Through a connection (prof i had RAed for during phd) got a postdoc focused on public policy. Now I am working on getting into federal gov as a policy analyst but there are still some barriers. Just got to the final phase in one process and they asked for undergrad transcripts to check I have enough coursework in economics, which I do not (I was clear in the application about what I have). So now l am enrolling in some online 1st year undergrad economics courses this summer to avoid this in the future lol I have a couple of friends employed at the university as dedicated writers for research institutes. Again, its interesting work but it doesn't pay well.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I will soon graduate with a PhD in Spanish and I plan on exploring the field of localization. You obviously need to pay for these courses, but it's something to consider if you know a foreign language (especially Spanish), have experience translating, and would like to gain more marketable technical skills. Not sure if it's your cup of tea, but I'm considering giving it a try.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I manage the tutors at an online tutoring company. I wish I had had the foresight to pursue management consulting at McKinsey and the like, if only to pay off the debts of grad school before heading elsewhere.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I will soon graduate with a PhD in Spanish and I plan on exploring the field of localization. You obviously need to pay for these courses, but it's something to consider if you know a foreign language (especially Spanish), have experience translating, and would like to gain more marketable technical skills. Not sure if it's your cup of tea, but I'm considering giving it a try.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "English PhD. Did a brief stint in marketing and consulting. Wanted to hang myself. Then got a visiting assistant prof position that gave me tuition reimbursement, and I started get my Ed certification. Then, thank god, published my first book and lucked into a tenure track line, and, when I say lucked I mean it. It’s an absolute crap shoot. Now almost 20 years down the road. Full prof, etc. Still believe I would have enjoyed teaching high school.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Historian here (Europe-based with a European specialty though). About 10 years after defending, most of us have ended up in the cultural heritage sector: I am head of special collections at a university library, others are leading or working for local heritage organizations, coordinating a group of volunteers that describe cultural heritage artifacts, working for a national heritage library initiative... then there’s an editor for a local publisher, and we have a couple of cops, a stay at home dad, and a couple of people who work in a museum.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "English PhD. Did a brief stint in marketing and consulting. Wanted to hang myself. Then got a visiting assistant prof position that gave me tuition reimbursement, and I started get my Ed certification. Then, thank god, published my first book and lucked into a tenure track line, and, when I say lucked I mean it. It’s an absolute crap shoot. Now almost 20 years down the road. Full prof, etc. Still believe I would have enjoyed teaching high school.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It’s not of immediate help to OP but UC Berkeley has been running their Beyond Academia conference for a few years now, and it’s super valuable for answering questions about how to transition out of academia, with lots of representation for the humanities. https://beyondacademia.berkeley.edu/", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "English PhD. Did a brief stint in marketing and consulting. Wanted to hang myself. Then got a visiting assistant prof position that gave me tuition reimbursement, and I started get my Ed certification. Then, thank god, published my first book and lucked into a tenure track line, and, when I say lucked I mean it. It’s an absolute crap shoot. Now almost 20 years down the road. Full prof, etc. Still believe I would have enjoyed teaching high school.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Can I jump on this question but for literary studies (in Europe)?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "English PhD. Did a brief stint in marketing and consulting. Wanted to hang myself. Then got a visiting assistant prof position that gave me tuition reimbursement, and I started get my Ed certification. Then, thank god, published my first book and lucked into a tenure track line, and, when I say lucked I mean it. It’s an absolute crap shoot. Now almost 20 years down the road. Full prof, etc. Still believe I would have enjoyed teaching high school.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Other people already said it, but look into private schools. They are eager to hire Ph.D.s more than anywhere. Elite private boarding schools are harder to get in because they already have lots of applicants with a Ph.D. degree when there's a job opening, but most private schools will open their doors for you if you have a Ph.D. and some teaching experience (i.e., TAs). It's definitely hard work as *restricteddata* said. Parents can be demanding because they're paying tens of thousands of dollars for tuition, and if you work at a boarding school, you'll likely have to take another role like taking care of them at a dorm or organize an extracurricular activity. If you end up at a smaller private school, they might ask you to teach Spanish or some type of a general humanities course (world civilization, etc) on top of a history course. But it pays well; you don't have pressure for tenure; you get to teach what you love (hey, it's like teaching at a liberal arts college without a tenure review!); and if you have a child, they'll attend the school for free. So most people I know who went into this field genuinely like their jobs though there are hard days for sure. But what jobs don't? So if you're open to teaching secondary school students but getting another degree is a concern, definitely look into a private school. (I also went to a private boarding school in New England, and there were very few teachers with an Ed.M. or M.Ed. Most \"only\" had Ph.D. or regular Master's (M.A. or M.S.) in their respective field.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It’s not of immediate help to OP but UC Berkeley has been running their Beyond Academia conference for a few years now, and it’s super valuable for answering questions about how to transition out of academia, with lots of representation for the humanities. https://beyondacademia.berkeley.edu/", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Historian here (Europe-based with a European specialty though). About 10 years after defending, most of us have ended up in the cultural heritage sector: I am head of special collections at a university library, others are leading or working for local heritage organizations, coordinating a group of volunteers that describe cultural heritage artifacts, working for a national heritage library initiative... then there’s an editor for a local publisher, and we have a couple of cops, a stay at home dad, and a couple of people who work in a museum.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Can I jump on this question but for literary studies (in Europe)?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Historian here (Europe-based with a European specialty though). About 10 years after defending, most of us have ended up in the cultural heritage sector: I am head of special collections at a university library, others are leading or working for local heritage organizations, coordinating a group of volunteers that describe cultural heritage artifacts, working for a national heritage library initiative... then there’s an editor for a local publisher, and we have a couple of cops, a stay at home dad, and a couple of people who work in a museum.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’m stuck as an adjunct. Why? Because I’m burned out. Because I don’t have the energy to start all over again. Because every time I apply for a job I feel like I’ve just volunteered as “Tribute” in the Hunger Games. Joining this thread because I’d like to read about successful extractions from this cycle.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Historian here (Europe-based with a European specialty though). About 10 years after defending, most of us have ended up in the cultural heritage sector: I am head of special collections at a university library, others are leading or working for local heritage organizations, coordinating a group of volunteers that describe cultural heritage artifacts, working for a national heritage library initiative... then there’s an editor for a local publisher, and we have a couple of cops, a stay at home dad, and a couple of people who work in a museum.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It’s not of immediate help to OP but UC Berkeley has been running their Beyond Academia conference for a few years now, and it’s super valuable for answering questions about how to transition out of academia, with lots of representation for the humanities. https://beyondacademia.berkeley.edu/", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Other people already said it, but look into private schools. They are eager to hire Ph.D.s more than anywhere. Elite private boarding schools are harder to get in because they already have lots of applicants with a Ph.D. degree when there's a job opening, but most private schools will open their doors for you if you have a Ph.D. and some teaching experience (i.e., TAs). It's definitely hard work as *restricteddata* said. Parents can be demanding because they're paying tens of thousands of dollars for tuition, and if you work at a boarding school, you'll likely have to take another role like taking care of them at a dorm or organize an extracurricular activity. If you end up at a smaller private school, they might ask you to teach Spanish or some type of a general humanities course (world civilization, etc) on top of a history course. But it pays well; you don't have pressure for tenure; you get to teach what you love (hey, it's like teaching at a liberal arts college without a tenure review!); and if you have a child, they'll attend the school for free. So most people I know who went into this field genuinely like their jobs though there are hard days for sure. But what jobs don't? So if you're open to teaching secondary school students but getting another degree is a concern, definitely look into a private school. (I also went to a private boarding school in New England, and there were very few teachers with an Ed.M. or M.Ed. Most \"only\" had Ph.D. or regular Master's (M.A. or M.S.) in their respective field.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’m stuck as an adjunct. Why? Because I’m burned out. Because I don’t have the energy to start all over again. Because every time I apply for a job I feel like I’ve just volunteered as “Tribute” in the Hunger Games. Joining this thread because I’d like to read about successful extractions from this cycle.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Other people already said it, but look into private schools. They are eager to hire Ph.D.s more than anywhere. Elite private boarding schools are harder to get in because they already have lots of applicants with a Ph.D. degree when there's a job opening, but most private schools will open their doors for you if you have a Ph.D. and some teaching experience (i.e., TAs). It's definitely hard work as *restricteddata* said. Parents can be demanding because they're paying tens of thousands of dollars for tuition, and if you work at a boarding school, you'll likely have to take another role like taking care of them at a dorm or organize an extracurricular activity. If you end up at a smaller private school, they might ask you to teach Spanish or some type of a general humanities course (world civilization, etc) on top of a history course. But it pays well; you don't have pressure for tenure; you get to teach what you love (hey, it's like teaching at a liberal arts college without a tenure review!); and if you have a child, they'll attend the school for free. So most people I know who went into this field genuinely like their jobs though there are hard days for sure. But what jobs don't? So if you're open to teaching secondary school students but getting another degree is a concern, definitely look into a private school. (I also went to a private boarding school in New England, and there were very few teachers with an Ed.M. or M.Ed. Most \"only\" had Ph.D. or regular Master's (M.A. or M.S.) in their respective field.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I keep getting linked in notices that tell me my English PhD is *exactly* what the FBI is looking for (hey, I’ve read enough about murder in my spare time to believe I’d be an asset!), but there is a catch: they won’t hire you if you are over 36. Honestly, I would check this out if I were not over-the-hill in their eyes; alas, they are allowed to keep me and my grey hair away from Quantico. Apparently, soft skills (research, communication, writing) are in demand. Where? I have yet to see such demand. I wish they would ring the dinner bell already. Me and my soft-skills are just sitting here aging into vinegar. . . .", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a PhD in religious studies. I opted out of academia voluntarily after seeing so many of my peers toiling for years as adjuncts, or bouncing from one visiting position to the next every year or two. I have been working as an Executive Assistant at a non-profit for nearly three years and am really loving it, though that is partly because I am just temperamentally well-suited for administrative work. I do miss researching and writing and am hoping to transition to a job that lets me use those research skills at some point. But for now, I am at least paid reasonably well, get to contribute to a good cause, and don't have to grade garbage churned out by undergraduates. I have a former colleague now working as a freelance editor and making very good money doing that, though I'm not sure how she got started doing that.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a PhD in religious studies. I opted out of academia voluntarily after seeing so many of my peers toiling for years as adjuncts, or bouncing from one visiting position to the next every year or two. I have been working as an Executive Assistant at a non-profit for nearly three years and am really loving it, though that is partly because I am just temperamentally well-suited for administrative work. I do miss researching and writing and am hoping to transition to a job that lets me use those research skills at some point. But for now, I am at least paid reasonably well, get to contribute to a good cause, and don't have to grade garbage churned out by undergraduates. I have a former colleague now working as a freelance editor and making very good money doing that, though I'm not sure how she got started doing that.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Other people already said it, but look into private schools. They are eager to hire Ph.D.s more than anywhere. Elite private boarding schools are harder to get in because they already have lots of applicants with a Ph.D. degree when there's a job opening, but most private schools will open their doors for you if you have a Ph.D. and some teaching experience (i.e., TAs). It's definitely hard work as *restricteddata* said. Parents can be demanding because they're paying tens of thousands of dollars for tuition, and if you work at a boarding school, you'll likely have to take another role like taking care of them at a dorm or organize an extracurricular activity. If you end up at a smaller private school, they might ask you to teach Spanish or some type of a general humanities course (world civilization, etc) on top of a history course. But it pays well; you don't have pressure for tenure; you get to teach what you love (hey, it's like teaching at a liberal arts college without a tenure review!); and if you have a child, they'll attend the school for free. So most people I know who went into this field genuinely like their jobs though there are hard days for sure. But what jobs don't? So if you're open to teaching secondary school students but getting another degree is a concern, definitely look into a private school. (I also went to a private boarding school in New England, and there were very few teachers with an Ed.M. or M.Ed. Most \"only\" had Ph.D. or regular Master's (M.A. or M.S.) in their respective field.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I keep getting linked in notices that tell me my English PhD is *exactly* what the FBI is looking for (hey, I’ve read enough about murder in my spare time to believe I’d be an asset!), but there is a catch: they won’t hire you if you are over 36. Honestly, I would check this out if I were not over-the-hill in their eyes; alas, they are allowed to keep me and my grey hair away from Quantico. Apparently, soft skills (research, communication, writing) are in demand. Where? I have yet to see such demand. I wish they would ring the dinner bell already. Me and my soft-skills are just sitting here aging into vinegar. . . .", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Humanities PhDs that have left academia, what do you do now? The market has been terrible since I was in undergrad. I am getting towards the end of my PhD and I know that I need plan B's and C's (really these will more than likely be A and B with academia being a Hail Mary). But I am struggling with thinking about alternatives. I have some friends in the private sector that say consulting could be a good fit. Others say to go into teaching, but I'm certain that this requires even more school.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Other people already said it, but look into private schools. They are eager to hire Ph.D.s more than anywhere. Elite private boarding schools are harder to get in because they already have lots of applicants with a Ph.D. degree when there's a job opening, but most private schools will open their doors for you if you have a Ph.D. and some teaching experience (i.e., TAs). It's definitely hard work as *restricteddata* said. Parents can be demanding because they're paying tens of thousands of dollars for tuition, and if you work at a boarding school, you'll likely have to take another role like taking care of them at a dorm or organize an extracurricular activity. If you end up at a smaller private school, they might ask you to teach Spanish or some type of a general humanities course (world civilization, etc) on top of a history course. But it pays well; you don't have pressure for tenure; you get to teach what you love (hey, it's like teaching at a liberal arts college without a tenure review!); and if you have a child, they'll attend the school for free. So most people I know who went into this field genuinely like their jobs though there are hard days for sure. But what jobs don't? So if you're open to teaching secondary school students but getting another degree is a concern, definitely look into a private school. (I also went to a private boarding school in New England, and there were very few teachers with an Ed.M. or M.Ed. Most \"only\" had Ph.D. or regular Master's (M.A. or M.S.) in their respective field.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "GEOGRAPHERS UNITE! Congratulations! The job hunt is scary and disheartening and humbling, but you made it! I have only one question: Physical geography or Human geography? ;)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "CONGRATS! Persistence and hard work pays off! Enjoy some R&R with the comfort of knowing they want you!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "GEOGRAPHERS UNITE! Congratulations! The job hunt is scary and disheartening and humbling, but you made it! I have only one question: Physical geography or Human geography? ;)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats! Do you have any idea for why your current department had a failed search? I sometimes wonder if accepting an NTT in hopes of getting TT isn't a bad idea because it's unlikely, but because working in the department gives the opportunity for politics/personal vendettas to arise when they wouldnt otherwise.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "GEOGRAPHERS UNITE! Congratulations! The job hunt is scary and disheartening and humbling, but you made it! I have only one question: Physical geography or Human geography? ;)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats! The job search is hell.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "GEOGRAPHERS UNITE! Congratulations! The job hunt is scary and disheartening and humbling, but you made it! I have only one question: Physical geography or Human geography? ;)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Thank you so much for sharing your story here. I'd like to contribute a structural POV to the conversation: I was once in an interview with a program (as a potential PhD admit) and I asked how they saw their faculty hiring practices over the next several years as a component of their larger research agenda. The committee responded in depth, describing how departments plan out, years in advance, what \"sort\" of department they want to be, what sort of research they want to produce, and what sort of position they ultimately desire in their field. Hiring and admission practices are bricks in this type of long-term agenda-building. It could be that your research simply wasn't a match with the sort of department they want to be ten years down the line. This has, I'm sure, very little to do with the quality of work (which, from the quality of your writing, I can assume to be high), and everything to do with the direction they want to take the program in. Again, thank you for your story, and congrats on the new job!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats! The job search is hell.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats! Do you have any idea for why your current department had a failed search? I sometimes wonder if accepting an NTT in hopes of getting TT isn't a bad idea because it's unlikely, but because working in the department gives the opportunity for politics/personal vendettas to arise when they wouldnt otherwise.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats OP! This sounds like the best possible outcome given your circumstances, and better than staying at your first school. It also underscores the risks of being an internal candidate...it's a tough position to be in, and often hard on departmental colleagues as well. Glad you were able to negotiate it while building your c.v. on the way to a better TT job.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Thank you so much for sharing your story here. I'd like to contribute a structural POV to the conversation: I was once in an interview with a program (as a potential PhD admit) and I asked how they saw their faculty hiring practices over the next several years as a component of their larger research agenda. The committee responded in depth, describing how departments plan out, years in advance, what \"sort\" of department they want to be, what sort of research they want to produce, and what sort of position they ultimately desire in their field. Hiring and admission practices are bricks in this type of long-term agenda-building. It could be that your research simply wasn't a match with the sort of department they want to be ten years down the line. This has, I'm sure, very little to do with the quality of work (which, from the quality of your writing, I can assume to be high), and everything to do with the direction they want to take the program in. Again, thank you for your story, and congrats on the new job!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats! The search process is such a meat grinder, and it’s really nice to hear a story with a happy ending.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Thank you so much for sharing your story here. I'd like to contribute a structural POV to the conversation: I was once in an interview with a program (as a potential PhD admit) and I asked how they saw their faculty hiring practices over the next several years as a component of their larger research agenda. The committee responded in depth, describing how departments plan out, years in advance, what \"sort\" of department they want to be, what sort of research they want to produce, and what sort of position they ultimately desire in their field. Hiring and admission practices are bricks in this type of long-term agenda-building. It could be that your research simply wasn't a match with the sort of department they want to be ten years down the line. This has, I'm sure, very little to do with the quality of work (which, from the quality of your writing, I can assume to be high), and everything to do with the direction they want to take the program in. Again, thank you for your story, and congrats on the new job!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Congrats! The search process is such a meat grinder, and it’s really nice to hear a story with a happy ending.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "I got a job! After a hellish year. This is a long story, but I've wanted to tell it. I'm a regular lurker and commenter on this sub but creating an alt account to maintain my anonymity. The story has a happy ending, but it took a long time to get there. I finished my PhD in 2016 in Geography. I came out of one of the top graduate Geography programs in the US, but from a university that doesn't rank as 'elite'. Not all colleges and universities have Geography departments in the US and so people with Geography PhDs are often hired in departments that are interdisciplinary (such as environmental studies or international studies). I started applying for jobs in 2014-2015 while ABD and had a few phone and Skype interviews but nothing beyond that. I applied to all types of institution, in lots of different kinds of departments. I really didn't care about rank or anything like that, I just wanted a job. In 2015-2016, still ABD, I kept applying with no luck, and began to despair. I imagined a different life for myself outside of academia and began to mobilize some alternative options for myself. At the end of the Spring that year, I defended my dissertation, a few days later I half heartedly applied for one more job and got it! It was an NTT Instructor position at a large well-known research university in the US. I moved myself to a new place where I didn't know anyone in the summer of 2016 and started my first faculty position in an R1 Geography department that fall semester. Soon after I got to the new place, I met with my new colleagues and was told that they intended to hire a tenure track position for exactly the type of research that I do. Of course, I was immediately very excited about this. I really liked these people, loved my new students, and could envision a future for myself at this new university. From the time I got there in fall, 2016, I worked to distinguish myself. I published all of my dissertation that first year, and was able to submit some other publications as well. I consistently had stellar teaching evaluations. I began developing my next research project. My colleagues seemed supportive and I received very encouraging feedback about everything I was doing. Multiple people told me they wanted me to have the tenure track position when it came up. I tried to take this with a grain of salt, but of course I was very hopeful. In the fall of 2017, my department posted the ad for the new tenure track hire. It was clearly written around what I do. It was quite obvious, even to the point that friends and colleagues elsewhere were emailing me to figure out if the job was for me or if they should bother applying. I advised people to apply, because I knew that I wouldn't be given any particular advantage over other applicants. Nonetheless, I was very hopeful. But, I didn't want to think of it as guaranteed and I did continue to apply elsewhere for TT positions. I didn't have much luck. I was shortlisted at another R1 Geography program and (as anyone who has been on the market for awhile knows), applying for jobs is enormously time consuming and emotionally draining. After January, I stopped applying to other jobs and decided to let the chips fall where they would. I made it to the campus visit stage in the TT search at my university. I felt like my interview went well. Throughout the process I was very aware of everything else that was happening (a common challenge for the internal candidate). I knew when search committee meetings were happening, I knew when other candidates were visiting, I knew something of the internal dynamics of the search. For complicated reasons, the search was drawn out, a final candidate interviewed a month after the initial interviews happened. Members of the search committee were out of the country off and on. It was about 2.5 months from the time of my interview to the time when they actually made a decision about the job. Meanwhile, I organized a conference on themes that related directly to the position. I continued to work on publishing, provided quality educational experiences for my students, and generally do my thing well. But I was under an intense amount of pressure. My insomnia was terrible. I was dealing with some crippling anxiety. I was socially isolated because everyone I knew in this new place was either a colleague or a grad student in my department. It seemed like a bad idea to unload my stress on anyone in my department while the search was underway, so I kept my distance and spent a lot of time alone. It was honestly one of the hardest times in my life. Being alone in a new place, not being able to reach out to the few friends I had made there, and feeling like everything I did professionally was being judged. I felt that I had to do everything right so that they would give me this TT job. I was a mess emotionally, but managed to keep it to myself and appear as if I was doing fine professionally. They didn't give me the job. Worse, they didn't give it to anyone. It was a failed search. No one would ever give me a straight answer about why. My colleagues were mostly gaslighting me and acting as if I should not be impacted by how this all played out. Senior colleagues said things like, \"I had lots of jobs I didn't get\" and tried to act as if they knew my experience. But they didn't. They all got TT jobs within a year of finishing their PhDs (most straight out of grad school) none of them had to go through what early career people do today. A couple colleagues even offered to help me improve my application materials so that when they re-run the search next year I would be better prepared. I tried to be polite and not burn bridges, but all of this was insulting and hurtful. I'd already made it to the campus visit stage. I felt that they had their opportunity for me to be a part of their department long term and they didn't take it. So why would I bother putting myself through another year of that hell? As I saw it, my only pathway forward was to leave. But the NTT position I was in wasn't terrible so I couldn't just take anything. I knew it was a long shot but I applied to a few jobs that were posted in April. I got 2 on site interviews. One of them was an amazing good fit at an R1 near where I did my PhD. It's a great city that I love and I have friends in the area. The interview was like a great blind date. I loved it there and I could tell that their department was really excited about me. The day after I got back from my interview, I had an informal offer from the chair and after a bit of negotiation, I signed the offer letter and am now on my way to a TT position in a place I am very excited about. I really can't get over my good fortune here, especially after such a hellish year. So, after 4 years on the job market and a terrible experience an internal candidate, I finally got the job. It felt great to email my current colleagues brief polite emails about my imminent departure. If you made it to the end of this, thank you for reading. I am mostly posting this for my own catharsis, but also for grad students with academic aspirations and others still on the market. Good luck to all, the market is brutal and demoralizing. The End", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Just finished my second year in my geography PhD and I'm glad to hear your search had a happy ending! Any tips for people much earlier on in our field? Also human or physical, and what type of methods?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes, it's a legitimate area of study. Bullshitting is trying to pass off vacuous or epistemically fuzzy content as truth. It involves an intentional state of an actor and a presupposed state of receptivity by an other. The recipient of the claim likely has to engage in some type of reasoning process to accept or reject the bullshit. For these reasons bullshitting is a complex process that may yield insights into how specific operations or processes (such as reasoning or evaluation of a claim) may operate. Edit: here's an example of a bullshit study in a decent journal http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Can it not be both?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes, it's a legitimate area of study. Bullshitting is trying to pass off vacuous or epistemically fuzzy content as truth. It involves an intentional state of an actor and a presupposed state of receptivity by an other. The recipient of the claim likely has to engage in some type of reasoning process to accept or reject the bullshit. For these reasons bullshitting is a complex process that may yield insights into how specific operations or processes (such as reasoning or evaluation of a claim) may operate. Edit: here's an example of a bullshit study in a decent journal http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "UC Berkeley has a whole class on bullshit! It's both serious and there's some levity.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes, it's a legitimate area of study. Bullshitting is trying to pass off vacuous or epistemically fuzzy content as truth. It involves an intentional state of an actor and a presupposed state of receptivity by an other. The recipient of the claim likely has to engage in some type of reasoning process to accept or reject the bullshit. For these reasons bullshitting is a complex process that may yield insights into how specific operations or processes (such as reasoning or evaluation of a claim) may operate. Edit: here's an example of a bullshit study in a decent journal http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Linguistics is the science of language, so yes, bullshit is a scientific term to someone studying language. He probably says it in that way to elicit your reaction.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes, it's a legitimate area of study. Bullshitting is trying to pass off vacuous or epistemically fuzzy content as truth. It involves an intentional state of an actor and a presupposed state of receptivity by an other. The recipient of the claim likely has to engage in some type of reasoning process to accept or reject the bullshit. For these reasons bullshitting is a complex process that may yield insights into how specific operations or processes (such as reasoning or evaluation of a claim) may operate. Edit: here's an example of a bullshit study in a decent journal http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sounds like there's a better academic term for it (e.g. misinformation), but the word \"bullshit\" is more edgy and makes for better clickbait.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "UC Berkeley has a whole class on bullshit! It's both serious and there's some levity.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Linguistics is the science of language, so yes, bullshit is a scientific term to someone studying language. He probably says it in that way to elicit your reaction.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "This is a philosophical take on it from Harry Frankfurt. There's also a tribute collection of philosophical essays on the topic. https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Harry-G-Frankfurt/dp/0691122946", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sounds like there's a better academic term for it (e.g. misinformation), but the word \"bullshit\" is more edgy and makes for better clickbait.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "When I first started reading a bit about this (I think the Frankfurt book cited elsewhere in this thread) I found the concept really useful. It's the idea that people say stuff that sounds good or helps them achieve a goal like looking smart in the moment *without regard to whether it is correct or not.* For example, if it had turned out that hydroxychloroquine was in fact a great treatment for coronavirus, Trump--a bullshitter of epic proportions--would say, 'see what a great medical intuition I have!' and continue to use it to his advantage. The fact that the claim is decidedly false though is also of no concern to him. The statement served his purposes at the time of giving people an excuse to downplay the relevance of the virus that he had allowed to get out of control. A crucial corollary is that bullshit can turn out to be true but still be bullshit.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sounds like there's a better academic term for it (e.g. misinformation), but the word \"bullshit\" is more edgy and makes for better clickbait.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "When I first started reading a bit about this (I think the Frankfurt book cited elsewhere in this thread) I found the concept really useful. It's the idea that people say stuff that sounds good or helps them achieve a goal like looking smart in the moment *without regard to whether it is correct or not.* For example, if it had turned out that hydroxychloroquine was in fact a great treatment for coronavirus, Trump--a bullshitter of epic proportions--would say, 'see what a great medical intuition I have!' and continue to use it to his advantage. The fact that the claim is decidedly false though is also of no concern to him. The statement served his purposes at the time of giving people an excuse to downplay the relevance of the virus that he had allowed to get out of control. A crucial corollary is that bullshit can turn out to be true but still be bullshit.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "Is \"bullshit\" a legitimate research area and is it supposed to be tongue-in-cheek or am I just immature? I met a linguistics faculty recently whose primary research interests included \"bullshit\". I laughed when I read that because I thought it was a joke, or at least supposed to be a humorous description of what he studied. Then I looked it up and found legitimate papers published in big journals about bullshit, discussing it like it's a scientific term. Is the linguistic research area \"bullshit\" supposed to be humorous like papers on \"Trajectory of a Falling Batman\" (https://journals.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/pst/article/view/2036/1939)? Or is this a research area people discuss with a totally straight face and no hint of humor, and I'm just immature for thinking it's a joke?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Calling bullshit is a much needed skill in today's world. https://www.callingbullshit.org/syllabus.html", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Apart from the reasons already mentioned, one important factor is time. If you've been in academia for 20 years, you \"only\" have to publish 10 papers a year to hit 200.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Or being part of research teams. I'm a collaborator on a few different research projects and my name be on all papers, regardless of whether or not I even wrote a sentence in the manuscript. Edit: should specify that I'm in the humanities so these types of teams are common.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "To quote my professor last week, \"a lot of people put out slices of salami, but it's a rare thing to find a full sausage\". Don't ask me why he chose that analogy, but he's not wrong. I know people who are 25 and have 40 publications - Most of them turn out to be notes. Or senior academics with their name on the work of underlings who might have read a draft once. Don't judge yourself by the numbers, they don't mean much in the end.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I was interviewing a candidate for a deanship and asked them about their publications because it was an extensive list, yet they had little to no lab history. They said that they consulted on projects as a biostatistician. They stated the field they were publishing in always favored any paper with a biostatistician on it so they were tapped regularly, even if they didn't do anything. They got the pub credit and the actual researchers had an easier time getting published by having the individual's name and title on it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "To quote my professor last week, \"a lot of people put out slices of salami, but it's a rare thing to find a full sausage\". Don't ask me why he chose that analogy, but he's not wrong. I know people who are 25 and have 40 publications - Most of them turn out to be notes. Or senior academics with their name on the work of underlings who might have read a draft once. Don't judge yourself by the numbers, they don't mean much in the end.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm a co author of close to 400 papers. But I'm nothing, e.g., to somebody like Andy Fabian with 1200 papers (I know that he has contributed significantly to a very large fraction of them...) I'm working in astrophysics and and I am a member of several astroparticle physics collaborations. In some of them it is not possible not to be on a paper since all publications are done by everybody in the collaboration (to be fair, I spend about 3 months a year full time doing service for these collaborations, so this is a lot of behind the scenes work and the papers are my \"payment\", so to speak). These papers count for about half of my refereed publications, with between 15 and 3700 co-authors (yes, I'm a co author of https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017ApJ...848L..12A/abstract , and I am proud that I did manage to get a few sentences revised before submission ;) ). The remaining 200 are led by people in my research group or by close collaborators. I have on average between 5 and 10 PhD students in the group, and there are another 15-20 or so PhD students who are advised by the 5 groups that we have close collaborations with, in the sense of weekly telephone conferences, lots of exchange of people between the groups, joint theory/observation projects and so on. This gives another 10-15 or so papers per year. I've been in the business for more than 20 years, so it's easy to get to that number. Before you ask: Yes, my group is larger than those of my collaborators, which has to do with the different structure of academic research in Germany than in the US or some other European countries. The number of senior academics in my field in Germany is fairly small, while the per capita research expenditure in astrophysics in Germany is comparable to other economically strong countries - for example, there are only about 100 university professors in astronomy/astrophysics in Germany (i.e., associate and full profs). This is less than the number of professor-level astronomers that you find in Boston and in the greater DC area. So, while in my field a typical prof in the US has 1-2 graduate students, I have 5x more. As a result, the number of my first author publications sucks compared to people in the US. I manage one in 3-4 years, if things go well, but I have contributed tons of text and ideas to the papers led by my students, have rewritten and streamlined their texts, and, yes, I can tell you what we did in all of these papers. The typical number of co-authors here is between 5 and 20. In many I've written a quarter of the text or so, however. So, yes, once you're a senior academic, getting more papers is easier since the fraction of time one gets to contribute higher level ideas goes up compared to the \"work in the trenches\" (I spend much less time on my own data analysis or theoretical work, which I really miss, but because of the experience I have, I spend much more time to trouble shoot larger problems and to work on text than my students) Finally, one shouldn't discount the experience one collects over the years. I've seen most problems that my students encounter before so I am usually in a good position to point them in the right direction. And I've structured and written significant parts of a large number of papers. This means that the parts of the manuscripts that I contribute get through fewer revisions by the coauthors than things written by students. Productivity does indeed go up - and it would be far higher if there weren't the distractions of administration, writing grants, and teaching (I like the latter, I don't like the former, but I spend more than half of my time on them).", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My PI is an author on just shy of 500 papers. His job is basically applying for big grants to hire RAs, PhDs and postdocs. Imagine having 20 people working for you, and nearly every one of those publishes a paper every year. Do that for 20 years and they stack up.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Nobody actually has more than 25-30 lead/first author publications. 10 first author pubs will get you a faculty job at really good places, and after that your job is to think big things, write grants and train the next generation of scientists. The publications that will be coming from now on with your name attached will have your grad students or postdocs as lead authors while you will be the last author. Well funded PIs have 10+ researchers in their group, and 20 publications coming out annually, and thus hundreds of publications over a 10-20 year timeframe", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My PI is an author on just shy of 500 papers. His job is basically applying for big grants to hire RAs, PhDs and postdocs. Imagine having 20 people working for you, and nearly every one of those publishes a paper every year. Do that for 20 years and they stack up.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How do people publish 200+ papers? On google scholar I see that some professors and researchers have hundreds of publications which to me looks like a lot of work and dedication. How is it possible? Do they write about and research multiple topics simultaneously? Is it easier because they are experts and familiar with the relevant literature in their field?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I’m 21 years into publishing and number 118 in Scopus (add in book chapters, proceedings and other scholarly peer-reviewed works, it’s around 130). In the beginning, I led most of the efforts (collected/collated data, did the analyses and wrote the first drafts). In time, I proposed research that allowed me to hire statisticians and post-docs; this magnified my reach immensely. Further, I collaborated extensively, in working groups and other broad collaborations. Thus, as my career matured, I went from mostly First Authored publications to a mix of Last Authored and Middle Authored publications. Some don’t value middle-authored works, but I don’t need to worry about tenure and such, so I work in collaborations where I can address the topics I want to address. In recent years I’ve averaged 10+ peer-reviewed journal articles per year; I’ve averaged, however, about 1 first-authored publication per year. The problem that frustrates me now is that I’m less a researcher than I am a research manager. I want to collect, analyze and write, but anymore my time is spent on hiring, supervision, budgeting and proposal writing. Something has to go if I’m to take a bigger role in publishing. I haven’t figured out how to get back to it. Edit: I have about 3 main focal areas of research, each subdivided further. It’s, frankly, too much to be an expert, another reason I’d like to pare down. But anymore, it seems being a jack-of-all-trades is valued perhaps more so than having a deep well of expertise. I’d like to be globally renowned but my partners and funders need someone flexible enough to meet their information needs.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Not a PI myself but the PIs in my department who pay workers a living wage by supplementing the insultingly low salaries in this field are not having this problem. There are two universities that pay graduate students a living wage, last time I checked. If universities don't raise wages, everyone will have this problem. Inflation was 9% and most folks got a 2-3% raise if any.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Similar trend happening in the UK but also seeing post-doc contracts getting shorter. Not unusual to see 6 month contracts being advertised. Am coming to the end of a contract now but there's no way I'd uproot myself for that length of time.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm a tenured PI at a university that people often associate with scientific breakthroughs. This doesn't have as much to do with the Great Resignation, but I'm a little burnt out from the big lab + big grants game. So I've been just doing research myself, rather than: working my ass off to get grants, recruit students and staff, then train them to do work that I can do myself. The downside is less advising and mentorship which I genuinely enjoy, but the upside is way way fewer complications, less stress dealing with personnel situations, and I no longer feel like I'm paying money to give myself more advising work. If I were not tenured, I might have a different attitude, but now I'm totally happy being a \"small lab\" until things become more favorable to run a big lab again.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Simple problem, simple solution: Pay whoever is working for you a liveable wage.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm a tenured PI at a university that people often associate with scientific breakthroughs. This doesn't have as much to do with the Great Resignation, but I'm a little burnt out from the big lab + big grants game. So I've been just doing research myself, rather than: working my ass off to get grants, recruit students and staff, then train them to do work that I can do myself. The downside is less advising and mentorship which I genuinely enjoy, but the upside is way way fewer complications, less stress dealing with personnel situations, and I no longer feel like I'm paying money to give myself more advising work. If I were not tenured, I might have a different attitude, but now I'm totally happy being a \"small lab\" until things become more favorable to run a big lab again.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "By leaving my postdoc for industry..", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Not a bad thing to be honest. The amount of phd/postdocs should be a better reflection of the future available tenure. If grants are being reeled in with less staff, that also gives an opportunity to pay a living wage to grad students and postdocs. The era of 20 phds/postdocs for every tenure track position should never return.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "In Europe, PIs don't have a saying about salary. They're defined by law. Also salaries are not crazy different from postdoc to PI and they depend on the years of experience. But I do see more and more immigrants being employed, while 'locals' tend to go to industry or - the new thing here - science management. Institutions are hiring science managers like crazy and only 'locals' speaking the country language are hired for those positions.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Not a bad thing to be honest. The amount of phd/postdocs should be a better reflection of the future available tenure. If grants are being reeled in with less staff, that also gives an opportunity to pay a living wage to grad students and postdocs. The era of 20 phds/postdocs for every tenure track position should never return.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "We don't have trouble finding PhD students, but I'm in a country where we can offer them a pretty competitive salary. Postdocs have become quite difficult to recruit though. We can still find people, but have to put more effort into the process.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "In Europe, PIs don't have a saying about salary. They're defined by law. Also salaries are not crazy different from postdoc to PI and they depend on the years of experience. But I do see more and more immigrants being employed, while 'locals' tend to go to industry or - the new thing here - science management. Institutions are hiring science managers like crazy and only 'locals' speaking the country language are hired for those positions.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "PIs -- how are you dealing with the Great Resignation? Support staff, postdocs, and grad students are hard to recruit and retain these days, due to the relatively poor wages in academia and the red hot private sector job market. I've seen many job postings go unfilled for months (and even years), and PIs eventually returning to teaching or leaving academia altogether due to their inability to staff. How are the PIs on this sub doing? I have turned towards more computational, less labor intensive research for the time being, but I am unsure of the future of grant-based research, if universities demand federal funding, but the feds won't increase award amounts.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "We don't have trouble finding PhD students, but I'm in a country where we can offer them a pretty competitive salary. Postdocs have become quite difficult to recruit though. We can still find people, but have to put more effort into the process.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The title is true. Also the other questions in your post are also true. these are not 'either/or' questions.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "College is for you if the career path you have in mind requires a college degree. A bad experience at one college does not mean you will have a bad experience at another, so don't let a bad experience stop you from following your professional dream. I say this from experience. School and department cultures vary widely, and the surrounding community can also be a big factor. Personally, I'm only happy in big cities (as a student and as a professor), but others prefer a different environment. The major could also be the problem. I have seen some people change majors and find themselves much happier. That said, there are some people who hate school, don't see themselves in any career that requires a bachelor's degree or higher, and have interests and skills that would lend well to a trade (like mechanic, plumber, electrician...). There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but I would strongly encourage the large majority of people to pursue some sort of higher education, be it college, community college, trade school...it's just really hard (though not impossible) to succeed professionally without some sort of degree or credential...And don't let hating school stop you from pursuing a professional dream that requires it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "The title is true. Also the other questions in your post are also true. these are not 'either/or' questions.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": ">Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Broadly speaking; most colleges and universities are more similar to each other than they are different, and there is a subset of the population that will not be successful in college. >Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Granted, it's entirely possible that people grow up or change, such that college actually *is* realistic at a later time, but at the same time the economic and financial reality of most people is such that college has to happen at a certain time in people's lives. Many can't just put their lives on hold to go back to college later on in life. Same problem broadly applies to grad school.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "College is for you if the career path you have in mind requires a college degree. A bad experience at one college does not mean you will have a bad experience at another, so don't let a bad experience stop you from following your professional dream. I say this from experience. School and department cultures vary widely, and the surrounding community can also be a big factor. Personally, I'm only happy in big cities (as a student and as a professor), but others prefer a different environment. The major could also be the problem. I have seen some people change majors and find themselves much happier. That said, there are some people who hate school, don't see themselves in any career that requires a bachelor's degree or higher, and have interests and skills that would lend well to a trade (like mechanic, plumber, electrician...). There is no one-size-fits-all answer, but I would strongly encourage the large majority of people to pursue some sort of higher education, be it college, community college, trade school...it's just really hard (though not impossible) to succeed professionally without some sort of degree or credential...And don't let hating school stop you from pursuing a professional dream that requires it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": ">Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Broadly speaking; most colleges and universities are more similar to each other than they are different, and there is a subset of the population that will not be successful in college. >Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Granted, it's entirely possible that people grow up or change, such that college actually *is* realistic at a later time, but at the same time the economic and financial reality of most people is such that college has to happen at a certain time in people's lives. Many can't just put their lives on hold to go back to college later on in life. Same problem broadly applies to grad school.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is not just ‘college’. It is everything. ‘Climbing mountains’ is not for everyone ‘Marriage’ is not for everyone ‘Being a house owner’ is not for everyone ‘Playing tennis’ is not for everyone ... Why would college be different?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I believe that only ~15% of people currently going for Bachelor degrees should be there and the rest should quit, and the government should stop subsidizing them. And I 100% believe that some people ought to go to college one day but aren’t ready for it yet.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is not just ‘college’. It is everything. ‘Climbing mountains’ is not for everyone ‘Marriage’ is not for everyone ‘Being a house owner’ is not for everyone ‘Playing tennis’ is not for everyone ... Why would college be different?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sometimes. For instance, an adult with a sub-par level of intelligence probably will not do too well studying mathematics (or anything else) at the college level. Your question depends on the individual, with important aspects being capabilities, ambitions, objectives, personality, etc. So there’s no simple answer to your question. That college or that program may have not been the ideal fit for you, or it may be college itself that was the problem.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is not just ‘college’. It is everything. ‘Climbing mountains’ is not for everyone ‘Marriage’ is not for everyone ‘Being a house owner’ is not for everyone ‘Playing tennis’ is not for everyone ... Why would college be different?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes & yes. For some people, college doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit their interests, goals, or talents. For some people, college at a certain place or time is a bad fit and they'll thrive somewhere/time else. Lots of life paths.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is not just ‘college’. It is everything. ‘Climbing mountains’ is not for everyone ‘Marriage’ is not for everyone ‘Being a house owner’ is not for everyone ‘Playing tennis’ is not for everyone ... Why would college be different?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think it's a question of whether college is for everyone. I think it's a question is \"what are workforce needs\" and \"what standard of general knowledge and skills should be formally attainable and normalized in our social fabric\"? Then the question becomes does our k-12 system meet those needs. If not, then post k-12 education must be for everyone.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is not just ‘college’. It is everything. ‘Climbing mountains’ is not for everyone ‘Marriage’ is not for everyone ‘Being a house owner’ is not for everyone ‘Playing tennis’ is not for everyone ... Why would college be different?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Honestly (since you asked), I think there's two different questions: first, a good \"fit\" at college can be a huge benefit (or a bad 'fit' can be a huge impediment). Some people need the space and freedom of a big state school. Others really thrive in the focus and cloistered feeling of a smaller college. That matters a lot. But also, a lot of students in my survey classes--between 5% and 10%--have no business being in college. They are primarily interested in getting drunk/getting high. Or they are video game shut-in addicts. Or they have major family issues (parents dying while having to take care of little brothers, kind of thing). Or they are going through serious, serious mental health issues. (one of my students suffered full-onset schizophrenia two years ago. poor kid. but once it began to manifest, the stress of college was just exactly the wrong environment.) You just can't \"do\" college if you're in any of those situations. If it's just a matter of motivation, maybe a different peer group or college or other sort of \"re-set\" is the way to go. But if it's something very serious (like the aforementioned) I just worry that college is a waste of money for those students.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Is not just ‘college’. It is everything. ‘Climbing mountains’ is not for everyone ‘Marriage’ is not for everyone ‘Being a house owner’ is not for everyone ‘Playing tennis’ is not for everyone ... Why would college be different?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think it depends on the why behind the statement. If it's because it's for some groups and not others, that's wrong. If it's because it's not the best fit for someone's goals, then that's correct", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I believe that only ~15% of people currently going for Bachelor degrees should be there and the rest should quit, and the government should stop subsidizing them. And I 100% believe that some people ought to go to college one day but aren’t ready for it yet.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sometimes. For instance, an adult with a sub-par level of intelligence probably will not do too well studying mathematics (or anything else) at the college level. Your question depends on the individual, with important aspects being capabilities, ambitions, objectives, personality, etc. So there’s no simple answer to your question. That college or that program may have not been the ideal fit for you, or it may be college itself that was the problem.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I believe that only ~15% of people currently going for Bachelor degrees should be there and the rest should quit, and the government should stop subsidizing them. And I 100% believe that some people ought to go to college one day but aren’t ready for it yet.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes & yes. For some people, college doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit their interests, goals, or talents. For some people, college at a certain place or time is a bad fit and they'll thrive somewhere/time else. Lots of life paths.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I believe that only ~15% of people currently going for Bachelor degrees should be there and the rest should quit, and the government should stop subsidizing them. And I 100% believe that some people ought to go to college one day but aren’t ready for it yet.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think it's a question of whether college is for everyone. I think it's a question is \"what are workforce needs\" and \"what standard of general knowledge and skills should be formally attainable and normalized in our social fabric\"? Then the question becomes does our k-12 system meet those needs. If not, then post k-12 education must be for everyone.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sometimes. For instance, an adult with a sub-par level of intelligence probably will not do too well studying mathematics (or anything else) at the college level. Your question depends on the individual, with important aspects being capabilities, ambitions, objectives, personality, etc. So there’s no simple answer to your question. That college or that program may have not been the ideal fit for you, or it may be college itself that was the problem.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes & yes. For some people, college doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit their interests, goals, or talents. For some people, college at a certain place or time is a bad fit and they'll thrive somewhere/time else. Lots of life paths.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sometimes. For instance, an adult with a sub-par level of intelligence probably will not do too well studying mathematics (or anything else) at the college level. Your question depends on the individual, with important aspects being capabilities, ambitions, objectives, personality, etc. So there’s no simple answer to your question. That college or that program may have not been the ideal fit for you, or it may be college itself that was the problem.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think it's a question of whether college is for everyone. I think it's a question is \"what are workforce needs\" and \"what standard of general knowledge and skills should be formally attainable and normalized in our social fabric\"? Then the question becomes does our k-12 system meet those needs. If not, then post k-12 education must be for everyone.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Yes & yes. For some people, college doesn't make sense. It doesn't fit their interests, goals, or talents. For some people, college at a certain place or time is a bad fit and they'll thrive somewhere/time else. Lots of life paths.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I don't think it's a question of whether college is for everyone. I think it's a question is \"what are workforce needs\" and \"what standard of general knowledge and skills should be formally attainable and normalized in our social fabric\"? Then the question becomes does our k-12 system meet those needs. If not, then post k-12 education must be for everyone.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My husband dropped out of high school, went to college later in life (mid 20s). He tried 4 different programs at 3 institutions before finding the fit, programmatically and institutionally. Then he won every award going, and got a PhD from one of the best universities in the world and did post-doc at Harvard. It is simultaneously true that college is not for everyone - I know folks who got great jobs via trade schools or who are entrepreneurs - and that sometimes, the first one you try is not the right fit. Go for it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I think it depends on the why behind the statement. If it's because it's for some groups and not others, that's wrong. If it's because it's not the best fit for someone's goals, then that's correct", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My husband dropped out of high school, went to college later in life (mid 20s). He tried 4 different programs at 3 institutions before finding the fit, programmatically and institutionally. Then he won every award going, and got a PhD from one of the best universities in the world and did post-doc at Harvard. It is simultaneously true that college is not for everyone - I know folks who got great jobs via trade schools or who are entrepreneurs - and that sometimes, the first one you try is not the right fit. Go for it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Like most cliches, there some truth but also some bs to this. A long time ago, college was for the rich and those who wanted to explore a topic in great depth. Then, it became more common and affordable. Many went to college to get better jobs. Going to college was a ticket to prosperity. Today, well, it’s complicated. Government funding for colleges has decreased substantially so tuition has increased also substantially. It’s not a ticket to a better life if you can’t graduate or if you graduate with tons of debt. However, “good jobs” that don’t require a college degree are scarce and getting more so. The other issue is that not everybody’s high school education prepared them for college. So yeah, many people struggle and don’t finish and yet carry debt.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My husband dropped out of high school, went to college later in life (mid 20s). He tried 4 different programs at 3 institutions before finding the fit, programmatically and institutionally. Then he won every award going, and got a PhD from one of the best universities in the world and did post-doc at Harvard. It is simultaneously true that college is not for everyone - I know folks who got great jobs via trade schools or who are entrepreneurs - and that sometimes, the first one you try is not the right fit. Go for it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "College is basically to form professionals. It does not really cater to much else, at least not in modern day. Perhaps it can also be a place for savants to make major breakthroughs but this is mostly thru independent and extracurricular work. Day to day life def seeks to cultivate professionals.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My husband dropped out of high school, went to college later in life (mid 20s). He tried 4 different programs at 3 institutions before finding the fit, programmatically and institutionally. Then he won every award going, and got a PhD from one of the best universities in the world and did post-doc at Harvard. It is simultaneously true that college is not for everyone - I know folks who got great jobs via trade schools or who are entrepreneurs - and that sometimes, the first one you try is not the right fit. Go for it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone at one single time or at one single place.” I think that’s about as specific as you can get it. I had a friend who started out at a small private college because they thought it would be more like home (we came from a small town). She hated it there. She had to drop several classes her 2nd semester because she was so depressed and had trouble following keeping up with the class. After coming to visit me at the huge Research 1 state school, she decided to transfer. She got accepted, absolutely flourished, joined a million clubs, made a ton of friends, studied abroad, and graduated with honors. I had a friend who started out with us at the large state school. His freshman year was awful. He was so homesick. He ended up going home to his parents and transferred to the smaller university in the next town. He’s an engineer now. I have a cousin who went to college right out of high school and just could not get himself to study. Some classes he attended, some he didn’t, but even the ones he did, he just couldn’t seem to develop study habits that allowed him to get good grades. He dropped out and worked for a few years in whatever job he could find. He learned that he actually did need *some kind* of degree or training to be worth anything to an employer, and that he *really* didn’t want to work low-wage jobs for the rest of his life. Re-applied to the same college, who graciously took him back. Graduated in 3.5 yrs with a B average.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "My husband dropped out of high school, went to college later in life (mid 20s). He tried 4 different programs at 3 institutions before finding the fit, programmatically and institutionally. Then he won every award going, and got a PhD from one of the best universities in the world and did post-doc at Harvard. It is simultaneously true that college is not for everyone - I know folks who got great jobs via trade schools or who are entrepreneurs - and that sometimes, the first one you try is not the right fit. Go for it.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "“College isn’t for everyone”. Is it really that simple? Couldn’t one college be for someone but not another? Or maybe college wasn’t for someone in the past but is now? Or maybe it isn’t for someone now but they need to grow up? Transferring colleges, hope the next one I do better. At least because it holds no bad memories.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I learned some useful things in college, but never worked a day in my major area of study. I did however pass the professional engineering exam and became a PE based on experience. Such stories are anathema to more conventional members of my profession. I have seen some incredibly arrogant comments in this thread. If you believe that you are in college because you are smarter than most people, I’m afraid that the opposite could very well be true.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a PhD in psychology (social/personality) and I found that people tended to take notice of who was on campus and who was not. I was able to get involved on a few projects largely because I was around. Then, as people learned I was reliable, I was able to get involved in a lot more collaborations. Some people couldn’t care less if students are around or not, but for those that do care about it, showing up can do a lot for their perception of you. As much as networking at conferences was invaluable, I think the networking within my department gave me a good jumping off point for when I networked elsewhere. Academic communities are small and people talk to each other more than you might think. Sometimes impressing a professor in an adjacent field can mean that people at conferences have already heard good things about you. I also found that being around was helpful whenever I needed another perspective or some help on my work. Sometimes I would explain my reasoning to other grad students just to have them poke holes in it. Overall, I think those perspectives made my thesis stronger and helped prepare me for my defense.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Once the world goes back to normal, there will be a class of networking you won't be able to do if you're constantly away from campus. Interfacing with visiting faculty, with other members of your cohort and in your program, developing secondary contacts through them, etc. Depending on how important that is for you, it can make a difference. A lot of my networking happens through fellow grads or faculty introducing me to people. Additionally, as a historian, I'm not sure I could be anywhere where I don't have reliable access to a trove of books. Meaning I can't work without a library. My University's library doesn't just allow me access to their own books, but is also the institution I'd work with to procure books and items such as microfilm records that my own doesn't possess through systems such as Interlibrary loans. Without access to that, I'm not convinced I'd be nearly as competent as a writer. So for me, being close to the library is absolutely critical to my work. Now the thing about history is that a lot of stuff isn't digitized. Old microfilm records for instance. If you can manage with digital sources entirely for your work, then this isn't such a consideration for you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have a PhD in psychology (social/personality) and I found that people tended to take notice of who was on campus and who was not. I was able to get involved on a few projects largely because I was around. Then, as people learned I was reliable, I was able to get involved in a lot more collaborations. Some people couldn’t care less if students are around or not, but for those that do care about it, showing up can do a lot for their perception of you. As much as networking at conferences was invaluable, I think the networking within my department gave me a good jumping off point for when I networked elsewhere. Academic communities are small and people talk to each other more than you might think. Sometimes impressing a professor in an adjacent field can mean that people at conferences have already heard good things about you. I also found that being around was helpful whenever I needed another perspective or some help on my work. Sometimes I would explain my reasoning to other grad students just to have them poke holes in it. Overall, I think those perspectives made my thesis stronger and helped prepare me for my defense.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Once the world goes back to normal, there will be a class of networking you won't be able to do if you're constantly away from campus. Interfacing with visiting faculty, with other members of your cohort and in your program, developing secondary contacts through them, etc. Depending on how important that is for you, it can make a difference. A lot of my networking happens through fellow grads or faculty introducing me to people. Additionally, as a historian, I'm not sure I could be anywhere where I don't have reliable access to a trove of books. Meaning I can't work without a library. My University's library doesn't just allow me access to their own books, but is also the institution I'd work with to procure books and items such as microfilm records that my own doesn't possess through systems such as Interlibrary loans. Without access to that, I'm not convinced I'd be nearly as competent as a writer. So for me, being close to the library is absolutely critical to my work. Now the thing about history is that a lot of stuff isn't digitized. Old microfilm records for instance. If you can manage with digital sources entirely for your work, then this isn't such a consideration for you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm in the humanities. I spent five year in town/on campus, teaching for four of those. Then I took a full time job 1,500 miles away and wrote my dissertation in the evenings/weekends. I missed my friends but many of them took similar paths anyway. The only real problem with not being in town was library access, and since I took a faculty position when I left I still had a local library. There was no value at all to \"networking\" on my home campus because nobody was working in my particular area; I could easily call up or email my committee members (and it would be far easier today to zoom) if I needed something. My intellectual community really ended up being at the university where I worked, not the one where I was still enrolled as a grad student. Once classes were done (three years in my program) the only reason to stay in town was to gain TA experience. My cohort was large and the average time to degree was close to ten years...very few people stayed in town more than five unless they had a partner who was working there or tied to a lab or something. When I left in year five (I finished in eight) we were among the first from my cohort to leave, but almost nobody was left in town when I went back to defend three years later.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Agreed with the history student on pretty much all points. Speaking as a philosophy PhD candidate, I've been missing out on a *lot* being off-campus this year. Being in the same building as my advisor so I can stop by his office for a quick chat turns out to be extremely helpful instead of doing every little thing as yet another email to worry about, zoom \"coffee breaks\" are simply a different class of entity from real ones, and YMMV on this depending on what your means are when not living near campus, but having an office somewhere other than my house is truly, truly crucial to my productivity. Add to this how much I need my personal support network in this city, which was built half out of talking to people in my department after classes, and how much easier it is to collaborate with other disciplines while on the same campus as them, I'd say frankly going remote has been an unmitigated disaster for the progression of my degree and by extension career. Hell, I'm no longer sure I want to or can go into research at this point. All this said, the fact that it's functional at all tells us all we need to know about accommodations for students who *can't* or *shouldn't* be on-campus normally. While I'll never recommend someone in my exact circumstance be off-campus, it's very clear that completing a graduate degree remotely is possible, and we need to pressure admin to allow it for students who think it's their best option no questions asked (if your admin doesn't already). Likewise, if it's an option for you, and you think it's best for you, I won't tell you not to.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm in the humanities. I spent five year in town/on campus, teaching for four of those. Then I took a full time job 1,500 miles away and wrote my dissertation in the evenings/weekends. I missed my friends but many of them took similar paths anyway. The only real problem with not being in town was library access, and since I took a faculty position when I left I still had a local library. There was no value at all to \"networking\" on my home campus because nobody was working in my particular area; I could easily call up or email my committee members (and it would be far easier today to zoom) if I needed something. My intellectual community really ended up being at the university where I worked, not the one where I was still enrolled as a grad student. Once classes were done (three years in my program) the only reason to stay in town was to gain TA experience. My cohort was large and the average time to degree was close to ten years...very few people stayed in town more than five unless they had a partner who was working there or tied to a lab or something. When I left in year five (I finished in eight) we were among the first from my cohort to leave, but almost nobody was left in town when I went back to defend three years later.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also in the social sciences. While a lot of my research technically never required me to be on campus during grad school, showing your face and being a good citizen in the department — going to seminars, attending reading groups, etc. — matter a *lot* more than many PhD students realize. Faculty definitely notice if you disappear. Besides that, some of the friendships I made with people in my program are among the best I’ve ever found, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the random coffee breaks and the hours spent leaning in each other’s office doorways to complain about how awful everything is. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Agreed with the history student on pretty much all points. Speaking as a philosophy PhD candidate, I've been missing out on a *lot* being off-campus this year. Being in the same building as my advisor so I can stop by his office for a quick chat turns out to be extremely helpful instead of doing every little thing as yet another email to worry about, zoom \"coffee breaks\" are simply a different class of entity from real ones, and YMMV on this depending on what your means are when not living near campus, but having an office somewhere other than my house is truly, truly crucial to my productivity. Add to this how much I need my personal support network in this city, which was built half out of talking to people in my department after classes, and how much easier it is to collaborate with other disciplines while on the same campus as them, I'd say frankly going remote has been an unmitigated disaster for the progression of my degree and by extension career. Hell, I'm no longer sure I want to or can go into research at this point. All this said, the fact that it's functional at all tells us all we need to know about accommodations for students who *can't* or *shouldn't* be on-campus normally. While I'll never recommend someone in my exact circumstance be off-campus, it's very clear that completing a graduate degree remotely is possible, and we need to pressure admin to allow it for students who think it's their best option no questions asked (if your admin doesn't already). Likewise, if it's an option for you, and you think it's best for you, I won't tell you not to.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also in the social sciences. While a lot of my research technically never required me to be on campus during grad school, showing your face and being a good citizen in the department — going to seminars, attending reading groups, etc. — matter a *lot* more than many PhD students realize. Faculty definitely notice if you disappear. Besides that, some of the friendships I made with people in my program are among the best I’ve ever found, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the random coffee breaks and the hours spent leaning in each other’s office doorways to complain about how awful everything is. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "İt totally depends on your school, your department, you supervisor, etc, etc. Being on campus during my masters -- which happened to be in Canada (I'm not sure if that is the reason) was very important. A bunch of grad students and occasionally profs would go to the pub after classes every Thursday. Some of the greatest times in my life and wonderful 'networking'. I did my PhD at a Catholic university in the states and the atmosphere was totally different. You go to school to do your stuff and then go home. İ had known one of the profs since we were in undergrad together (i took time off while he went straight through, we are both in our 40s)-- İ was directly told not to call him by his first name when on campus. The unstated rule is that school was not a social environment. As for getting future jobs, i think conferences are the most important thing.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also in the social sciences. While a lot of my research technically never required me to be on campus during grad school, showing your face and being a good citizen in the department — going to seminars, attending reading groups, etc. — matter a *lot* more than many PhD students realize. Faculty definitely notice if you disappear. Besides that, some of the friendships I made with people in my program are among the best I’ve ever found, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the random coffee breaks and the hours spent leaning in each other’s office doorways to complain about how awful everything is. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have an arts PhD and spent a fair chunk away from campus, as did quite a few others, including my supervisor. I think some things could have been better by being on campus but on that specific campus there was not a lot of potential in terms of networking. I think networking really is useful, there might be future contacts and your dissertation is not the endgame, a job is and that comes through networking. In my case, there were two other PhD students who made life for other students hard, as they were very arrogant. I think I was not the only one who got fed up and decided to work from home. Again, a specific circumstance. My Masters was more useful in networking perspective as I forged more friendships there. Have you considered going one week a month or every two months to campus so you can keep in touch? That way when you come to campus, everything gets more intense and you really use the week to network and all things you could not do off-campus.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also in the social sciences. While a lot of my research technically never required me to be on campus during grad school, showing your face and being a good citizen in the department — going to seminars, attending reading groups, etc. — matter a *lot* more than many PhD students realize. Faculty definitely notice if you disappear. Besides that, some of the friendships I made with people in my program are among the best I’ve ever found, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the random coffee breaks and the hours spent leaning in each other’s office doorways to complain about how awful everything is. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also in the social sciences. While a lot of my research technically never required me to be on campus during grad school, showing your face and being a good citizen in the department — going to seminars, attending reading groups, etc. — matter a *lot* more than many PhD students realize. Faculty definitely notice if you disappear. Besides that, some of the friendships I made with people in my program are among the best I’ve ever found, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the random coffee breaks and the hours spent leaning in each other’s office doorways to complain about how awful everything is. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I spent five years on-campus and then went remote to write just before coronavirus started. It was a huge help in terms of productivity, but the isolation did make it harder to casually run ideas past friends and faculty. A lot of ideas I've had (even banal bits about methodology and \"have you heard of anyone doing X\") have been answered through casual banter that isn't a big enough deal for me to send an email about. It was also very motivating for me to see people struggling with the same issues and overcoming them. During my dissertation-lockdown phase, I had basically no passive input as to how my peers were doing, and it was harder to put my insecurities into perspective.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Also in the social sciences. While a lot of my research technically never required me to be on campus during grad school, showing your face and being a good citizen in the department — going to seminars, attending reading groups, etc. — matter a *lot* more than many PhD students realize. Faculty definitely notice if you disappear. Besides that, some of the friendships I made with people in my program are among the best I’ve ever found, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the random coffee breaks and the hours spent leaning in each other’s office doorways to complain about how awful everything is. :)", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Depends on your life. Even if I could have done all my work remotely, I would have wished for networking, communication, etc. Near our school was a lot of businesses that gave discounts to students and hired us for jobs/internships, which I would not have been able to attend from afar. So for me, very important. If you are doing grad school while you already have a job lined up, or you already know a lot of people in the field from previous years or something, and don't feel like you need the networking then yeah there is no reason to live near your college campus. So I'd say it would HEAVILY depend on your field, plans for after, etc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Agreed with the history student on pretty much all points. Speaking as a philosophy PhD candidate, I've been missing out on a *lot* being off-campus this year. Being in the same building as my advisor so I can stop by his office for a quick chat turns out to be extremely helpful instead of doing every little thing as yet another email to worry about, zoom \"coffee breaks\" are simply a different class of entity from real ones, and YMMV on this depending on what your means are when not living near campus, but having an office somewhere other than my house is truly, truly crucial to my productivity. Add to this how much I need my personal support network in this city, which was built half out of talking to people in my department after classes, and how much easier it is to collaborate with other disciplines while on the same campus as them, I'd say frankly going remote has been an unmitigated disaster for the progression of my degree and by extension career. Hell, I'm no longer sure I want to or can go into research at this point. All this said, the fact that it's functional at all tells us all we need to know about accommodations for students who *can't* or *shouldn't* be on-campus normally. While I'll never recommend someone in my exact circumstance be off-campus, it's very clear that completing a graduate degree remotely is possible, and we need to pressure admin to allow it for students who think it's their best option no questions asked (if your admin doesn't already). Likewise, if it's an option for you, and you think it's best for you, I won't tell you not to.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "İt totally depends on your school, your department, you supervisor, etc, etc. Being on campus during my masters -- which happened to be in Canada (I'm not sure if that is the reason) was very important. A bunch of grad students and occasionally profs would go to the pub after classes every Thursday. Some of the greatest times in my life and wonderful 'networking'. I did my PhD at a Catholic university in the states and the atmosphere was totally different. You go to school to do your stuff and then go home. İ had known one of the profs since we were in undergrad together (i took time off while he went straight through, we are both in our 40s)-- İ was directly told not to call him by his first name when on campus. The unstated rule is that school was not a social environment. As for getting future jobs, i think conferences are the most important thing.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I have an arts PhD and spent a fair chunk away from campus, as did quite a few others, including my supervisor. I think some things could have been better by being on campus but on that specific campus there was not a lot of potential in terms of networking. I think networking really is useful, there might be future contacts and your dissertation is not the endgame, a job is and that comes through networking. In my case, there were two other PhD students who made life for other students hard, as they were very arrogant. I think I was not the only one who got fed up and decided to work from home. Again, a specific circumstance. My Masters was more useful in networking perspective as I forged more friendships there. Have you considered going one week a month or every two months to campus so you can keep in touch? That way when you come to campus, everything gets more intense and you really use the week to network and all things you could not do off-campus.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm an incoming social sciences phd student and would like to know this too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm a psychologist and a retired chair. I agree with what others are saying in terms of the importance of interactions with faculty, visiting folks, and student colleagues on campus (and at conferences). But, to me, it's not just connections, it's learning to think like a psychologist by being immersed in an environment where psychology is all around. I served on many search committees as a faculty member and I hired a number of people in our social sciences department as chair and I found in interviews that people who had been remote from their campus thought differently about their academic area. I found those who had been on campus for 5-6 years had a more comprehensive view of their academic area. I found that appealing; of course, that's how I spent my graduate years and so I likely had a bias toward that type of perspective.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I spent five years on-campus and then went remote to write just before coronavirus started. It was a huge help in terms of productivity, but the isolation did make it harder to casually run ideas past friends and faculty. A lot of ideas I've had (even banal bits about methodology and \"have you heard of anyone doing X\") have been answered through casual banter that isn't a big enough deal for me to send an email about. It was also very motivating for me to see people struggling with the same issues and overcoming them. During my dissertation-lockdown phase, I had basically no passive input as to how my peers were doing, and it was harder to put my insecurities into perspective.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm a psychologist and a retired chair. I agree with what others are saying in terms of the importance of interactions with faculty, visiting folks, and student colleagues on campus (and at conferences). But, to me, it's not just connections, it's learning to think like a psychologist by being immersed in an environment where psychology is all around. I served on many search committees as a faculty member and I hired a number of people in our social sciences department as chair and I found in interviews that people who had been remote from their campus thought differently about their academic area. I found those who had been on campus for 5-6 years had a more comprehensive view of their academic area. I found that appealing; of course, that's how I spent my graduate years and so I likely had a bias toward that type of perspective.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Social science phd student here and in normal time when people are actually on campus (which is not the case in my university right now it's a creepy ghost town) it's very very useful -accidental meetings lead to recognition and leaves people with a \"this person is working and I know who it is\" so when it comes to references/ contract etc they KNOW you and have a feeling that you work (even if you could be working hard at home and on fbk at the office but humans...) For example they may say \"Oh yeah the woman who always has xyz with her! Yes she's always here!\" And THAT gets you points -unplaned conversations lead to collaboration/ discussions and friendlier relationships are the key in academia and to projects -the administrative employees get to know you and they are the modern \"king counsel\" and can make your time there much easier since they have all the tricks to navigate your uni : they can be friendly and usefull contacts Overall don't need to be there all the time but regularly there 2-3 times a week and say hello to people. You can also eat in the common room instead of your office and you'll get to know more people. Showing up to the events held in the department is important too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I'm a psychologist and a retired chair. I agree with what others are saying in terms of the importance of interactions with faculty, visiting folks, and student colleagues on campus (and at conferences). But, to me, it's not just connections, it's learning to think like a psychologist by being immersed in an environment where psychology is all around. I served on many search committees as a faculty member and I hired a number of people in our social sciences department as chair and I found in interviews that people who had been remote from their campus thought differently about their academic area. I found those who had been on campus for 5-6 years had a more comprehensive view of their academic area. I found that appealing; of course, that's how I spent my graduate years and so I likely had a bias toward that type of perspective.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Depends on your life. Even if I could have done all my work remotely, I would have wished for networking, communication, etc. Near our school was a lot of businesses that gave discounts to students and hired us for jobs/internships, which I would not have been able to attend from afar. So for me, very important. If you are doing grad school while you already have a job lined up, or you already know a lot of people in the field from previous years or something, and don't feel like you need the networking then yeah there is no reason to live near your college campus. So I'd say it would HEAVILY depend on your field, plans for after, etc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I spent five years on-campus and then went remote to write just before coronavirus started. It was a huge help in terms of productivity, but the isolation did make it harder to casually run ideas past friends and faculty. A lot of ideas I've had (even banal bits about methodology and \"have you heard of anyone doing X\") have been answered through casual banter that isn't a big enough deal for me to send an email about. It was also very motivating for me to see people struggling with the same issues and overcoming them. During my dissertation-lockdown phase, I had basically no passive input as to how my peers were doing, and it was harder to put my insecurities into perspective.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Depends on your life. Even if I could have done all my work remotely, I would have wished for networking, communication, etc. Near our school was a lot of businesses that gave discounts to students and hired us for jobs/internships, which I would not have been able to attend from afar. So for me, very important. If you are doing grad school while you already have a job lined up, or you already know a lot of people in the field from previous years or something, and don't feel like you need the networking then yeah there is no reason to live near your college campus. So I'd say it would HEAVILY depend on your field, plans for after, etc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Social science phd student here and in normal time when people are actually on campus (which is not the case in my university right now it's a creepy ghost town) it's very very useful -accidental meetings lead to recognition and leaves people with a \"this person is working and I know who it is\" so when it comes to references/ contract etc they KNOW you and have a feeling that you work (even if you could be working hard at home and on fbk at the office but humans...) For example they may say \"Oh yeah the woman who always has xyz with her! Yes she's always here!\" And THAT gets you points -unplaned conversations lead to collaboration/ discussions and friendlier relationships are the key in academia and to projects -the administrative employees get to know you and they are the modern \"king counsel\" and can make your time there much easier since they have all the tricks to navigate your uni : they can be friendly and usefull contacts Overall don't need to be there all the time but regularly there 2-3 times a week and say hello to people. You can also eat in the common room instead of your office and you'll get to know more people. Showing up to the events held in the department is important too.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How important was being around campus as a PhD student? Obviously the last year has been weird for graduate students. Despite the darkness I’ve had the good fortune to receive funding that has liberated me from the need to TA for the remainder of my degree. But it’s opened up some new questions. I’m in the social sciences, so I don’t have any physical lab equipment I need access to. I’m done classes as well, so I’m seriously considering whether to just go somewhere sunny to crank out the writing and analysis for the next few years. It seems pretty common for people to leave for relationship based reasons and finish remotely. Then again, there’s a community of scholars I would like to engage with at my university, but I also find that faculty are not that interested in building relationships with grad students if they’re not on your committee or you’re not doing research for them. I’m wondering, especially among people with social science backgrounds, how critical was sustained campus engagement for you? Is networking better done on campus than at conferences? Is sticking around with your cohort important for your professional development? Many thanks!", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Depends on your life. Even if I could have done all my work remotely, I would have wished for networking, communication, etc. Near our school was a lot of businesses that gave discounts to students and hired us for jobs/internships, which I would not have been able to attend from afar. So for me, very important. If you are doing grad school while you already have a job lined up, or you already know a lot of people in the field from previous years or something, and don't feel like you need the networking then yeah there is no reason to live near your college campus. So I'd say it would HEAVILY depend on your field, plans for after, etc.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My advisor was sexually inappropriate - how can I get around a letter of recommendation from him for PhD applications? Background: I finished my undergraduate a few years ago. Research was my passion, but this burned me out and I've been too afraid to go back. I'm also not in the US. Long story short, my advisor was a creep to me, I don't want to elaborate in case he's on this subreddit. I know he uses Reddit a lot. I didn't really work with anyone else in the department, and I have no interest in reporting it - it's well known, my department doesn't care. I also don't want to bring this up in a new application, I don't want to seem like I'm slandering someone - and frankly, it's probably irrational, but I'd feel unprofessional talking about it. I'm finally in a place where I want to apply for my PhD, but I don't know how to explain the fact I won't have a letter of reference from the person I did my undergraduate thesis with. I honestly don't even know who else I can ask for a letter from - it's been so long since I left that I don't think any professors would remember me. Does anyone have any idea how I can frame this without it coming off as unprofessional, or like *I* did something to sour the relationship? ​ Thanks Reddit.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sexual abuse in academia needs a hashtag movement more than ever", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My advisor was sexually inappropriate - how can I get around a letter of recommendation from him for PhD applications? Background: I finished my undergraduate a few years ago. Research was my passion, but this burned me out and I've been too afraid to go back. I'm also not in the US. Long story short, my advisor was a creep to me, I don't want to elaborate in case he's on this subreddit. I know he uses Reddit a lot. I didn't really work with anyone else in the department, and I have no interest in reporting it - it's well known, my department doesn't care. I also don't want to bring this up in a new application, I don't want to seem like I'm slandering someone - and frankly, it's probably irrational, but I'd feel unprofessional talking about it. I'm finally in a place where I want to apply for my PhD, but I don't know how to explain the fact I won't have a letter of reference from the person I did my undergraduate thesis with. I honestly don't even know who else I can ask for a letter from - it's been so long since I left that I don't think any professors would remember me. Does anyone have any idea how I can frame this without it coming off as unprofessional, or like *I* did something to sour the relationship? ​ Thanks Reddit.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I had a very similar situation happen over the past few weeks. I did not go through any sexual harassment, but emotional abuse. It was in the middle of my PhD, but I also didn't want to name names. About a month ago another professor at my University contacted me and they had several complaints brought up against him, that is the only time I felt comfortable saying anything. No one wants that hanging over their head especially in academia as it is so stigmatized. I eventually had the professor who conducted the investigation write a letter in lieu of my advisor. Obviously, you have a different situation. Up until the call with the other professor I was set on using my advisor as a reference even though I knew it had effected my chances of getting into another school, I didn't trust him to not go behind my back. So you have really 1 of 3 options, you talk to your department/dean/etc., you go ahead and use him as a reference as long as you still have a good relationship(in the sense that he won't say anything negative), and finally you just don't use him use another professor/PhD one that worked with you or published with you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My advisor was sexually inappropriate - how can I get around a letter of recommendation from him for PhD applications? Background: I finished my undergraduate a few years ago. Research was my passion, but this burned me out and I've been too afraid to go back. I'm also not in the US. Long story short, my advisor was a creep to me, I don't want to elaborate in case he's on this subreddit. I know he uses Reddit a lot. I didn't really work with anyone else in the department, and I have no interest in reporting it - it's well known, my department doesn't care. I also don't want to bring this up in a new application, I don't want to seem like I'm slandering someone - and frankly, it's probably irrational, but I'd feel unprofessional talking about it. I'm finally in a place where I want to apply for my PhD, but I don't know how to explain the fact I won't have a letter of reference from the person I did my undergraduate thesis with. I honestly don't even know who else I can ask for a letter from - it's been so long since I left that I don't think any professors would remember me. Does anyone have any idea how I can frame this without it coming off as unprofessional, or like *I* did something to sour the relationship? ​ Thanks Reddit.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Sexual abuse in academia needs a hashtag movement more than ever", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My advisor was sexually inappropriate - how can I get around a letter of recommendation from him for PhD applications? Background: I finished my undergraduate a few years ago. Research was my passion, but this burned me out and I've been too afraid to go back. I'm also not in the US. Long story short, my advisor was a creep to me, I don't want to elaborate in case he's on this subreddit. I know he uses Reddit a lot. I didn't really work with anyone else in the department, and I have no interest in reporting it - it's well known, my department doesn't care. I also don't want to bring this up in a new application, I don't want to seem like I'm slandering someone - and frankly, it's probably irrational, but I'd feel unprofessional talking about it. I'm finally in a place where I want to apply for my PhD, but I don't know how to explain the fact I won't have a letter of reference from the person I did my undergraduate thesis with. I honestly don't even know who else I can ask for a letter from - it's been so long since I left that I don't think any professors would remember me. Does anyone have any idea how I can frame this without it coming off as unprofessional, or like *I* did something to sour the relationship? ​ Thanks Reddit.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It makes me so sad that this is not uncommon in academia. Good on you for wanting to go back to school in spite of this bullshit. I hope your next supervised research experience is more positive and professional. In my opinion (and others may disagree), I don’t think it would be frowned upon to include a footnote in your application that notes why there’s no letter from previous supervisor. For example, if an application includes a personal statement, you could describe your past research project and literally include a footnote that succinctly (1-2 sentences) explains the situation — sexual harassment happened, not comfortable asking for recommendation. Admissions committees at any school worth attending would not hold this against you.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My advisor was sexually inappropriate - how can I get around a letter of recommendation from him for PhD applications? Background: I finished my undergraduate a few years ago. Research was my passion, but this burned me out and I've been too afraid to go back. I'm also not in the US. Long story short, my advisor was a creep to me, I don't want to elaborate in case he's on this subreddit. I know he uses Reddit a lot. I didn't really work with anyone else in the department, and I have no interest in reporting it - it's well known, my department doesn't care. I also don't want to bring this up in a new application, I don't want to seem like I'm slandering someone - and frankly, it's probably irrational, but I'd feel unprofessional talking about it. I'm finally in a place where I want to apply for my PhD, but I don't know how to explain the fact I won't have a letter of reference from the person I did my undergraduate thesis with. I honestly don't even know who else I can ask for a letter from - it's been so long since I left that I don't think any professors would remember me. Does anyone have any idea how I can frame this without it coming off as unprofessional, or like *I* did something to sour the relationship? ​ Thanks Reddit.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "Professor here. I'm so sorry for what you experienced. ***No one will care that you don't have a letter from your advisor.*** It's not something we check for or make note of. We only care that the letters are strong, which means they're written by people who know you and your work well. /u/po2gdHaeKaYk is exactly right. The real issue here is getting a minimum of three solid letters. Based on what you wrote, it sounds like other than your advisor, you don't know who else to ask. So, even if you asked him (don't), you'd still be two letters short. Definitely follow other posters' advice on how to approach faculty and provide them with enough materials to put something together. While I think you should remain optimistic--we really do want to help students--you should also be prepared to hear no. It won't be just because they don't remember you well enough. It's also because writing a letter puts our reputation on the line; we are vouching for you to our colleagues. If we vouch for students who end up plagiarizing, harassing other students, imploding, etc, our colleagues will no longer trust our judgment. **Candidate interviews are definitely field-specific**, so if your discipline doesn't have them, this may not even be something you ever have to address in person. I'd be surprised if anyone pointedly asked you, but if so, I like /u/sunia42's suggestion. The last thing I'll say is that you should think about why you want a PhD. (I don't mean to imply that you haven't, just encouraging you to keep doing so.) If you're considering working in industry, a PhD is rarely needed and the time spent in school can make you less competitive. If you plan to pursue academia, please understand that the job markets (in the U.S.) across the humanities, social sciences, and STEM are terrible and have been for a long time. Tenure track positions are becoming more rare, and recent grads must compete with PhDs who are still on the market 4-5 years after defending. Finally, if you don't know about the exploitation of adjuncts, you should look into it. Good luck with everything!", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "My advisor was sexually inappropriate - how can I get around a letter of recommendation from him for PhD applications? Background: I finished my undergraduate a few years ago. Research was my passion, but this burned me out and I've been too afraid to go back. I'm also not in the US. Long story short, my advisor was a creep to me, I don't want to elaborate in case he's on this subreddit. I know he uses Reddit a lot. I didn't really work with anyone else in the department, and I have no interest in reporting it - it's well known, my department doesn't care. I also don't want to bring this up in a new application, I don't want to seem like I'm slandering someone - and frankly, it's probably irrational, but I'd feel unprofessional talking about it. I'm finally in a place where I want to apply for my PhD, but I don't know how to explain the fact I won't have a letter of reference from the person I did my undergraduate thesis with. I honestly don't even know who else I can ask for a letter from - it's been so long since I left that I don't think any professors would remember me. Does anyone have any idea how I can frame this without it coming off as unprofessional, or like *I* did something to sour the relationship? ​ Thanks Reddit.", "role": "user" }, { "content": "First of all, I’m very sorry about what you had to go through, OP. It’s sad it’s still happening in 2020. If you ask other profs who taught a class in which you did well, a very minimal thing they can do is what you were taught in the class and how you did, and what your performance means compared to the general student population. They can also explain the textbook and what they covered in the class. There are so many programs in the world and they vary so much, such information is very helpful for the people who go through students from all over the world. And many schools don’t have academic advisor program anyway so it doesn’t really hurt your case if you don’t get a letter from the creep. I hope this helps. And I hope you won’t have to deal with such awful people in your future career.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How can I stay professional and calm while meeting with my toxic Ph.D. supervisor after I've graduated? I am a Postdoc now, and I graduated back in 2019. My Ph.D. lab environment was toxic ( sabotaging experiments, favoritism, disputes about authorship, reagent hoarding, etc..), and my PI was extremely narcissistic and manipulative. I somehow fought my way through the years, got my degree, and shifted to the US for a postdoc. I even avoided getting a Postdoc in a lab that my PI recommended because he knew the professor personally, and I did not want to be under his umbrella anymore. I still kept an amicable relationship with him, but I am in touch with very few of my previous colleagues and avoid the rest, as I had a rather unpleasant experience with them. Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. Any suggestions?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It sounds like you would need to travel to attend? So I would just tell PI I cannot travel at that time, but I appreciate the invitation and wish I could come as he’s a big part of how I got to this point in my career and wish him the best. Something that’s a no, but still makes a narcissist feel good so next time I ask for a favor he has positive feelings", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How can I stay professional and calm while meeting with my toxic Ph.D. supervisor after I've graduated? I am a Postdoc now, and I graduated back in 2019. My Ph.D. lab environment was toxic ( sabotaging experiments, favoritism, disputes about authorship, reagent hoarding, etc..), and my PI was extremely narcissistic and manipulative. I somehow fought my way through the years, got my degree, and shifted to the US for a postdoc. I even avoided getting a Postdoc in a lab that my PI recommended because he knew the professor personally, and I did not want to be under his umbrella anymore. I still kept an amicable relationship with him, but I am in touch with very few of my previous colleagues and avoid the rest, as I had a rather unpleasant experience with them. Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. Any suggestions?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I suggest going as well, but don't stay long. One way to get through it is to just let other people talk about themselves until it's time to leave.", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How can I stay professional and calm while meeting with my toxic Ph.D. supervisor after I've graduated? I am a Postdoc now, and I graduated back in 2019. My Ph.D. lab environment was toxic ( sabotaging experiments, favoritism, disputes about authorship, reagent hoarding, etc..), and my PI was extremely narcissistic and manipulative. I somehow fought my way through the years, got my degree, and shifted to the US for a postdoc. I even avoided getting a Postdoc in a lab that my PI recommended because he knew the professor personally, and I did not want to be under his umbrella anymore. I still kept an amicable relationship with him, but I am in touch with very few of my previous colleagues and avoid the rest, as I had a rather unpleasant experience with them. Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. Any suggestions?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It sounds like you would need to travel to attend? So I would just tell PI I cannot travel at that time, but I appreciate the invitation and wish I could come as he’s a big part of how I got to this point in my career and wish him the best. Something that’s a no, but still makes a narcissist feel good so next time I ask for a favor he has positive feelings", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How can I stay professional and calm while meeting with my toxic Ph.D. supervisor after I've graduated? I am a Postdoc now, and I graduated back in 2019. My Ph.D. lab environment was toxic ( sabotaging experiments, favoritism, disputes about authorship, reagent hoarding, etc..), and my PI was extremely narcissistic and manipulative. I somehow fought my way through the years, got my degree, and shifted to the US for a postdoc. I even avoided getting a Postdoc in a lab that my PI recommended because he knew the professor personally, and I did not want to be under his umbrella anymore. I still kept an amicable relationship with him, but I am in touch with very few of my previous colleagues and avoid the rest, as I had a rather unpleasant experience with them. Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. Any suggestions?", "role": "user" }, { "content": ">Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. Then don't go. ​ >My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. I am assuming you are in your mid-20s - do you plan to spend decades bending the knee to people ? Is that worth your sense of self-worth?", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How can I stay professional and calm while meeting with my toxic Ph.D. supervisor after I've graduated? I am a Postdoc now, and I graduated back in 2019. My Ph.D. lab environment was toxic ( sabotaging experiments, favoritism, disputes about authorship, reagent hoarding, etc..), and my PI was extremely narcissistic and manipulative. I somehow fought my way through the years, got my degree, and shifted to the US for a postdoc. I even avoided getting a Postdoc in a lab that my PI recommended because he knew the professor personally, and I did not want to be under his umbrella anymore. I still kept an amicable relationship with him, but I am in touch with very few of my previous colleagues and avoid the rest, as I had a rather unpleasant experience with them. Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. Any suggestions?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "It sounds like you would need to travel to attend? So I would just tell PI I cannot travel at that time, but I appreciate the invitation and wish I could come as he’s a big part of how I got to this point in my career and wish him the best. Something that’s a no, but still makes a narcissist feel good so next time I ask for a favor he has positive feelings", "role": "assistant" } ]

[ { "content": "How can I stay professional and calm while meeting with my toxic Ph.D. supervisor after I've graduated? I am a Postdoc now, and I graduated back in 2019. My Ph.D. lab environment was toxic ( sabotaging experiments, favoritism, disputes about authorship, reagent hoarding, etc..), and my PI was extremely narcissistic and manipulative. I somehow fought my way through the years, got my degree, and shifted to the US for a postdoc. I even avoided getting a Postdoc in a lab that my PI recommended because he knew the professor personally, and I did not want to be under his umbrella anymore. I still kept an amicable relationship with him, but I am in touch with very few of my previous colleagues and avoid the rest, as I had a rather unpleasant experience with them. Recently, he personally invited me to join a get-together of his lab, which will consist of past lab members, but I really want to avoid it. My wife (who was in academia too) says not attending might come across as unprofessional and can have repercussions later (if we decide to move back) since he (the PI) is well connected and influential in the academic circles in my home country. Any suggestions?", "role": "user" }, { "content": "I would come up with an excuse and not go. A family issue or other commitment. You don't owe anyone a long explanation. Just say you are happy for the invitation but are not available to attend and wish everyone the best. That stays professional but gets you out of attending the event.", "role": "assistant" } ]