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| Image courtesy of these folks; not blurred because I'm pretty sure it was designed to be shared. |
If schools are recruiting grad students at least in part with the argument that one can pursue a variety of careers with a Ph.D., then they also have a responsibility not to set up financial structures that disproportionately reward grad students for building skills toward only one of those careers (little as I like the instrumentalist, student-as-consumer, what's-in-it-for-me attitude of some of today's students, I wouldn't mind listening to faculty and administrators who have long relied on grad students to teach significant portions of undergraduate classes try to explain to a skeptical grad student why TAing is in their best interest).
The "Shadow Resume": A Career Tip for Grad Students
By Adam Kotsko
There are a few facts that every graduate student must come to terms with:
- Adjunct teaching is exploitative.
- There’s a very real possibility that one will ultimately be unable to find a suitable academic position.
- Having a PhD can seriously hurt one’s “civilian” employment prospects.
I developed a strategy to address all these problems simultaneously, which I called the “shadow resume.” Basically, I worked on a freelance basis in the “civilian” sphere during grad school (and beyond, as it turned out). This had several benefits. First, the work was better-paying and less time-intensive than adjuncting would have been — and I could work from home for the most part, meaning it didn’t really interfere with my classes, etc. Second, and perhaps most crucially, it gave me a plausible resume for the “civilian” world, one from which I could omit my overeduction while not thereby creating a huge inexplicable hole in my employment record. Finally, it created a “lower bound” for my stress levels, because I felt like I had alternatives — it wasn’t a choice between a tenure-track job and Starbucks.
This sounds like a different way of expressing the advice that it's good to have a well-rounded skill set. I'm also not certain that hiding your work experience is a good idea. Some work in the civilian world doesn't impress academic employers and vise versa but much of it will. Any responsibility involving leadership and writing would seem to provide universally useful skills and certainly anything discipline specific would be great.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend TAing even for those grad students who are not interested in academia. A big part of teaching is communicating, which encompass a range of skills that benefit any grad student. You also learn your subject area more deeply when you teach, even if it's an introductory class. Sure, there's a point at which you don't benefit from teaching the same course again and again but the initial experience can be very beneficial.
Anytime these conditions can be spread in the media it's a good thing for everyone.
ReplyDeleteKotsko is right that having a Ph.D. or being ABD can work against job applicants. It does make sense to omit that experience from a resume, and to have jobs that fill the gap.
ReplyDeleteMaybe in chemistry the TAs actually teach, but in my program TAing was a near waste of lots of time for very little money. We did not prepare or give lectures, but only ran discussion sessions and graded exams. Two of the professors I worked for had us write exam questions that were never used. The benefits came later, on applications for adjunct and permanent teaching positions, and in reference letters from the professors.
Teaching as an adjunct, on the other hand, was terrific experience for the reasons Beaker Ben gave. Having to fill 3 - 5 hours a week in front of a mostly indifferent, occasionally hostile audience makes most job interviews a breeze.
^^ This.
DeleteAnd it was fun! I wish I could have afforded to adjunct more. In theory, having a single challenging class like that while doing research is amazing. But of course you also need a trust fund in order to do it.
Fun? I guess, if you like roller coaster rides on swaying rickety wooden structures where people are cheering for you to fall out. My first semester I had two back-to-back classes: a survey of world cultures, with an outspoken disciple of Rush Limbaugh in the front row, followed by an intro to human evolution, with an outspoken fundamentalist young-earth creationist front and center.
DeleteTrust fund? Maybe, these days. In my case, I'd managed to save some money from an NSF graduate fellowship by riding my bike everywhere and eating mostly beans.
I was skeptical about the advice to omit your Ph.D. from c.v.s, too, but if I were applying for jobs outside the academy, I'd almost certainly be touting my research/writing skills, of which my (humanities) Ph.D. is reasonably good evidence (well, at least combined with writing samples that show I can write jargon-free prose when appropriate). Also, at this point, I'd have trouble posing as anything but at least an A.B.D., since pretty much all my work experience is teaching of some sort. If I were to omit anything relevant to my Ph.D. from my c.v., I'd basically have to claim to be a stay-at-home wife/mother returning to work, to avoid people concluding that I must have been locked up somewhere for the last 25 years or so. But I'm not his primary evidence.
ReplyDeleteI agree that some teaching experience (preferably including some of the sort where one has to plan the course, produce materials, and run the whole show) is worthwhile for pretty much everyone, if only so they understand just how hard a job it is (whether such apprentice efforts are good for students is another question). But, at least coming at this from the humanities perspective, many grad students do far more teaching than makes sense if they're not going to become teachers, and many departments are heavily dependent on said teaching. It would make far more sense for students to spend some of that time in paid internships of some sort.
umm, "evidence" should read "audience." My brain has *not* had enough summer vacation this summer. Help!
DeleteThe audience that has to be reached includes those grad studies directors who aren't aware of the job realities.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Unfortunately, if they're anything like mine, they're aware of the current realities, but perpetually convinced/self-deluded that things will turn around soon (and/or that if they got a tenure-track job after adjuncting/visiting for a few years back in the '70s, then it's still possible today). I remember suffering from a good deal of cognitive dissonance in my 4th and 5th years of grad school, as the faculty kept insisting I'd get a job if I only finished the diss, while the number of grad students who had defended during my first and second year, but were still, for mysterious reasons, hanging around town, multiplied.
DeleteYeah ... but no. I understand the point of these articles, I really do. But for me it is impossible at this point to maintain a "shadow self." I'm on a very strict funding schedule with constant TAships and have to finish my dissertation in a limited amount of time. I really could not take on outside employment at this point--if there was any outside employment to be had in my limited area anyway. Actually, I know people who did taken on outside employment, and they had more money but couldn't finish their dissertations on time.
ReplyDeleteThe better advice would be to work outside of academia before getting a PhD. That way you have some idea about the "civilian" world--and job market--before committing to this monastic existence.
Plus, a lot of this advice seems no-brainer to me. Of course you generate different resumes for different positions. You wouldn't send your academic CV to the position for an administrative assistant, just as you wouldn't send your admin resume to the TT position at the local liberal arts college. Right?
Some of my faculty colleagues aren't punctual, courteous, organized and computer-literate enough to be office admins so that's not an issue for them.
DeleteThat's where the structural issues come in, I think. Unless your department is regularly placing the great majority of its Ph.D.s in full-time jobs for which teaching is a major responsibility, then using TAships as a funding mechanism is a questionable practice -- a very, very common practice, in fact so common as to be one those things that's taken for granted about how grad programs fit into departments and universities. But if we're in a moment of rethinking/"disruption," and especially if universities are going to try to maintain grad programs by arguing that a Ph.D. qualifies graduates for a variety of jobs outside as well as inside he academy, then it may be time to rethink the role of TA-ships in funding grade study.
DeleteOr, to put it another way, you're doing much of the teaching labor in intro courses so that your professors have the privilege of teaching grad classes (to you). This arrangement may or may not turn out to be in your longterm best interest.
I would argue, as someone now looking at endless applications for jobs, that only having TAships marks you as a lazy worker, unless you are able to match that with ridiculous publication rates. The CVs going into the callback pile are those that have a well-rounded application. I can't afford to hire someone who has been coddled by their department. Those employees will expect me to direct their work and provide opportunities and solve their problems.
DeleteUgh just thinking about it. This is why so many PhDs from Princeton struggle to find employment.
Now THAT needs to be heard by grad students and advisors everywhere.
DeleteAM, could you please specify what a "ridiculous" publication rate would mean for a newly minted Ph.D.? First authorship(s)? Coauthorships with some maximum number of coauthors? First-tier journals necessary? Regional or specialty journals? Chapters in edited collections?
"AM, could you please specify what a "ridiculous" publication rate would mean for a newly minted Ph.D.? First authorship(s)? Coauthorships with some maximum number of coauthors? First-tier journals necessary? Regional or specialty journals? Chapters in edited collections?"
DeleteNah, in order to pass the lazy smell test you need to be running a non-profit on the side and assembling packages at home. And running a dog walking service. If you're not doing all those things--along with teaching and publishing mad amounts to boot--then you're fucking lazy, man.
Proffie, I'm looking for something to show that you have drive to work on your own. One TAship per semester and 0 publications is lack-luster. The same thing with 3 published articles shows that you are at least spending all your free time working on your scholarship. Someone who has run a writing center while doing editing on the side is more impressive than someone who takes the regular TAships and nothing more.
DeleteGone Grad, you've nearly got it just minus the sarcasm. I want to see that you know how to run a blog, website, or podcast, that you can be tech-savvy and create opportunities in spite of the situation. I want you to be aware enough that you know there is a problem in the job market, and then self-sufficient enough that you can solve that problem.
I know the departments that provide full funding. I've seen what they produce: unimaginative and narrow-minded PhDs who believe everything ought to be handed to them. Unsupported in a brand new job, they stumble and drag everyone down with them.
"I would argue, as someone now looking at endless applications for jobs, that only having TAships marks you as a lazy worker, unless you are able to match that with ridiculous publication rates. he CVs going into the callback pile are those that have a well-rounded application. I can't afford to hire someone who has been coddled by their department. Those employees will expect me to direct their work and provide opportunities and solve their problems.
ReplyDeleteUgh just thinking about it. This is why so many PhDs from Princeton struggle to find employment."
Actually, it's the Ivy League people who *don't* have TAships instructorships, at least in my field. Usually they're supported by years of no-service fellowships. Personally, that seems to me more like department-coddling than having a TAship where you're responsible for teaching 100-150 students a semester, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
And they usually have no trouble finding employment, while those who took a decade to finish their dissertations so they could work part-time are screwed, no matter how unfair that might be. But again, that's my field, so YMMV.
You're right -- I was lumping Ivy RAships and fellowships (full funding in general) into the TAship category. In other words, those programs provide money and ask grad students to dedicate everything to research, but as a result they suffer from a lack of accumulated skills.
DeleteActually, Ivy League Ph.D.s (including myself and many of my grad school friends) *do* often have trouble finding tenure-track employment (or, in other cases I know, getting tenure) for exactly the reasons Monkey names. I'd also add to the list of potential reasons the difficulty of establishing a stable relationship with an advisor at an institution that attracts sometimes fast-moving stars (both of my prospective advisors left just after I passed generals, in the middle of what was admittedly a major, and unusual, department meltdown; one of the advisors listed on my dissertation arrived after I passed generals and left before I finished; there were a good many other comings and goings that affected me less directly), and the disadvantages of unusually short programs (they're designed to produce Ph.D.s quickly, but often don't take into account the need to have significant publications and teaching experience to be competitive in the market, or to succeed on the tenure track).
DeleteIf I were advising someone where to go to grad school to maximize their marketability, I think I'd lean toward a flagship state school with a top department in the candidate's field, preferably in a location that offers opportunities for broader experience (on or off-campus).
In fact, I recently had the opportunity to offer advice to entering students at my grad institution, and found myself concentrating a good deal on ways to offset the *dis* advantages of the Ivy grad experience.
I was supported in grad school by a combination of RAs and TAs, and frankly one or two recitation classes (plus grading homework) is not a lot of work in return for tuition remission and bare-bones living expenses (if you're single, in your early 20s). And most math postdocs involve a certain amount of teaching, so it is good to have some evidence that the person can deal with undergraduates, more or less.
ReplyDeleteAs for "being in a moment of rethinking/disruption" (CC): we are, and the problem is that each of us (students or faculty) has very limited direct experience: I know what it took to get a TT position at place with a graduate program, in my field 25 years ago (all my fellow GS in my area got one), and that's about it. This has very little relevance to the professional environment the grad students at my institution face when they get their PhDs. The stronger ones get research-type postdocs, and after that we don't know what happens to them.
Now, is it my responsibility (as an individual's research advisor) to provide career counseling? I'm eminently unqualified for that; I can guide someone towards starting research in my specialized area, but whether that leads to long-term employment under conditions compatible with the time and difficulty of training: probably in very rare cases. Now, the first people who should worry about that, and start networking and considering alternatives are the students themselves; presumably that's something they thought about when applying to grad school (but then, it is hard to avoid the impression you have a shot at the same cushy jobs your profs do).
I agree the Graduate Head should have this conversation with incoming graduate classes (I don't know if he does), and should make the effort to get the information and the contacts needed. Also, if I were the dept chair my dept would post on its grad program web page the first, and maybe the second jobs our PhD graduates got, as well as the time to completion. For most programs like mine this would be a form of negative advertising, so they won't do it unless it's required by law (as it should be.)
I don't agree a PhD in math is something you should hide from your CV; after all, you may end up working industry for someone who does have one (in math, or in stats, or in Operations Research, OR). Instead, grad students wishing to avoid long careers as adjuncts could use part of their coursework to learn the skills industry employers value, and begin to make contacts early. Every area of mathematics has an applied side, and ideally graduate programs would develop that kind of course; but where are the incentives for that?
I can think of one incentive, that wouldn't affect me personally but would be good for the mathematics profession: statisticians, engineers and OR faculty are often doing work that's just as abstract and mathematical as ours, yet command far greater salaries, for the simple reason the U has to compete with industry jobs.
I should add here that requiring grad students on TAs to work as adjuncts (being responsible for their own classes) is exploitative, and I wish my department wouldn't do it.
DeleteOn the other hand, being a state school we teach a lot of remedial classes: things they should have learned in middle or high school, but never did. You don't want research-type PhDs teaching those classes; it would be painful for all involved. So who is going to do it? If not grad students, then adjuncts.
Maybe a better solution would be to have the students fill those gaps in high school or community college, before they can get into the flagship U. Maybe.
I think even realizing that things have changed since you were looking for a job is a step in the right direction (my department may have had an unusual number of people who got their Ph.D.s in the 1970s and managed to get jobs in the expansion of certain literature-related fields -- e.g. women's and African-American lit. -- in the late '70s/early '80s, which may have informed their "just hang in there; things will work out" advice).
DeleteIn English, *not* having designed your own class (probably a freshman comp one) would be a major disadvantage on the job market. But such teaching is time- and energy-consuming, and I very much wish that (1)I'd gotten my dissertation underway before I started trying to do such work, and (2) that I'd had much better support (I had wonderful informal support from more-experienced colleagues, many of them faculty wives who were promised more exciting work as an enticement to their spouses and then shuttled into freshman comp, and were remarkably cheerful about it; in retrospect, the 2/2 30-student-in-all load and generous pay probably helped, but they were still excellent teachers, and mentors. However, there really should have been a prior and/or parallel teaching-us-how-to-teach class). This is probably an area where the issues, and the answers, are discipline-specific.