Job Market: Academic vs Non-Academic Jobs

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Posted by Huong Le, community karma 241

I'm not sure how it is in your personal program, but in mine (Sociology at a R1 institution) academia is considered the "norm" when looking for a job. Granted, on one hand it makes sense that a R1 institution would pump out baby researchers, but on the other hand it is not logical for that to be our ONLY TRAINING or have it displayed as our ONLY OPTION. There just are not enough professor positions out there for all of us with PhDs. 

So I'm wondering: Are non-academic jobs even discussed in your program?

about 13 years ago

4 Comments

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Edward Oneill, community karma 49

I had teaching jobs--full-time, part-time, all non-tenure-track.

I've now been staff in higher ed for about five years.

Your advisors do not know about non-academic jobs, because they don't have them.  It wouldn't be right for them to talk about things they don't know about. It's up to you to find someone on the faculty who's worked outside higher ed.

It's not that faculty try to present themselves as experts on subjects about which they know little--such as getting a non-teaching job--it's just that they tacitly assume that the only meaningful conversation is about tenure-track jobs.

There are so many great jobs for smart people outside higher ed that you wouldn't believe it. You need to know how to describe your skills and strengths in terms besides writing scholarly prose. 

The best advice is that given in What Color Is Your Parachute? Namely, you do not know what kinds of jobs there are until you ask lots of people what they do, what they like and don't like about their jobs, and who else to talk to.

I was lucky, because when I was getting my Ph.D. there were people who wrote for Cosmo, documentary filmmakers, archivists, and all sorts of people in and around my grad program. So I got a sense of other job tracks very quickly--even though it took me years to retool myself.

It can be done. You can do it. Keep an open mind. Ask questions. Talk to people. Be a curious person. Get out into the world. Interact with people. Don't just do a lit review.

 

about 13 years ago
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Sister Edith Bogue, community karma 109

Statistically speaking, unless a department experiences significant growth, there will be approximately 1 full-time job opening in your advisor's specialty during his lifetime. It will be his job when he retires. Over the course of his academic life, he will have mentored dozens of students; at an R1 university (I attended one too), the unspoken assumption was that we would all somehow find positions at R1 universities, but would find it acceptable to take academic teaching positions at four-year colleges and other academic institutions. Even so, the number of students who will receive PhDs in a year usually exceeds the number of academic positions. As academia becomes increasingly comfortable with adjunct instruction for large numbers of courses, the pool of full-time jobs shrinks. 

Psychology has done an excellent job of defining non-academic applications of the discipline - not only clinical, but a variety of areas in industry, management and the like.  The Occupational Outlook Handbook foresees a 26% growth in I/O psychology jobs in the next 10 years.  For many of those jobs, an applied sociologist would be equally or better qualified. However, the same critical stance of the discipline that might make people effective workers also inhibits them from considering those jobs.  Few programs even have an applied sociology area, and it's not as clearly defined. 

There is a lot of good and interesting work to be done, including research initiatives outside of the academy.  But those who have risen to the top in an R1 institution are less likely to know about it, or to know how to find one's way into it.

about 13 years ago
I just wanted to offer online applause for this is great punchline, Sister Edith: "Statistically speaking, unless a department experiences significant growth, there will be approximately 1 full-time job opening in your advisor's specialty during his lifetime. It will be his job when he retires." And in response to your larger point, I have talked to a few academics who have recently experienced a tight job market, and have definitely experienced a sense of failure even when they find an applied job (such as evaluation), and I agree that there is an unfortunate looking-down-ones-nose perspective that academics learn that "inhibits them from considering those [other] jobs".
Brian Cody – about 13 years ago
The great undiscovered learning outcome for higher education is: flexibility. My former undergrad students are writing on platforms that did not exist when they were students. I know one professor who does not change the research component of her assignments, but chooses a different platform each semester: a web site, an interactive PDF, etc. And for graduate students flexibility means both writing across media platforms and practicing the kinds of skills and work that would be useful in different kinds of workplaces. So this means: not every seminar terminates in a 30-page paper....
Edward Oneill – about 13 years ago
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Cory Owen, community karma 193

Since my program is in Higher Ed, I'm at a unique advantage because a lot of what I do focuses on non-academic job.  Interestingly, I kind of wish we'd focus a little more on research/professor career tracks, but since it is a part-time program, I completely understand why they don't. 

 

There was an interesting article in the Chron the other day on this: "More Universities Break the Taboo and Talk to PhD's About Jobs Outside Academe (http://chronicle.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/article/More-Universities-Break-the/129647/?key=SWIhJ1NhZSJBN3pnZzhFYG4DaH1gNkNwNnZKbnwkblBTEw%3D%3D)

about 13 years ago
I couldn't get to that article with that link. Here's another way to get to it: http://bit.ly/seaMVc
Rob Walsh – about 13 years ago
Thanks, Rob. :)
Cory Owen – about 13 years ago
That's a great article Cory and I *really* wish my program would jump on this bandwagon. It is just not logical to ONLY offer everyone in the program one option. It's also true that we just don't know where to start! Do I want to teach at a university? Yes. Will I be able to in this job market? I don't know. I feel that universities are really doing their students a disservice by not preparing them for reality.
Huong Le – about 13 years ago
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Edward Oneill, community karma 49

Great points, Sister Edith! This is already one of the best places to have a thoughtful discussion on the internet.

about 13 years ago
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