#alt ac

[phdingifs]

My advisor on my job prospects after this PhD

[driedpinkpetal-blog]

Grad Life and Tumblr

Hi. It’s me, “graduate student.” I’m using Tumblr to talk about my journey in grad school. Lately it’s been a lot to process, both good and bad, and I wanted to create a place where I could discuss it without feeling 1. like I needed to censor what I was saying (my veil of anonymity) and 2. I wanted a place where I could try to work on my causal writing. I am immersed in an environment that wants writing to be “accessible,” but sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes I don’t know how to write for general audiences outside of my field. In truth, I just need practice. Tumblr is a place where I feel like I can have a few comma splices here and there while still getting out what I want to say...and not get judged by professors/my advisor for it!  

A small introduction: I am a first year graduate student in a humanities program in the Mid-Atlantic. I’m married, I have a cat, and I enjoy reading fiction when I’m not otherwise up to my eyeballs with reading for seminars. I like to run and I worked in education and retail before heading back to grad school. Now that I’m here, I love it, and I don’t want to leave until I absolutely have to!

That being said, sometimes the pressures are unreal, the coursework is unreal, and the feelings of impostor syndrome are very real. I enjoy being in academia, but I try to be honest about how challenging it can be, too. I am lucky to be here, but it’s not always the best career path and is full of less than wonderful characters- just like any other path. If you want to read frank talk about graduate life, I’m here. I plan on using this as a discussion forum, too: I’m not here to hand out advice. All the same, if you have a concern about grad life or want to talk about what makes it great/horrible, I’m all ears!

Until next time...G.S.

[literature-phd-dot-jpeg]

So I'm getting out of academia...

And it feels good! Trying to apply to tenure-track positions was an absolute nightmare. Despite studying and working for over five years at an Ivy League institution, I still felt incredibly underqualified: not enough publications, not enough of my dissertation completed, and so on. In no other field would someone apply for a job and feel like shit about themselves!

That was the biggest revelation for me in applying for non-academic jobs: I was treated like a competent, qualified, and valuable candidate. I feel like I actually was able to speak to my experience rather than defend my reasons for applying. I felt like I was taken seriously from the start. It absolutely sucks to say this, but there is something very wrong with academia when qualified, skilled individuals are treated like shit while trying to apply for jobs that pay a fraction of what a candidate is really worth after all of their years of training.

[queernotebook]

Writer and Researcher in search of work! Also experienced teacher/trainer. Theatre and arts specialist. Development and finance experience.

[the-brodie-set]

When you are at your professional society’s yearly conference and excited to tell people about your new job and then find out that people “feel bad” for you because it’s not a tenure track professorship....

[queernotebook]

New PhD blog. Even less cheery than normal. 

[queernotebook]

I wrote about my year in an alt-ac job. 

And about crying in toilets. 

[queernotebook]

New blog on coming to terms with my failure as an academic.