We know the prevailing attitude within academia tends toward the “tenure-track or bust” end of the acceptable jobs spectrum, but the problem exists on the outside, too. Most of the time, people I’m talking to assume something very similar: that I will become a professor. A while back I was talking with an acquaintance about being post-PhD but not looking for academic work, and he wondered why I’d done a PhD if I wasn’t going to become an academic. He wasn’t simply curious: he seemed to be questioning my intelligence! For him, doing a history PhD is a prelude to professordom.
That encounter is an anecdote, but things like this have happened many times over the years. Usually, people are confused about why academia doesn’t appeal to me, and are at a loss to imagine what else I might do. Sometimes, conversations aren’t at all pleasant: I’m told to seek out entry-level jobs but then told I’d never be hired. Essentially, the PhD—especially the humanities doctorate—has a major image problem. And sometimes it’s PhD holders themselves who denigrate their own worth! Just read some of the comments on this piece. (I’m guilty of this too, but I’m working on it.)
So what can be done? In the outside world, if a company’s in trouble or a product’s not reaching its potential, a new marketing strategy might be all that’s needed to turn around company fortunes.
The PhD needs a brand makeover.
The current brand is long out-dated: a PhD as training for academic employment; PhD students as, well, students. What if we thought instead about graduate school as a job? After all, PhD candidates participate in many activities that professors do: independent research and writing, presenting at conferences, applying for grants, teaching undergraduates, and all manner of other things within and without their universities. Going from school to the professorate is more akin to employees transitioning to management than undergraduates seeking full-time employment after earning their degrees. With this in mind, my job search can be framed as a career change. And career changes are common, expected, and don’t tend to land 30-something job seekers in entry-level positions!
So that’s it: I’m changing careers. My academic career is at an end (by choice), and I’m looking for other opportunities to use my skills and talents. This strikes me as a much better way of framing a post-PhD, non-academic job search than, “I’m just out of school and the academic job market is terrible.” Next time someone asks me if I’m going to become a professor, I’ll know what to say.
