<p>I just read this article The</a> Big Lie About the 'Life of the Mind' - Advice - The Chronicle of Higher Education in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the virtual impossibility of earning tenure or any sort of permanent position at a university of grad school. I am only a senior in high school, and this terrifies me to no end. Right now, I really can't see myself doing anything other than going into academia. I love ideas and academics, but this article and many others have forced me to conclude that my careers goals are highly unrealistic. I need something else. </p>
<p>Worse yet, one of the commenters writes, "The biggest problem is that the structure of schooling requires being good at doing what you are told and doing it well. Smart people who innovate, do things differently, show a bit of creativity do not do well in school unless they stifle those qualities. The longer you stay in, the more they are stifled." This is basically how I have felt throughout high school, and what my English teacher assured me would not happen in college or the academic world. </p>
<p>For those of you pursuing or planning to pursuit a graduate degree in one of the liberal arts, how do you see your future playing out? Do you think the intensity of the columnist's view is realistic? What do you think will happen to higher education in the next several decades? Will tenureship disappear altogether? Will academic innovation, especially in the humanities, become obsolete?</p>
<p>you are only in high school. you’ll have no real idea if academia is for you until you get through a few years of college, so don’t panic.</p>
<p>but the market for humanities PhDs IS terrible. the article was not exaggerating.</p>
<p>however, tenure-track positions do exist. some of my colleagues who are ABD in history have just secured tenure-track jobs.</p>
<p>i’m kind of lucky. i study a relatively in-demand field (latin american history) and i specialize in an understudied region (central america/caribbean). just in terms of subject matter, i’m positioned a lot better for eventual employment than someone studying 20th century american high politics.</p>
<p>i’m a few years off from going on the job market, but the work that i’m doing and the methodology i’m using is innovative. if the final product is good, then given my program’s track record, i think i can secure a tenure-track position somewhere. it may be at a liberal arts college with a 5/5 teaching load, and it may be in nebraska or kansas, but i’m fairly confident that i can find something tenure-track.</p>
<p>i’m also a canadian studying at an american school. canadian universities give preference to canadian citizens when they’re hiring but they also want someone with a PhD from the states. i think that positions me particularly well for finding work in canada. i’d also be willing to work in latin america or the caribbean, which opens up a lot of possibilities.</p>
<p>if i go two years post-PhD without something tenure-track, i’ll probably give up on academia and move on. NGOs, journalism, museum work, public history. some of those pay a lot better than being a professor does.</p>
<p>I read the article. It was good and very realistic. If you want to be an academic, don’t go into humanities or the hard sciences. What the trick might be is to become a professional academic like a professor of engineering or even social work…the deal is if you can’t get a job as an academic go work for a while making a reasonalble amount of money, publish, and try to get into academia later in you career. The job propects for professor in more professional fields ain’t bad and nor is the pay…also what you eventually end up doing as a prof of social work is not going to be all that much different than a prof of humanities…sometimes…once tenured.</p>
<p>…with all this being said, becoming a professor, even in the professional fields, is becoming harder these days. I don’t know how long until professional academics start suffering too…it is an order of magnitude better than the humanities though.</p>
<p>I’m a science major but it still jolted me into thinking a bit more realistically about careers in general. it’s constructive to be reminded that you can’t just decide you want a job and get it, despite whatever adults told you when you were small.</p>
<p>This is a common misconception I see among Ph.D students who know little about these markets. The museum/public history market is just as tough–even tougher–than academia. Same goes for journalism. Not to mention that you will likely never resume your research as part of a job in any field outside academia. </p>
<p>Getting a foot in the door in a museum/history organization is the biggest obstacle. If you are seriously thinking about any of these fields, getting volunteer/internship experience now is crucial.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that conforming to educational standards in order to receive high grades has been destroying the creative side of my brain for quite some time.</p>
<p>As in, the only thing in the way of learning is my education.</p>
<p>oh i know that those fields are also extremely competitive. i was in journalism before going to grad school for history. my CV/portfolio is very solid and i’ve maintained my journalist contacts, so i think it would be very possible for me to re-enter the field later on. i am fully aware of how competitive and dismal the job market is, but luckily for me i already have the hardest part (networking) down.</p>
<p>as for the museum/curator work, i also know how difficult it is to break into that market. i live in pittsburgh, home to the andy warhol museum, and right now i’m doing research for a web-based exhibit for them. it’s only for a few months but there’s the possibility of extending my work into the summer and coming years if i wish. i plan to keep up with that work for as long as i can juggle it with my own research and to keep in contact with my connections there throughout my time in the city.</p>
<p>i agree, a lot of people think they can hop into the public history or journalism fields with ease and they’re both very competitive job markets to break into. i’m going out of my way to gather experience and maintain connections in both fields knowing full well that a job in any of these fields won’t be easy to secure.</p>
<p>and i wouldn’t plan on furthering my own research if i was working outside of academia. i would let that pipe dream go. i know it’s not possible, in terms of time or money, to keep it going.</p>