Fordham GSAS: Grad. Life: Rubbing Salt in the Wound: Job Search Costs Money

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Rubbing Salt in the Wound: Job Search Costs Money

    Sort of depressing article geared toward graduate students in the latest edition of The Chronicle: it's entitled "Ph.D.'s Spend Big Bucks Hunting for Academic Jobs,With No Guaranteed Results." Headline says it all!
     Reporter/contributor Stacey Patton, who roams the grad student beat for The Chronicle, reports that grad school grads are not finished shelling out money once they have the degree in hand: "An industry designed to help aspiring academics manage the job-application process and land tenure-track jobs is growing, and reaping the benefits of a tight market in many disciplines."
    So, people (not the grad grads themselves) are making money off our job market situation! Sigh... can this get any more humiliating?!
   My thoughts? Honestly, I can't help but feel discouraged by the illumination of this aspect of the job market that I have not before thought about. One of the students/ grads that Patton featured in the article  has a Phd from Oxford, two book chapters, and a book, and still can not get a tenure track job. She has now endured four cycles of the job market and has sunk $2,000 into her search. Talk about rubbing salt in the wound!
From Brainstuck.com

   Despite the topic, Patton's article is great -- it outlines the problems grad grads are having once on the market, the general rising costs of throwing your hat into the job market ring, and the possible ways the academy may try to curb these costs or provide more of a reality check for graduate students along the way. Check it out here, and let me know what you think!
    In the meantime, are there any positive, upbeat, inspiring topics I might cover here, instead of all the dismal doom and gloom that lies ahead for us on the job market? Reach out and let me know, and I'll be on the hunt, myself! I'm determined. :)
Hope you GSASers are enjoying Spring Break!! -- Liza Z.

1 comment: