Dudes, you want to know something scary? I have started to think about… jobs. It’s a terrifying word, I know.
I’ve still got some time but I feel the scariness of job-hunting breathing down my neck; soon it will catch up with me. I am in third year of my PhD right now, with the aim of finishing in my fourth. So, while I don’t need a job RIGHT THIS SECOND, I have realized that pretty soon (like really soon) I need to start thinking about them. If I want to have something lined up when I finish my PhD then I probably need to be applying this fall… If I want to be applying this fall, I should probably have some programs picked out by the summer. AND SUMMER IS COMING SOON!
I am not looking forward to the process. First, it will distract me and I am already busy enough finishing my PhD. But secondly, I just hate applying for things. It is all pride, and this-is-how-good-I-am, and this-is-how-relevant-my-research-is… basically: yay me! And then you have to get recommendations, where you have to ask people to write a letter for you… just so they in turn can boast about how great you are, and how much better than anyone else you would be for the position.
There is just something fake feeling about the whole process.
Beyond just not liking to apply, however, there is the hard truth that academic jobs are incredibly scarce. When it comes to applying for post-decorate positions you always hear about people applying to tons and tons of places and never getting it. Of course, all aspects of academia are competive, but I have been observing this post-doc horror lately in the life of one of my friends. This fellow friend from the monk house (the cool where I live) finished his PhD over the summer and spent all fall applying for positions. And now is … being rejected. He applied to something like 18 positions and has heard now from all but two. Rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection. I mean, it could be one of the last two- but the situation isn’t looking good.
This is what we are told to expect, but still- it’s hard to keep your spirits up when program after program rejects the proposals you have slaved over, trying to perfect every aspect.
I don’t look forward to it.
Luckily, I don’t absolutely need to find a job next fall, because I could probably keep teaching at my university and earn enough to get by. Then, the year after I finish my degree, I could keep applying. So at least there is a backup plan. But still… where did my carefree days without applications go? So quickly they fled!
Le foglie.. cadono bene.. riescono a mettere una loro ultima bellezza in questo viaggio, sia pur breve, dal ramo alla terra.. E, malgrado il terrore di imputridire, vogliono che questa loro caduta abbia la grazia di un volo..
[O child of many winds! As suddenly / thou comest as the memory of a dream / Which now is sad because it hath been sweet.]
It’s too bad you don’t have a Ph.D. in the hard sciences, because I could hook you up with a job where I am! I agree that facing the actual finding-a-job part of your career is scary, but I also think things will work out. Just look at how far you’ve come so far! A few years ago you might have thought getting into Oxford was a big leap, but it happened! You are awesome, and some university somewhere is going to see that for sure. The only question is…where will you end up?