One thing we have been trying to do at the Cocoon lately--in our Job-Market Boot Camp, Mentoring Program and Long Journeys series--is to provide job-candidates and other early-career people (e.g. grad students, people thinking of going to grad school, etc.) with information and other resources they might find helpful.
As I briefly explained here, one of the things that I found the most surprising after grad school is just how dissimilar different types of academic jobs are. In grad school, most (and perhaps all) of one's professors have only worked at R1/research institutions. Consequently, much of the information one receives about the job-market--and one's general conception of what academic jobs are like--can be quite narrow. I, for one, pretty much assumed that academic jobs are generally sort of similar. Yes, I thought, you might teach a bit more at a teaching institution--but a faculty job is a faculty job, right? Alas, my experience once I was out of grad school a few years, had a couple of jobs, and talked to other people I met about their jobs, is that different types of jobs can be incredibly different--and in ways I wish I'd known as a grad student.
How different can different jobs be? Well, for one thing, I personally found that working at a teaching institution can be vastly different than in a research institution. It's not "just a little more teaching" (even if your course load is a 3/3, compared to, say, a 2/2 at a research institution). I found that the amount of time, care, and effort one is expected--by students, one's colleagues, and administrators--to put into one's teaching at a teaching institution can be much higher at a teaching institution. And that's not all: the amount of "extracurricular" work can be much greater too--serving on committees, working with student groups, organizing events, etc.
But even these differences, I found--talking to others--are just the tip of the iceberg. Some departments are large, others are small. Some universities and departments are friendly and functional, others unfriendly and dysfunctional. Working at a university in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and working in a large city, can be much different too. Then of course there are foreign jobs, which, or so I gather from talking to people, are often far different than in the US, dominated by grant-writing, meeting REF standards, etc. Finally, there are different types of jobs: tenure-track positions, Visiting Assistant Professor positions, non-tenure track lectureships, adjunct positions, etc. Suffice it to say, having never been in any of these positions before, the average grad student or job-candidate (not to mention anyone thinking of risking the severe hazards of grad school) likely knows quite little about these kinds of differences.
Consequently, I was thinking it might be helpful to start a new series: Real Philosophy Jobs, a series in which contributors openly or anonymously share what their jobs are actually like. My hope is that if we can get a diverse array of contributors--from different backgrounds, types of jobs (including overseas jobs), etc.--we will be able to provide our readers (grad students, job-candidates, and other early-career people) a much clearer idea of the realities that potentially await them, and things they should look into, should they be offered and/or accept a given job. Accordingly, I would like to invite interested contributors to (openly or anonymously) submit stories on what their jobs are like to me at [email protected].
Contributors should of course feel free to tell whatever story they see fit, provided it is consistent with the Cocoon's mission. However, some questions to potentially address are these:
- What did you find particularly distinctive/surprising about your job?
- How do you spend your typical week during the semester? (How much time researching? Teaching? Etc.)
- Do you enjoy your job on the whole (are you happy with it)?
- Which aspect(s) of your job do you enjoy and not enjoy?
Thanks, in advance, to everyone who contributes a story!
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