Knowing what you now know, would you go to graduate school?

At a conference dinner recently, a non-academic spouse to one of the keynote speakers asked us the following question: if you had to do it all over again, would you go to graduate school? I subsequently posted the question on FaceBook where it generated an interesting range of responses among fellow academic philosophers (and see also this excellent blogpost with musings on the topic by Marcus Arvan). Recently, I did an interview for Clifford Sosis' What's it like to be a philosopher? (currently only for Patreon supporters, but the link will become freely available next week) - I had a choice, as I got an offer to teach at a secondary school (art) at the same time when my graduate funding came through. 

Now obviously a question like "Would you do it all over again?" is prone to commitment bias, and is more likely to be answered in the affirmative on a semi-public forum like Facebook. Nevertheless, the range of responses was intriguing. 

Many of my respondents expressed a sense of meaningfulness, and joy in their work, while acknowledging conditions aren't as good as they used to be and likely to deteriorate. This was indeed the dominant theme--a love for research in particular, also for teaching, not so much for grading and administration. 

Lots I can gripe about with the deteriorating labor conditions and assessment horror but I’m still getting paid to read lots of new books and discuss them with great people. It’s a shock to realize how few people will read anything you publish and when non-drinking reveals that your introverted self has never really enjoyed conferences after all. But I’m still able to try to realize truth, goodness, and beauty with other people on their path I think better than I would (given my set of gifts and difficulties) in any other career. So I still feel very lucky.

Others acknowledged that the market has become much more competitive since they got jobs, e.g., 

Watching graduate students struggle to find work over the last few years, I've been repeatedly struck by how much harder they have it. I don't know if there are fewer jobs than when I first went on in 2010 (I don't think so), or if there are more candidates (maybe?). There does seem to be a race to publish as a graduate student that was only beginning when I went on the market. I suspect that if I had to go on today, having the experience and the (lack of) publications I had back then, I wouldn't get a job and maybe not even an interview. This is salient to me when I think about the whether I would do it again question. But ... there's one way in which, despite this, some of us might be slightly better positioned this time around--because philosophy's become more inclusive both with respect to who and what questions get taken seriously in philosophy. This isn't answering your question, but it's something to think about in answering it (Katia Vavova, Mount Holyoke College).

The topic of inequality in academia came up frequently, for example 

I would have done the same, but I would have made sure to be born in a rich family so that I could go to a top university and find a permanent job soon after my PhD. The job per se is great, but I didn’t realise how classist the whole system is. Had I known from the beginning, I would have tried to reach the same goal through a different way. I’m not happy about where I am now, at the end of my 2nd post-doc, and hoping for a 3rd one. So much uncertainty for so many years is unbearable. I stay because I love the job so much, and there is nothing I love more.

Regret and sadness in the choice was especially expressed by people who were struggling on the job market, for instance

 Six years in and no TT job. I literally have no idea what else I'd do, and we wouldn't have our son without that path, so a sad yes.

Remarkably, many people could not envisage any other life path than choosing graduate school and an academic career, or if they did, it was often a creative path (e.g., musician, novelist) which is just as risky. For example 

100%. Zero regrets. I can't imagine anything else that could have made me happier, except possibly being a novelist, which would have been too risky a career path even for me. And I am not even sure I'd have preferred that (Rebecca Kukla, Georgetown University).

There were a few people on the thread who thought their choice wasn't right for them. One example is the following: 

Absolutely not...There's no one, single thing to point to. But basically, there are other careers I could have chosen that would have been at least as good in almost every respect, and significantly better in many. The nature of the work would have been at least as appealing, the amount of work comparable (or better), the pay far better, the culture better, the frustrations less frequent or less frustrating. Really the only thing academia has that pretty much no other career can offer is the flexibility of the schedule. That's not nothing. But it's also not all it's cracked up to be. And I'm increasingly worried that that benefit of the job will continue to degrade as universities change over the next 30 years I'll be working.

Comments

[Amanda]

I find it interesting that some people are so positive about this. I am very grateful for my job. It is probably a top 5 of career choices, definitely a top 10. But I would not (at this point) say anything like there is no other thing I could imagine myself doing. Well...especially if you consider being a professor in other disciplines. The main reason I feel this way is professional philosophy is not what I thought it would be. I loved it in undergrad because I was enamored by intellectual honesty, a genuine search for truth and meaning, the good life, etc. That hasn't been my experience of professional philosophy. It is more like a super competitive sports game of one uping each other. And I like sports and competition, so I'm okay with that sometimes. But that doesn't come close to what I thought it would be in my innocent days.

[Pendaran]

On imagining other things to do, I think the problem is simple. Most PhD's and early career philosophers probably can hardly remember a time they weren't doing philosophy, whether formally or informally. Many of us have no other skills, having spent a decade plus honing our philosophical abilities. So, many, even those less than perfectly satisfied, cannot imagine anything else. Moreover, this pure dedication and obsession with philosophy is reinforced by everyone. If you're a genius, you should be constantly obsessed with philosophy. So, we all compete to be the most obsessed. Maybe these attitudes made sense in the past, but they don't today. Anyone doing a PhD in philosophy needs to have a plan B or they need to GTFO.

[Amanda]

Yeah I think there are many ways to construe the hypothetical. It is hard to imagine doing something else now - given my age, how much I have put in, etc. But I was imagining things as starting all over. And if I was 21 and could take a different path at that point, then there are a number of other things I might do. None of these are possibilities I would say are definitely better than philosophy, but rather things I think are plausibly just as good.

And yes, everyone should have a plan B from the second they start grad school.