Moving away from one's dissertation area on the market?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm a senior grad student finishing up my thesis. I'm finding that there's not much more to say within my thesis research area, and I've also recently found new interest in a different and less studied area of philosophy. Would there be problems when it comes to trying to get a job that I no longer want to work on my original area of specialization and want to switch tracks on to a new topic that would require me to start almost from scratch?

This seems to me like it would be probably be a big mistake for a grad student just heading out on the market. Although I moved into a number of different research areas myself while on the market--and it seemed to help me on the market in due time--it also took me a number of years to do so. I also didn't give up on my dissertation project, but instead took time to publish articles based on it while publishing in different areas.

My worry is that if the OP simply moves away from their dissertation, they will look they either can't stick with a project or like their dissertation project was not a fruitful one. Hiring committees want a clear sense of who you are and why you're likely to publish well (e.g. for tenure, etc.), and for someone coming out of grad school a dissertation is supposed to be a major piece of this picture. Again, I don't think there would be anything wrong with the OP beginning to branch out into other areas--but abandoning one's dissertation area for a new area altogether seems to me to be incredibly risky. Then again, if the new research program is super, who knows?

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?

Comments

[Michel]

I suppose it sort of depends on what the OP means. If they want to switch AOSes, then yes, that seems like a bad idea--doing so is a process, and while you can start the process now, it would be a bad idea to entirely abandon your current AOS, since you've got nothing to show for this new AOS at the moment.

If they mean switching from one topic to another under their AOS's broad umbrella, then that's fine and nobody will bat an eyelid--but they should still be trying to publish work from their dissertation, and that task should inform a substantial part of their research plans. It's just that now they're also intent on cultivating this other topic.

Either way, though, they should never put themselves in a position where they and their CV have become blank slates. Cultivate your base and use that as a basis to branch out!

[no ... no]

I agree with Michel. This sounds like a really big mistake. You have to hit the job market running ... so your research program needs to have momentum already. Further, outside of the upper reaches of the Leiter-ranked schools, you need to exploit every advantage you have. For example, I graduated from a place that had a very strong reputation in philosophy of science - but little else. So, even though my approach to philosopher of science was atypical, I got interviews and jobs at places that said: "hey, this guy is from X, and everyone there does philosophy of science". In one case, I was hired for a VAP where I was expected to teach decision theory and game theory. I had never taken a course in it - though I had certainly learned it along the way.

[Anon Postdoc]

I wonder if the OP isn't thinking of their own AOS a bit too specifically. Standard things to list for an AOS are things like: Decision Theory or Metaethics or Metaphysics of Time. It would seem rather unlikely that there really is nothing new to say about any of these subjects. I can imagine feeling that there is nothing left to say about the specific debate between EDT and CDT, for example, but an AOS of "EDT vs CDT" would be far too specific. So you might also want to think about whether you can broaden what you call your AOS (and describe as your research area) to include both your thesis and this new topic. Of course, that won't work if they are really disparate but it would certainly be better than completely abandoning your thesis AOS.