tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post3177276444703962795..comments2024-02-28T18:29:41.120-08:00Comments on Not of General Interest: Conversations with colleagues, or advice to the gradlornundinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-72197165080818315962007-03-10T15:32:00.000-08:002007-03-10T15:32:00.000-08:00A friend of my parents actually did write and put ...A friend of my parents actually did write and put on a musical about graduate school. This was in Berkeley in the 1950s. It was entitled "Credo in unum bookstore," and was set in a the bookstore where everyone moonlighted, shopped, gossipped, etc.<BR/><BR/>Yes asst prof is much harder work than grad school and I don't think it lets up - it just changes, and is less new, and having tenure makes it less fraught.<BR/><BR/>Thanks Undine for statistics, very interesting. I'm in that first 20%, I hated my first job and was at least mentally on the market within the first week. <BR/><BR/>40% never get tenure track jobs - I guess that was why they kept telling us in graduate school that we couldn't expect to get jobs. I did not expect to get one - I fully expected to end up with a 'career' as a receptionist in a law firm or something, with a useless (but fun) PhD! Little did I know the adventures which awaited.<BR/><BR/>I was so naive back then that I did not understand why, at on campus interviews, they showed you the library. I mean, I thought all universities had good libraries in nice buildings, so why go there if we were not going to have time to use it! Now, of course, I know ... they were showing me that they had a library they were not ashamed of.Professor Zerohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909063513731044826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-37403288536743168212007-03-07T06:55:00.000-08:002007-03-07T06:55:00.000-08:00Oh, gosh, Professor Z, now I have to look up the *...Oh, gosh, Professor Z, now I have to look up the *facts*! Here's the part leading up to the part I quoted: "The MLA survey showed that well over 20% of tenure-track faculty members leave the departments that originally hired them before they come up for tenure. Data from studies conducted by other groups suggest that fewer than 40% of the PhD recipients who make up the pool of applicants for tenure-track positions obtain such positions and go through the tenure process at the institutions where they are initially hired, and a somewhat larger number of modern language doctorate recipients--more than 40%--never obtain tenure-track appointments." This is from the executive summary of the big MLA report, so there should be more detail in the report itself. It doesn't say whether people leave before tenure because of negative reviews or whether they leave for better institutions, family reasons, etc. <BR/><BR/>Bardiac, I think that's the hardest thing to believe--that after grad school you'll work even harder--but you're right: it's true. <BR/><BR/>The "bitching journal" is a good idea, Sisyphus, and the blog is an even better one. If it's in blog form, it gets transformed into a "blogging community." (I love the idea of "Grad School: The Musical.")undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-7522173027747821352007-03-05T20:31:00.000-08:002007-03-05T20:31:00.000-08:00Depressing and true. I actually started a "bitchin...Depressing and true. I actually started a "bitching journal" so that I wouldn't whine about the same research problems every single day to the same small group of colleagues and friends. But now! A blog lets me inflict my complaints upon the world! Mwahahaha! <BR/><BR/>I wanted to be a professional musician when I was in high school, so I see where you're coming from with the Broadway analogy. Someday, though, when they cast the touring production of "Grad School: The Musical," I will be ready for my close-up.Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-30689500246370449422007-03-05T20:21:00.000-08:002007-03-05T20:21:00.000-08:00Good advice! When I was a grad student, a new ass...Good advice! When I was a grad student, a new assistant professor told me that he thought he'd learned to work hard as a grad student, but that he worked way harder as an assistant professor. I believed him. And found the same thing for myself.Bardiachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11846065504793800266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-5475450680694820502007-03-05T19:49:00.000-08:002007-03-05T19:49:00.000-08:00"PhDs in the fields represented by the MLA appear ...<I>"PhDs in the fields represented by the MLA appear to have about a 35% chance of getting tenure" (27)--if you get hired in the first place.</I><BR/><BR/>I missed that. Do they really mean, only 35% of those who get tenure track jobs end up as tenured faculty?Professor Zerohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04909063513731044826noreply@blogger.com