Alternatives to grad programs I don't really want
February 21, 2018 2:05 PM   Subscribe

I'm set to finally get my BA in May. It looks like I will have good options for grad programs, but I'm really burned out and want to be done with school. I'm worried about throwing away great opportunities without understanding the alternatives. What are some ways to think about a non-academic future for myself as a research-minded person?

Obligatory background: I'm an older student with an excellent record at an elite university, top honors, and very good recommendations. I got a highly prestigious scholarship that is allowing me to spend an extra year on a major thesis project in historical anthropology. The head of an MA program on campus has strongly encouraged me to apply. My advising professor is strongly suggesting that I continue my research in a PhD program, and through them I've met a number of professors at good schools who seem very interested in my work.

All of this seems to suggest I could have a great future in academia, but I'm severely burned out. It's going to be a struggle just to finish this semester. I love my work, and I want to continue my research, but I'm having a hard enough time now. I do not want to add grad-level coursework and teaching responsibilities on top of everything else. I do not want to go through the wringer for the vague promise of a teaching job, even if my chances might be higher at good schools. It feels dumb to be throwing away what could be a bright future, but I just can't handle it anymore.

I have a good deal of experience with archives, courts, county clerks, libraries, you name it. That seems like a valuable skill set, but I'm not seeing much information on careers beyond somewhat vague statements about the existence of research jobs in various fields. I am not seeing much information that indicates what is available to a BA in what I imagine is a competitive market. Maybe I'll need an MA no matter what.

I have never been career-minded in the traditional sense (I was happy just working at a video store, honestly), and I don't even know where to begin rethinking my path outside of academia. I spoke with the career center on campus, and their advice was to pitch stories to NPR, which, uh, sounds cool, but I'm kind of looking for something a little more stable. I even got career counseling and took assessment tests, which determined that I should be a park ranger (hard to get without relocating), a geologist (totally unqualified), or a church minister (I'm not even religious).

I would be happy to hear any advice or suggestions anyone has. I would be happy to hear about where to look for research-focused jobs, where to find general resources on research jobs, any anecdotes, ideas, anything. I would be happy to hear about life after college in general, or about thinking outside of academia. I can almost guarantee that any information will be new and helpful to me.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk to Work & Money (14 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I would recommend looking into research-focused nonprofits - the job title to start with is 'program officer' although there will probably be others. Poke around on idealist.org. You are likely to find a lot more of these jobs in large cities.

What's your degree in? I might be able to get more specific if I knew. But your experience with courts and county clerks' offices could be a good selling point at local advocacy organizations of all sorts.

It feels dumb to be throwing away what could be a bright future, but I just can't handle it anymore.

If you hate doing it, then it wouldn't be a bright future for you anyway!
posted by showbiz_liz at 2:21 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Grad school will be there in a year, or two years, or whenever. And as you realize, academic futures are very uncertain, even for good students.

If there's a professional society associated with your field, they probably have some sort of career area on their site with case studies of jobs people are doing - I've found these helpful in the past.

You can also try asking folks you've had contact with at archives, etc. to see what kind of background they have and what they suggest.

And try to narrow down what it is you like about research. Do you like working with old documents? Synthesizing different sources? Traveling to different sites to work?
posted by momus_window at 2:46 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Best answer: 1. No one should go to grad school if they don't want to go to grad school. It's brutal, and it's only a "bright" future if you're the kind of person who somehow cannot manage to prevent themselves from going down this path even though they know it's a terrible idea, because as difficult as it is, anything else would be even more miserable.

WITH THAT CAVEAT
2. You don't have to make a final decision now, I don't think. I am not in your field, so I hope someone who is chimes in, but: in most fields, it's fine to take a year between BA and PhD. (Dear god, don't do an MA unless someone's paying for it - doesn't help in industry and doesn't help get you an academic job.) So be super nice to everyone, stay in touch and/or finish related projects, and if asked say that there are Reasons why you can't go straight to your PhD, but you're planning on enrolling in a year. And then if you don't feel like it in a year... don't.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 2:49 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Tons and tons and tons of us leave academia; some sooner and some later. Much will depend on your particular field, but PhDs often find a welcome home in a variety of industries out there. This article has some good suggestions about translating your academic skills to skills in a non-academic workplace as well as links to a bunch of articles that list out suggestions for fields you might explore based on your degree and interest.
posted by goggie at 2:50 PM on February 21, 2018


I'll echo momus_window: grad school will be there if and when it's the right thing for you. One of my cohort-mates did grad school in her 40s, and is now happily a postdoc doing the research she wants to do. I'd bet if anyone had asked her in her 20s whether she thought a PhD was in her future, she'd have looked at them as if they'd grown two extra heads.

In my field, it's standard to take two years between BA and a PhD program (we don't really do MA programs at all); I did, I spent two years as a full-time research assistant, went off to grad school thereafter.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 2:55 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I do not want to add grad-level coursework and teaching responsibilities on top of everything else. I do not want to go through the wringer for the vague promise of a teaching job, even if my chances might be higher at good schools.

These are great reasons not to do these things right now (if ever). I think it's really impressive that, given your love of research, you are clear-eyed about this and I can't urge you strongly enough to continue to take it seriously as you explore your options.

Have you had any campus jobs or internships while working towards your B.A.? I know that these kinds of jobs aren't especially well compensated or easy to get right now, but if you're considering staying in academia in the hope of going into museums or archives eventually, I think that an entry-level position in such an institution could be a good way to get a feel for the day-to-day work that goes on there and to develop a network outside of your corner of academia. If you do decide to go to graduate school, you'll be doing so with a clearer, more up-to-date sense of what the outcomes might be, and if not, you'll have other skills (perhaps work with fundraising, database/collections management, or writing that's for a public or K-12 audience) that translate into other kinds of work more easily than an M.A. I don't think you'd be worse off financially doing that for a year or two than going directly into a graduate program.
posted by Anita Bath at 3:08 PM on February 21, 2018


Best answer: You may want to look at Research Coordinator or Project Coordinator positions at nonprofits.

Grants writing is another in-demand skill if you're experienced writing proposals.
posted by haunted_pomegranate at 3:50 PM on February 21, 2018


Hmmm, is "investigator" too far afield from what you're looking at? For example, here's a Civil Rights Investigator position out of Seattle. Or here are the federal defenders currently hiring. There can be quite a lot of archival work involved as well as direct interview skills, creative navigation of bureaucracy, etc. It pays pretty well too. Downsides: can be ferociously sad work, not relaxing.
posted by peppercorn at 4:47 PM on February 21, 2018


Response by poster: Thank you so much!

I think I've been a little too vague, so I'll clarify a couple things.

I'm an anthropology major, but my thesis is all based on historical research, so there's already a little bit of a disconnect between what I've officially studied and where my research experience and interests lie. Even my strongest supporters have suggested I might want to look at history PhD programs instead of anthropology. I don't know if that matters at all.

I should have mentioned that the MA program I mentioned is a 5th year MA that grants a degree in a specific subfield. It would start next semester, with the opportunity to get a teaching stipend that would cover tuition and some cost of living expenses (although PhD students are given preference when it comes to hiring, so it's not a guarantee). It's only open to undergrads in the department, and you can't take a year off. That adds some pressure. It sounds fantastic, but it also sounds exhausting. Friends and family have been suggesting that I would be crazy not to take that opportunity - one year for an MA that will likely be funded! - but I'm still burned out, and I'm not sure if I even want to work in that field anyway. It makes no sense to get an MA in a field you may not want to work in, right? (This is how clueless I am.)

The last thing probably worth mentioning is that I'm in my 30s. Even if I started next year, I probably couldn't finish a PhD before I was in my 40s. Is there a point at which it's no longer worth considering grad school? From my perspective right now, it doesn't seem like I can dither about this for very long.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 5:49 PM on February 21, 2018


Best answer: Just a side note that may prove useful. I had the opportunity to get a combined BA/MA in four years (in philosophy). I did not do it for similar reasons--I expected to go into academia and everyone knows an MA is a non-thing. So why bother doing the paperwork, etc.?

Though I have now entered another field entirely, that MA may have allowed me to teach at community colleges along the way, which would have come in handy at times.

So while I do not recommend you do the fifth year MA--I recommend, on the contrary, that you do something far, far away from school for at LEAST a year or two--it's something to keep in mind.
posted by 8603 at 5:59 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Let me also do a brief rundown of my HIGHLY INTELLIGENT friends who FINISHED their PhDs. We all went to Ivy undergrad and the very best graduate programs. I say it not to be an asshole, but so you'll know I'm not playing around.

One is dead, but he was independently wealthy while alive, so he might have been able to have an academic career.
One finished THE top philosophy program, got a job, and then went to law school to practice law.
One got a D.Phil. on a well-deserved Marshall and then went to medical school.
One is working for UNICEF--not sure how he likes it.
One was on welfare in Denmark for a while, but is now teaching at a study abroad program for Americans.
One went to law school (ok, not a Ph.D.) and became a legal academic.

My acquaintances who have stayed in academia (I'm 40), were, on the contrary, not the smart ones, but the mediocre intellects who have been willing to traipse around the country for various jobs. The one exception is the legal academic. I'm happy for him, but I never have been interested in the law.

So, what I'm saying, is when people tell you you have a lot of promise, that doesn't have to mean ANYTHING about how you conduct your life. Be CAREFUL when you hear people say stuff like that.
posted by 8603 at 6:10 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Based only on what you've written here, I don't think that I'd go for the M.A. because you don't have any guarantee that it would be funded (and it sounds like the language about Ph.D. students getting preference for teaching spots is meant to warm you up for that inevitability). If you knew it would be funded, my answer might be different, but even then, you'd have to weigh that against the opportunity to start developing other skills or even starting to save for retirement, etc. I would (and do) caution anyone I know against going into debt for an M.A.
posted by Anita Bath at 10:17 AM on February 22, 2018


Best answer: In addition to my answer above, I highly recommend reading this old AskMeFi answer about how to find and pursue your 'passion.'

The reason I think it might benefit you to read this is, you're clearly very talented at and passionate about your field, yet you can tell that directly pursuing a career in that field is likely not for you. That's great! It means you have a good sense of some of what you do and don't want out of your life. But the above link may be able to help you more clearly narrow down what sort of jobs/careers you may want to pursue now, vs. what you may want to pursue as an extracurricular passion.

Is it the pure pursuit of history that you love? You may wind up being happiest with a not-directly-related day job while writing a book or producing a podcast about your favorite area of history, with no outside restrictions on your research topics. Or maybe you'd really like your day job to involve history but you're less picky about the specific subject - then you might make an amazing tour guide at a museum or in a large city. Or are you more into the detailed research aspect? Then maybe a research job - in any field, not just history - would be the most satisfying path for you. Etc etc.

Thinking about my life in this way was very helpful for me, and it removed some weird shame I had about not pursuing a more creative professional field even though I could have done so.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:58 AM on February 22, 2018


Best answer: My ex is an archaeologist, and he interned at NASA doing historical research. I would look at federal, state, and local government job boards and see if there are jobs or internships out there that fit your interests and skill set.

There might also be entry-level staff positions in university or private museums and archives, although they might prefer the master's degree.

I bet you'd be an awesome paralegal.
posted by toastedcheese at 1:53 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


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