Hi JB, Pessimism won't help one bit. The academic job market does seem to be improving. Four years ago, there were so many postings for Non-tenure Track Lecturers, Visiting Professors, and the like. Those types of announcements seem to be declining and, increasingly, we are seeing the return of postings for tenure-track positions. As someone who finished my PhD at a pretty bleak time in the academic job market, I have some advice:
Get along with people and be helpful Find a mentor who will push you when you need to be pushed (even if it is not your advisor) Get a few publications out before you finish your degree Apply for as many small grants as you can Make the effort to apply for the big fellowships (NSF, EPA) Offer to teach a graduate seminar or even a full lecture course (maybe for someone on sabbatical) All of these things take time, but they can make a huge difference in the opportunities that will be available to you when you finish your degree. Nancy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nancy E. Karraker, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Wetland Ecology Department of Natural Resources Science University of Rhode Island 105 Coastal Institute at Kingston Kingston, Rhode Island 02881 USA Email: [email protected] Phone: 401-874-2916 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----- Original Message ----- From: "J B" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 3:36:41 PM Subject: [ECOLOG-L] audacity of graduate school--follow-up As a graduate student, how pessimistic should one be about obtaining academic employment after completing a PhD? Many articles I’ve seen present a rather pessimistic picture, although most of these are not specific to ecology, but address STEM in general: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-pushes-for-more-scientists-but-the-jobs-arent-there/2012/07/07/gJQAZJpQUW_story.html http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=does-the-us-produce-too-m http://www.economist.com/node/17723223 http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/24301 http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~katz/scientist.html http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/12/workforce -curious grad student
