Making it in academia

Hollywood? Nope: academia.

Over the past few weeks, I have seen some of my undergraduate friends excitedly trying to decide which graduate school to go to, and I have met the prospective graduate students who have been admitted to Princeton. Meanwhile, some of my older friends are finishing up their dissertations and looking for academic jobs.

The contrast between these two groups at opposing ends of the graduate school experience is striking. The prospective grad students are each being courted by a number of institutions, and I can say from personal experience that one-on-one persuasion from famous professors is a supremely flattering and gratifying experience. At the other end, the students on the verge of getting their Ph.D.s are facing a job market that can only be described as desperate: In one Princeton humanities department alone, there are more than a dozen graduating students applying for two available faculty positions in the entire country.

Admittedly, the post-doctoral job situation varies by field. My department, astrophysics, has, to its credit, maintained a nearly one-to-one ratio between faculty and grad students, and most students go on to prestigious post-doctoral research positions. However, even post-docs are short- to medium-term positions lasting for a few years at most, merely delaying the reckoning of faculty job applications.

The pressures contributing to this situation are clear: The number of undergrads to teach keeps increasing, while many of the roles traditionally carried out by faculty can be taken over more cheaply by grad students. The ratio of available faculty positions to graduate students will only keep shrinking unless there is a dramatic — and not necessarily positive — overhaul in higher education (higher tuition, anyone?). Increasing numbers are obliged to leave academia at various stages — even assistant professors have to face the prospect of not getting tenure.

The situation certainly appears bleak within the Ivory Tower, but, as with so many things in life, sometimes a different perspective helps. Most people would regard a secure lifelong job before the age of 40 to be an incredible luxury, as the average American will have held around 10 jobs before turning 40. However, many professors would regard leaving academia as a failure on the part of their proteges.

This attitude is a holdover from decades ago, when it was straightforward to get into a faculty position right out of grad school. The situation is now so different that judging young academics by their ability to get prestigious faculty positions is blatantly unfair.

The reality is that getting a Ph.D. from an institution like Princeton is a massive achievement, and Princeton’s graduate alumni have gone on to very successful non-academic careers. Nobody should be made to feel like a failure if they can’t remain in academia, but this is the prevailing attitude, which is so subtle and pervasive that I sometimes catch myself judging people in this way.

Grad students are now an indispensable cog in the academic machine, and there is no shortage of idealistic and passionate young people willing to fulfill this role. It is only fair and responsible, then, that the University does more to prepare grad students for the realities of the academic job market and the possibility of seeking employment in the “real world.” Professors should be forthright about the dire academic job market both to current grad students and undergrads considering grad school, and they should encourage their grad students to explore non-academic job possibilities for their post-doctoral career.

At the same time, grad students themselves need to take charge of their futures. Most either blithely assume they can stay in academia indefinitely or take a fatalist attitude and regard the inevitable horror of a post-academic career as some sort of event horizon which can neither be imagined nor prepared for. The Office of Career Services has many resources available, including staff dedicated to grad students, while the Graduate Student Government regularly holds networking events in which students can meet graduate alumni pursuing alternative careers. Even students in the sciences and engineering, where related jobs exist in industry, need to learn how to network and write a standard resume.

There are many reasons to work in academia, whether for the joy of enriching young minds or for the satisfaction of making new discoveries, but job security is no longer one of them. Everyone in academia needs to accept this reality and help prepare its most vulnerable members for the alternatives.

Khee-Gan Lee is an astrophysics graduate student. He can be reached at lee@astro.princeton.edu.