Pessimistic professor: don't try a PhD. in the humanities.

“Thomas Benton” writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

“It can be painful, but it is better that undergraduates considering graduate school in the humanities should know the truth now, instead of when they are 30 and unemployed, or worse, working as adjuncts at less than the minimum wage under the misguided belief that more teaching experience and more glowing recommendations will somehow open the door to a real position.

“Most undergraduates don't realize that there is a shrinking percentage of positions in the humanities that offer job security, benefits, and a livable salary (though it is generally much lower than salaries in other fields requiring as many years of training). They don't know that you probably will have to accept living almost anywhere, and that you must also go through a six-year probationary period at the end of which you may be fired for any number of reasons and find yourself exiled from the profession. They seem to think becoming a humanities professor is a reliable prospect — a more responsible and secure choice than, say, attempting to make it as a freelance writer, or an actor, or a professional athlete — and, as a result, they don't make any fallback plans until it is too late.”

[…]

“…during the three years that I searched for positions outside of academe, I found that humanities Ph.D.'s, without relevant experience or technical skills, generally compete at a moderate disadvantage against undergraduates, and at a serious disadvantage against people with professional degrees. If you take that path, you will be starting at the bottom in your 30s, a decade behind your age cohort, with no savings (and probably a lot of debt).”

Oh, the poor humanites. I wonder if these disciplines should start doing everything in their power to be less insular—to encourage lateral movement between academia and the outside world. I hate to think that large groups of PhD candidates are just grist for the academic labor mill, but that conclusion is hard to avoid, considering the amount of extra work the grad students usually put in for their schools and how few of them will end up in tenured positions. On the other hand, if the system is stable, why shouldn't it just keep going the way it is?

(via The Gadfly)