My plan had been to finish up the degree in the next few months, search for an industrial lab job (while I wait for Mr. PhizzleDizzle to finish his degree), and then spend a couple years in industry before trying my hand at academia, with both of us going on the market together.
However, with the job market currently in the shithole, I put out some feelers for a few academic jobs, and now I'm kinda scared. Am I really ready to do something like that? Would they even want me? My pub record is only eh, though I think it's going to be shored up as I finish up. It's so scary to put myself out there. I waver between thinking that I totally suck and they are going to laugh at my interest to thinking, damn, I am hot shit and they're going to snap me up like I'm free cotton candy.
I can't decide which I am. My self-evaluation skills are severely bipolar schizophrenic.
Friday, October 17, 2008
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3 comments:
PD, do you have an academic mentor in your field that you can speak to about the job market?
It never hurts to try. If you don't try, you'll always wonder - what if. Though I would also approach and talk to as many mentors as possible
I have a few mentors, but all at a distance where I can really only talk to them by email or phone. They seem to think I should just go for it. One advisor told me to "stop being so negative" when I expressed doubts as to whether I'd even be a palatable academic candidate. So...we shall see. I plan to email a few industrial contacts soon to ask whether I should just assume a job will not be found for me and thus focus entirely on academia now...
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