Universities are offering doctorates but few jobs

[Liberal_in_LA]

Universities are offering doctorates but few jobs

Graduates frustrated by the lack of tenure-track positions available amid budget cuts are looking off campus. Many find work that wouldn't have cost them years in school or put them deep in debt

As they walk in hooded robes to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance," many students getting their doctorates this spring dream of heading to another university to begin their careers as tenure-track professors.

But when Elena Stover finished her doctorate in September, she headed to the poker tables. Frustrated with the limited opportunities and grueling lifestyle of academia, Stover, 29, decided to eschew a career in cognitive neuroscience for one playing online poker. She got the idea from a UCLA career counselor, who was trying to help her find employment.

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"The job market is abysmal, especially within the academic system," said Stover, who spent six years getting her doctorate at UCLA.

It has never been easy to find a tenure-track teaching job. But this year, dwindling endowments and shrinking state budgets — especially in California — have made that goal more elusive than ever. Now, many graduates with doctoral degrees are finding themselves looking for jobs outside universities — jobs they probably could have gotten without five to six years of intense schooling and tens of thousands of dollars of education debt.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-phd-blues-20100604,0,1917796,full.story

[Barack_America]

1. Yep. I'm a soon-to-be PhD grad who is getting out of the business.

And I'm in the biomedical sciences where the funding and prospects are "good".

It's a complete shame because academia is possibly the last industry where the US is the envy of the world.

[Captain Hilts]

2. I decided early on that's not what I wanted to do with my degree. nt

[zazen]

3. and it's appalling that NSF/USED still talk about pipeline problems in STEM

Arne Duncan said that crap again today here in the Triangle.

Our population isn't under and unemployed because they lack sufficient "preparation" in STEM careers and "can't compete in the 21st century." There are very few jobs. But I continue to see this BS in NSF requests for proposals, and those from the US Department of Ed, about "workforce preparedness."

Young lady across the street just graduated from prestigious program in chemical engineering--women were highly sought after in these fields just 10 years ago--and she had to go straight into grad school to avoid bagging groceries. Her boyfriend, also an engineering recent graduate, was happy to move up from a position in construction to an asst manager at Harris Teeter.

[izquierdista]

4. Could be worse

You could be a PhD with 25 years experience. Then you would know you weren't getting the job because "we need someone who can grow with the company (because their salary has to be at the sprout level)".

[mysuzuki2]

5. this is nothing new

I have a doctorate in Anthropology and have spent the last 30 years working for Social Security

[aikoaiko]

6. It is rough. We started 26 tenure track searches last year, but stopped them due to money problems

I'm glad I got my job 11 years ago. The late 90s were good times in academia.