Not surprisingly, there are plenty of people out there writing about the perfect storm of awfulness that is academia right now–leaving it, thinking about leaving it, looking for jobs beyond it. Here are a few that I’ve added to my blogroll:
On the Fence. Eliza Woolf (a pseudonym) also writes for Inside Higher Ed, mostly on the subject of staying or going. Given that almost every grad student I’ve ever met has been on the fence at some point (occasionally for their entire grad career), her blog is definitely worth a read, if only to know that you’re not alone.
Sell Out Your Soul. A blog about life beyond the tenure-track, from a guy who found himself at the end of his PhD with no sign of a job.
Worst Prof Ever. Very funny blog by someone who actually did the professor thing and then got the hell out, even going so far as to burn her PhD.
Inside Higher Ed. If you’re in grad school or just thinking about going, you need to be reading this. It’ll depress the hell out of you, but at least you’ll be able to make more well-informed decisions.
Interestingly, I’m also finding a lot of sites that offer paid services–life coaching, resume writing / editing, etc. On the one hand, some of these sites are probably helpful. On the other hand, grad students and recent PhD’s tend to be poor, so before you go shelling out any cash for help on the job / life coaching front, probably best to sit down and see if there’s some stuff that you can do on your own.
(I actually got a mail recently from a website asking me to mention them on my blog. They charge fees for grad school application essay writing / editing, filling out grad school applications, GRE prep, etc. Clearly these people had never read my blog, because I’d argue that paying someone to get you INTO a humanities PhD program is almost as silly as paying for a humanities PhD program out of pocket.)
