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[theinevitable]

Glad to entertain.

Recently I had cause to read my college application essay. Wow, I'm glad you have given me some character development since then.

I would appreciate if I could have future plans other than "go to anthro grad school" and "follow my ex to Chicago and pretend my life is The Graduate without the mom stuff." Those are both so dumb.

[wombat]

Recently I had cause to read my college application essay. Wow, I'm glad you have given me some character development since then.

I would appreciate if I could have future plans other than "go to anthro grad school" and "follow my ex to Chicago and pretend my life is The Graduate without the mom stuff." Those are both so dumb.

A character who is brave enough to re-read his college application essay is surely going to come up with some grand plan eventually. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be anthropology, though. I'm much more interested in the whole urban-planning-obsession subplot here.

[jaydub]

Maybe he and Mr Trout can get together and work out the successor to Sim City.

[miles]

Oh yeah, I know there are some people familiar with Chicago here. I will be there this weekend. Any recommendations, food, beer, art, movies, whatever? I'm going to see Morrissey Saturday night and am going to the Bears game on Sunday. I also need to find time to watch the Oregon game on Saturday. But recommendations are appreciated.

[theinevitable]

Today, a roommate I am increasingly growing to dislike is crowing about how the Cardinals are losers. This is interesting, because he complains all the time about how "unsportsmanlike" Cardinals fans are.

If I started applying to anthro PhD programs now, I would probably finish when I was 34. That is in ten years. Too late to apply for next year, so I'd apply next fall and start the following fall. Jesus.

I am trying to pick one of my old professors to talk to about my options. Someone with a critical perspective on these things. I find the issues urban planning addresses interesting, but do not want to be an urban planner. Urban studies? That seems as goofy and impractical as anthropology. I just keep cycling through the same options. Applying to jobs with my current skill-set is not working out. Maybe my cover letters really are that bad. Maybe I just need to move to a bigger city with lots of nonprofit type jobs.

[wombat]

What are the job prospects with a graduate degree in anthropology? Would your goal be to become a tenured professor of anthropology with time to do your own research at a good school in an interesting city like the one you attended? I cannot emphasize enough that you should only pursue an academic career if there is nothing else you can imagine being happy doing. And that you would be happy doing it even if you had to move to some crappy town in the middle of nowhere where you don't know anyone and teach intro courses with no job security and no time to do your own research except in your own personal time.

The odds that you will eventually have the job that your professors have is very, very, small. You have to think of it as a goal like being a successful artist or famous writer or sports star. The vast majority of people who want those things never get anywhere near them. You have to want it enough that you will sacrfice everything else for it, and you have to want it enough that it is worth the risk of the overwhelming likelihood is that you won't get it.

Remember that this is not sour grapes speaking. I was actually successful at that game. But I felt that I got there by basically standing on a pile of dead bodies. The whole deal is basically a pyramid scheme - there are way more professors who want to look important by training grad students, than there are jobs for those grad students.

In short: You do not get a PhD in a field like anthropology because you can't find a job right now. You do it because you have such a passion for it that you can't imagine doing anything else. If that's not the case, you need to come up with another plan.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Oh yeah, I know there are some people familiar with Chicago here. I will be there this weekend. Any recommendations, food, beer, art, movies, whatever? I'm going to see Morrissey Saturday night and am going to the Bears game on Sunday. I also need to find time to watch the Oregon game on Saturday. But recommendations are appreciated.

The Field Museum is right near the football stadium. Lots of cool stuff, worth the money.

Lou Malnati's for pizza. And get one o' them Chicago dogs--I believe Hot Doug's is the joint most people recommend. We also went to Rick Bayless' Xoco and got expensive fancy-ass Mexican sandwiches. They were good.

[jay-ell]

[Brilliance]

What wombat said. This is why I ended up with a terminal master's in a liberal arts field; I wanted the education for its own sake but knew that there was no way I was going to be able to do the things necessary to make it a career. But grad school is bitchingly expensive, and it will not help you get a better job (not at the level you're at). If you're looking to improve your job prospects, you want a trade school or a professional training program (if you wanted to be a paralegal or something), not grad school -- the exceptions being, of course, an MBA or a program in public policy.

You know where there are a lot of non-profit jobs? Raleigh. You should look into it. I actually know a number of people with careers in nonprofit, one in particular who was very high up in United Way (she left recently for the Nat'l Inclusion Project). I could make some inquiries, if you want.

[AugustWest]

In short: You do not get a PhD in a field like anthropology because you can't find a job right now. You do it because you have such a passion for it that you can't imagine doing anything else. If that's not the case, you need to come up with another plan.

This goes for law school too.  Double.

Here's something that I've come to realize in the past few years -- It's better to look at the sort of tasks you like rather than the broad field of activity.  It's been more useful to me to know that I like having lots of cases where I can wheel and deal and make relatively quick settlements in much much better than I like having a few complex cases that I have to dig very deep into for years.  That's gotten me closer to doing something that I enjoy much more than saying I wanted to do "law" or "tax law" or "regulatory law".

So think (honestly and realistically) about the sort of tasks you enjoy doing (traveling? interviewing? analyzing data? collecting data?  collating?  filing out TPS report coversheets?).  Whatever sort of task you like, it's likely to be necessary to numerous fields.

[theinevitable]

Analyzing what kinds of things I like doing is how I came around back to anthro. And no, I don't think I am passionate enough about it to be willing to live in the middle of nowhere. I just know that what I am endlessly interested in is trying to get why people do the things they do, etc. Mostly through interviewing people and reading lots of books. I do not know what other field does that. Urban planning addresses the kinds of problems I am interested in (housing, poverty, food) but using engineering or architecture type methods most of the time. Maybe I need to look into public policy.

I want to believe that the way you find the right career is by trying lots of different things. But so far none of those things are letting me try them. I really do think that part of it might be that I am so criminally bad at selling myself.

In other news, I have the best boss in the world. I kept asking him if I could get days off to go home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and he couldn't get it together to actually look at the schedule and see if that would work. I finally asked him enough times that he said, "Dan, I am really sorry that I keep forgetting to do this. Just assume that you have those days off, and I will make it work." So I will be in The OC for Thanksgiving and Charlotte for X-mas.

[CortJstr]

Wait, there are jobs that aren't non-profit? I can't say I've ever encountered one of those

[theinevitable]

I also think it is interesting that it is so obvious to you guys that grad school is for suckers. Almost everyone I know (who didn't major in engineering or business) is thinking about grad school right now, and being encouraged by their parents. Both of my parents went to grad school (well, my dad got an MBA, which is a different kind of grad school).

This is related to something I think about a lot, social reproduction theory. It occurred to me recently that I have mostly seen it used to discuss either poverty or privilege. You grow up around young single moms and unemployed dads, and it takes away options (educational, professional, health, etc) in a way that tends to turn you into a single mom or unemployed dad. Or, the inverse: the children of the privileged are given lots of opportunities, second chances, etc.
What no one talks about (at least, in the academic stuff I have read) is the way this can break down. For instance, my parents' generation went to college and got good jobs. So they told their kids, the most important thing at your age is to go to a good school. However, in the meantime, the relative effects of a liberal arts degree from a prestigious school (vs, say, a good state school) have gone down, and the price disparity has gone up. So you end up with a bunch of kids of well-off or middle class parents with 200k in student loans and "worthless" degrees from fancy schools. They did everything "right" according to the old rules, but the rules done changed.
I like thinking about this, because I tend to believe that poor people who stay poor aren't any dumber than rich kids who stay rich. They're both carrying out the instructions that were programmed into them from childhood.

(I also tend to think of people as kind of like *****s.)

You can also see this in the current season of Downton Abbey, if any of you guys are illegally watching that.

Yes, Ash, I will be in the Orange County for Thanksgiving. But only for 48 hours. Maybe my friend from college and I can come egg your car or something.

Edit: wow, jesus, flying into places other than Charlotte sucks. I am going to spend 6-8 hours in travel each way. So I will be in the OC a lot less than 48 hours. Going to see if maybe family can make the drive to pick me up at LAX instead of SNA.

[AugustWest]

I haven't pulled this out in a while but:

I must be slipping.

Also...

[AugustWest]

I also think it is interesting that it is so obvious to you guys that grad school is for suckers.

Close, but not exactly.  Grad school is for suckers unless you've got a burning desire or a plainly articulable need for it (i.e. chosen career requires it.)

Life postponing grad school is for suckers.

[theinevitable]

OK, some dad-wizardry and changing my flight from SNA to LAX saved me a lot of time. 4 hours or so each way instead of 9. I am so excited.