Sorta Big Reveal: Telling the Advisor

I sorta told my advisor today that I'm looking for alt-acad jobs. Sorta.

The conversation was much more framed around my surprise announcement that in the summer I'm blowing my 2 horse college town to go move in with my honey who lives in a city several states away. This is a permanent move (or at least until I move to DC to start the PMF, fingers crossed).

My big "surprise" is complicated by the fact that in moving to City, I'm planning to turn down an on-campus fellowship I received. That's a post for a different blog.

I explained that I was going to find a parttime job, be a kept woman [Advisor did not laugh at this :( ], and maybe take out student loans. I quickly moved the conversation to my time to completion. I'm aiming to defend before December. I mentioned that I was glad that I was going to be done writing by the fall because that would give me plenty of time to work on job applications.

[On the timeline printout I gave him, it clearly states Sept-Oct: work on acad and alt-acad job application templates and applications. On same timeline I had listed the deadlines for the PMF and the AAAS Fellowship. Still I didn't exactly explain in detail what these Fellowships are.]

I also said that I was glad that I could work on revising in the fall because I wanted to be sure to publish more. This is true, but also it makes my advisor feel good.

Then as a closing statement I said, "Well, I realize I'm missing out on some opportunities if I decline Fellowship, but moving to City should give me other opportunities. I know plenty of people in City on account of doing research in the same state. [For the record, my honey is not from my fieldsite and doesn't live there now], and Honey also knows important people, like the head of United Way and a big community activist lawyer. Between the two of us, our collective pool of contacts is actually quite substantial. I figure some nonprofit or the government will be interested in taking advantage of all the research I have done. Plus I have all these marketable skills like grantwriting, writing, research. I'm sure some nonprofit would want me around. I'm keeping my options open, but I have to be realistic and start coming up with a Plan B. Working some kind of parttime job in nonprofit or government lets me start to develop those skills. But I will apply for academic and jobs outside of academia in the fall. [Leadfoot kicks self for last sentence].

Advisor: "Well, doing a part time research/policy/nonprofit/ govt job might be a good idea. Because you don't want to be a dissertator for a whole 'nother year [i.e. remain a grad student so I look "fresh" on the market in two years. OMG, don't make me break out in hives]. So that might be something good to do in the meanwhile. But we'll make sure your dissertation is very strong and that you get a job. If you decide to decline the Fellowship I'll support you with whatever."

So Advisor's "I'll support you with whatever" felt rather lukewarm, but I'm going with it. I almost wanted to ask Advisor to put it into writing.

So not a total victory. There was no "big reveal" [i.e. I'm so over teaching undergrads and dumb department politics], but enough that I feel pretty confident now in publicly owning my alt-acad searches. Luckily my go-getterness on alt-acad searches are in line with my Type A personality, so I figure I can avoid direct conversation on this topic till about October when letters of rec are due to exploitative higher ed insitutions. At that point we might have to have a convo about the lack of requested letters and why different nonprofits/government jobs are asking for his input.

Today was a small victory. Which I couldn't have done without the support and suggestions of lots and lots of friends. You know who you are--you rox.

On a related note, if you have a "telling the advisor" story or info on applying for nonprofit jobs, or want to talk about your cool post-academic job, Leadfoot is looking for guest blog columnists. Send me your blog via email and I'll post it. Crediting you, of course.

Selective Information: Who Knows. Who Doesn't.

Uh, so I should have mentioned this in my very first post. And probably in my profile. And as a disclaimer to every entry. My advisor does not know about this little blog or my big plans to break out.

I mean, like he probably knows, since academia is so gossip-y and my college town so small. Also there was that little incident with my department head (and Advisor's bff) when I tried to convince DeptHead to give me an RAship. [I told him that I wasn't interested in teaching and so he should give my TAship to someone and give me practice at writing grants with the RAship. This was true. Also setting my own schedule and working from anywhere but campus were some corollary benefits I did happen to notice...] Oh, and that weekend when I came to the decision to find an alt-academic job and told several faculty friends. Oh yeah, and that lunchdate with one of my committee members when I told her that I was heavily considering the alt-acad world.

Okay, so clearly I can't keep my mouth shut. Still. Officially, I'm going on the "job market" next year. See in the bubble academic world I live in now, academic is the assumed adjective to "job market". Sneaky, right?

I haven't told Advisor for lots of reasons. Primarily, I just don't want to deal with the guilt trip every time I see him. I know he will continue supporting me to the end of the degree and beyond. He's super cool like that. But I also know that this decision will be disappointing and I just don't want to make him disappointed. Also, I can see having a few, "are you sure about this" convos. I doubt they'll happen often, cuz like I said. He's cool. But still, I think it will make our relationship all weird. Not interested.

The Career Services (CS) folks also recommend not telling Advisor and other important school people. Cuz like, until I get my awesome dream job, I'm still dependent on my University for funding, bureaucratic support, intellectual support, etc. Yeah, grad school is rough enough. I learned long ago to make friends with the secretaries and building service workers. They make things run smoothly. Same concept for finishing my degree smoothly.

Who I have told: many of my grad school friends (leadfoot waves since gradschoolfriends=entire on the hunt readership), my bff (leadfoot send e-hug since bff is suffering thru grad school many states away), my parents (leadfoot waves again), and my honey (leadfoot show honey blog since honey is an infrequent internet-er).

The important people to talk about here for this post (not that my bff and honey and folks aren't important but they love me unconditionally) is grad school friends. I've been telling them because I've been super excited by this decision to go the alt-acad route. It falls under big life changes. Anthropologists are all about life transitions. Also I've been talking up this game because I've been excited about the job postings that abound out there. Lastly I've been talking about this decision because I'm hoping to normalize and destigmatize the idea that alt-academic jobs are for those who can't make it. Also I think in talking about it, it makes this move to outside the classroom much less scary and unknown.

Folks, 500+ people graduated with PhDs in sociocultural anthropology last year. That's an ton of people. How many college/university jobs are there currently available in anthropology, much less within your specialization? Even if teaching is your dream job forever and ever, having a plan B might be a good idea, no?

And for those of us who don't like teaching (blasphemy I know!) it's good to know who else is out there. That's why I talk about doing the alt-academic route. I'm still planning on using my research skills. I'm still planning on using my critical thinking skills. I still want to make a difference in the world. I just don't want to do it from a classroom in an underfunded university or in a over funded private college located in bfe.

So I'm happy and excited to talk about my alt-academic plans. Just don't tell my advisor. Yeah?