Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here. (It’s anonymous!)
Dear Good Job,
I finished my degree nearly a year ago, and I still haven’t found a position that seems compatible with me. I have a highly specialized, niche literature degree, and the money really isn’t something that particularly matters in my case.
So I could theoretically continue to not have a job for as long as I want. I’ve thought about writing a book or articles in my field, but I also find that I have a hard time actually sticking to a large project when I’m on my own. Where do I go from here? In the year since I graduated, I feel like my brain has atrophied, and I end up spending more time doomscrolling than actually doing meaningful work. I’ve got to do something about this, but I just don’t know what my next moves should be.
—Is Graduate School the Answer?
Dear Is Graduate School the Answer,
Grad school is the answer only if you desperately want to go to grad school. I urge you to read Rebecca Schuman’s delightful diatribe about getting a literature Ph.D. and why nobody should. A small sample:
During graduate school, you will be broken down and reconfigured in the image of the academy. By the time you finish—if you even do—your academic self will be the culmination of your entire self, and thus you will believe, incomprehensibly, that not having a tenure-track job makes you worthless. You will believe this so strongly that when you do not land a job, it will destroy you, and nobody outside of academia will understand why. (Bright side: You will no longer have any friends outside academia.)
Please don’t feel guilty about doomscrolling. We’ve all spent too much time doomscrolling in the past year. It means you are paying attention and you care. But you’re right to look for something more productive and rewarding. Writing a book is a challenging zero-to-sixty, but writing articles in your field is an easier way to start. Propose some ideas to an editor for a publication that covers your area of expertise. It’s challenging to publish a scholarly article or book chapter without an advanced degree, but talk to other people whose work you admire and see if they’d like to co-author something. Working with an editor or co-authors makes writing less of a lonely business and can help motivate you to stick to the project.
You specialized in a niche area of literature, but you don’t have to stick with that subject. Consider complementary occupations, either professionally or as a mentor. Would you want to travel and teach English? Mentor kids or adults in literacy programs? Work or volunteer for a library? Think about other subjects that interest you, too. You can take classes in a new field without committing to graduate school. I presume you have experience with inherited wealth. Does your family have a charitable foundation? If not, see if you could help set one up.
You’ve just graduated, and the years right after college can be unsettling and isolating. Invite people you graduated with to lunch or happy hour to talk about how they’re coping and what they’re doing now. Talk to friends or people in your wider social network as well. There’s no shame in feeling aimless, and I suspect you’ll find that a lot of your peers feel similarly. It’s hard to figure out who you are in a culture that defines identity in terms of your major and then your profession. You don’t have to know who you are yet. Experiment with different experiences to find out.
—Laura
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