Good Work If You Can Get It: How to Succeed in Academia PDF
Preview Good Work If You Can Get It: How to Succeed in Academia
Good Work If You Can Get It This page intentionally left blank Good Wor k If You Can Get It How to Succeed in Academia J ason Brennan JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS | Baltimore © 2020 Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2020 Printed in the United States of Amer i ca on acid- free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218-4363 www . press . jhu . edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Brennan, Jason, 1979– author. Title: Good work if you can get it : how to succeed in academia / Jason Brennan. Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019033937 | ISBN 9781421437965 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781421437972 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: College teachers—Vocational guidance—United States. | College teaching—United States. | College teachers—Supply and demand—United States. Classification: LCC LB1778.2 .B74 2020 | DDC 378.1/25023—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033937 A cata log rec ord for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at specialsales@press. j hu. e du. Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever pos si ble. CONTENTS IntroductIon. Unpleasant Truths about the World’s Best Job 1 1 Do You Really Want an Academic Job? 7 2 Success in Gradu ate School Means Working to Get a Job 45 3 How to Be Productive and Happy 81 4 The Academic Market and Tenure 119 conclusIon. Exit Options 157 Acknowl edgments 161 Notes 163 Bibliography 169 Index 175 This page intentionally left blank Good Work If You Can Get It This page intentionally left blank IntroductIon Unpleasant Truths about the World’s Best Job this year, some 1.7 million students w ill enroll full time in gradu ate school in the United States. Almost 80,000 will be- gin pursuing a PhD. The United States will award around 65,000 new doctoral degrees. In the humanities and social sciences, at least, the majority of new PhD students say they want to get work as professors.1 Most are destined for disappointment. Roughly half will quit or other wise fail to earn their doc- toral degree. Most gradu ates will not get a full- time academic job of any sort upon graduation.2 Only about 20% of students who start a PhD program w ill ever obtain a full- time faculty position, let alone a “good” professorship.3 The kinds of people who pursue a PhD have good analyti- cal skills. They know how to collect and pro cess data. Despite that, many would-be professors are clueless, naïve, and mis- informed about what gradu ate school and academia are really like. This book aims to fix that. It is a no- punches- pulled, frank, data- driven book telling you what academic life is like and what it takes to succeed in academia. I aim to help you succeed and also help you decide whether success is worth pursuing. 1
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