Post-PhD blues - completely lost

[nolurk]

Hi All,

I'm a 35 year old who recently completed a PhD in a humanities subject. There are no jobs in my field - absolutely none. Currently working in university administration, but the job is about to end. Prior to starting my PhD I worked as a policy officer, at the time I was dissatisfied with the work but now wishing I'd stuck with it.

Basically I feel completely lost. I'm 35 with no career to speak of. I'd love to work in research or something similar, but my PhD skills aren't considered 'hard' research skills by most employers. I'm too old for graduate/entry level posts, but not experienced enough for the posts above that level it seems. It's also been nearly 7 years since I worked in a policy role. I feel totally lost and like I've made myself unemployable doing this stupid PhD!

Anyone else been in the same boat?

Sorry to hear that. It is a very common story with humanities PhDs, unfortunately. there are a lot of ex-academics on twitter with similar stories & advice.

Does your university have a careers office? Can you spin the skills you do have in a way that employers want?

Three or four years ago, there were very few jobs. I tell my PhD students that they are unlikely to land a more or less permanent academic job within 3 years of finishing. Most of my PhD students have landed jobs, but it's taken them 3 to 5 years of piecing together employment, and being tenacious.

Some thoughts:

How mobile are you? That might be key.

What is your network like? Did you do any teaching while you were doing your PhD? Did you present at conferences or take part in any postgrad initiatives?

What scholarly associations or learned societies are you a member of? Are there roles you could volunteer for in those organisations? Put yourself up for election to committees?

Yep, I'm in the same boat, but a bit further down the line. Fresh out of my PhD I covered someone's lectureship for a couple of years while they were on research leave, then had more teaching/admin (I was a Director of Studies which is a weird, Cambridge-specific thing). I wasn't anything like full time because I also had baby DD. Then I had a two-year postdoc fellowship, which was good CV material. But there's nothing out there. At least in my field, it's just not the case that 'being tenacious' will do it. Nor yet 'piecing together employment'.

In the UK, I think it's also about where we are in the REF cycle. The jobs tend to be in the middle of the cycle, when universities realise they need to tool up. We're just at the start of the 2022-27 round (if there is another round).

I remember when I finished my PhD in the early 1990s, there were 2 jobs in my broad field in the whole of the country. I didn't get either of them, btw. And no post-doc posts, or temporary posts because of teaching buy out.

@LaChanticleer

In the UK, I think it's also about where we are in the REF cycle. The jobs tend to be in the middle of the cycle, when universities realise they need to tool up. We're just at the start of the 2022-27 round (if there is another round).

I remember when I finished my PhD in the early 1990s, there were 2 jobs in my broad field in the whole of the country. I didn't get either of them, btw. And no post-doc posts, or temporary posts because of teaching buy out.

I'm sure the REF cycle makes a difference, absolutely.

How did you get into academia, if you don't mind saying? Did you do something else and keep re-applying, or have a break and come back later?

I'm really torn about whether the proliferation of postdocs in arts is a good thing TBH. On the one hand, yes, it means there were more than two jobs in my broad field advertised last year (and there are often, though not always, more than two permanent jobs advertised per year anyway). On the other hand, it does get you into a 'sunk costs' situation where there's a lot of pressure to be 'resilient' about constantly reapplying.

I was in my early thirties when I finished my PhD in sociology (very soft/qualitative side of sociology) over 11 years ago and realised jobs for people with my specialism just aren't there. I cobbled things together as a research assistant, then project coordinator and I've been a project manager, now in IT ever since. So I totally get where you are coming from but something I wanted to offer is you are not too old for graduate/entry level roles. In my current role I have employed project coordinators in their 50s, coming from a long spell of doing something completely different and wanting to get into project management. After a period of 6-12 months in that entry level role they did then go on to become project managers or other more skilled roles.
So you do have options, it's just they may not look exactly like the life you imagined you would have. There is a good Facebook group AltAcUK www.facebook.com/groups/305637830541400/about which you may find helpful. And feel free to PM me if project management is of interest as a career option.