Early this week—Monday—I had some time to kill after a morning meeting but before an afternoon appointment. It made no sense to walk back to Social Sciences to try and cover Steve over lunch because I would have just enough time to walk back to the East Bank as soon as I got off the elevator, so I called Mom. Roomie and I never come close to using all the free minutes Working Assets gives us.
I told her about how I was deciding whether research and teaching was what I really wanted to do; if I am so unhappy as a graduate student, can I expect that the demands on a junior professor are going to be any better?
"Oh, I never expected to see you doing that!" she said.
"Oh, what then?"
"I always saw you in administration"
"Administration? Then what the hell am I going to all this trouble for?"
"Well, you need to pay your dues."
I'm sorry. I can be an excellent administrator without a Ph.D. in Political Science.
Posted by webs0080 at December 4, 2004 2:50 PMOh, that is just so priceless... sad..... but priceless.
mothers! can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.
Posted by: Sherman at December 5, 2004 7:28 AMUgh. That's exactly where I am, UB. I know I could be a kick-ass museum Director but I will never get the opportunity unless I have a Ph.D. behind my name. It sux because most of the programs I have encountered are designed to train people to be teachers or researchers as opposed to good administrators (who are sorely lacking in the museum field.) Paying your dues is basically bullshit--unless that Ph.D. is critical to getting your foot in the door. ON the other hand, perhaps it's better to find a different door. I have not given up on grad school, but I had BETTER have some fun in it or I'll bark.
Posted by: Michael Fox at December 6, 2004 11:41 AMHave you looked at Muesum Studies programs? A friend of mine got her Masters at the JFK school of Museum Studies and eventually worked at auction houses curating collections. Sounds like the kind of stuff you would enjoy.
There may be fun in getting a Ph.D., but I am still looking for it as you well know. MY DOGS tells me that doing the dissertation is a whole nother kettle of crawdads from taking classes, so things may change once I finish up coursework this semester. If it don't get better, I am considering the Plan B (it really is called Plan B): clean up three papers, have a meeting about them, and collect a Masters. If I continue on, I'll get the Masters en passant in the spring.
The big thing preventing me from leaving is what we call in the SocSci industry "path dependency". I am here now, doing this thing. What the hell else am I gonna do? Big questions are frightening!
UB
Posted by: Eric at December 6, 2004 12:14 PMYes, you can be a hell of an administrator w/o the Ph.D--but you can't GET the job w/o the degree. It sucks, but it's the truth.
Posted by: SuSuBelle at December 6, 2004 12:20 PMdid you just call Jill your "Roomie"?
Posted by: jm at December 8, 2004 3:45 PM