Jobs after liberal Arts Phd panic

shell63

Hi, feeling a bit bothered and thought someone might be able to help! I'm in year 3 of my liberal arts integrated masters/phd. The timeline for finishing was originally December, then June (supervisors advice), then December (I thought June was unrealistic) Knowing lecturing positions are hard to come by I'd resigned myself to probably doing a postdoc after, however, seeing the ads for lecturing positions come out in the last week or so has gotten me panicking. I feel I can't face going into a postdoc after this, I need a change from constant research. Should I rush to get chapters written and chance my arm applying for jobs with the line 'nearing completion of PhD'? I'm meeting with my supervisor but I'd rather know if I'm being a complete idiot before I tell him what I'm thinking! Thanks!

Esmereldina

shell63 wrote: »

Hi, feeling a bit bothered and thought someone might be able to help! I'm in year 3 of my liberal arts integrated masters/phd. The timeline for finishing was originally December, then June (supervisors advice), then December (I thought June was unrealistic) Knowing lecturing positions are hard to come by I'd resigned myself to probably doing a postdoc after, however, seeing the ads for lecturing positions come out in the last week or so has gotten me panicking. I feel I can't face going into a postdoc after this, I need a change from constant research. Should I rush to get chapters written and chance my arm applying for jobs with the line 'nearing completion of PhD'? I'm meeting with my supervisor but I'd rather know if I'm being a complete idiot before I tell him what I'm thinking! Thanks!

I can understand your dilemma as I've just finished a PhD and I love research but not all the time, and prefer breaking it up with teaching too! Postdoc really seems to be the way to go though, and the vast majority of people do one before getting lecturing job. You could look out for one year posts as you may have a chance of getting one of these for a year and then going back to do postdoc. Although I've heard of some freakishly lucky people, getting a permanent post straight after PhD is pretty impossible. For getting jobs, research and publications are seen as more important than teaching from what I can figure out, hence the necessity for having done a postdoc (most people use this to publish their dissertation as a book). From what I've heard, it's also very unusual to get a proper temporary lecturing position before you've finished the PhD, though this will depend on your research area and what countries/universities you're looking at jobs in.

Hope this helps, and if it seems overly pessimistic as regards lecturing jobs, it's just my experience of things, and may not apply as much to your particular discipline! Talk it over with your supervisor anyway.

shell63

Thanks a mill Esmereldina! You've clamed me down a bit anyway. Yeah, my idea had been to give myself the cushion of a little extra time on the PhD to get some more publications under my belt (have 1) and increase my employability. But when I saw how few jobs there really are out there I wondered should I just rush it to grab any opportunity I can see (there's a one year post coming up in my Uni next year, it's not quite my area though and I prob haven't a hope in hell of getting it but when I saw it versus lack of opportunity anywhere else I got panicked ) But to apply for anything now I'd have to fire out a couple of chapters and even still it probably wouldn't be enough... Madness I know and I should prob just stick to my original plan in the hope I'll find something next yr. But I can feel the other PhD's snapping at my heels!! Anyway, honesty is probably the best policy with the supervisor (even if he does think I'm an absolute lunatic!)

Esmereldina

Glad to be of some help
I forgot to mention that most postdocs allow/expect you to do some teaching too. IRCHSS for example allows you to teach one course in your second year of postdoc or I think if you're applying for 1 year then you can teach a course during that year too... so it wouldn't be all research! IRCHSS is the strictest about teaching that I've come across... most don't have resteictions like not teachin in first year. Good luck anyway!