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Yes! As someone with job(s) in a field often reached to as “alt ac” option, this is so accurate. “Let’s find a magic bullet to help you convince those dupes who already have alt ac jobs that you, a Very Smart Person, PhD, should be hired” is not a good approach! https://twitter.com/kellyhiser/status/1327788934152196098
Often the condescension & entitlement fomented by the orientation of "alt ac" panels is sadly so palpable in candidates’ approach. Often hear to “leave your PhD off your resume” because it might “intimidate” hiring managers—like we’re some dummies you have to fleece, or something
Like, hello, I am glad you are interested in arts administration, welcome to the party! We are our own field with our own professional standards that most “alt ac” panels do not know anything about! We would be glad to help you, but not *because* of your PhD in Whatever-It-Is.
Anyone with momentous achievement of PhD has lots of cool skills!
But the irony is that the people leading these conversations are often the very same who chided advisees for trying to get good at skills for adjacent career ideas, because they weren’t “academic work”.
But the irony is that the people leading these conversations are often the very same who chided advisees for trying to get good at skills for adjacent career ideas, because they weren’t “academic work”.
And, yes, those who already left can get a little salty here—you'll have to forgive us. Remember we often left due to no jobs and/or our pursuit of other skills was unwelcome. And now we hear: how can my PhD’s get good jobs in your field w/ no experience or training in it? Uh...
Even the terminology is indicative of the problem: as though the world is comprised of academic jobs (the real kind) and alternative jobs (if needs must). Compare to the sciences which use terms like academia and industry, acknowledging compatible, but not identical, skills.
Thinking of them all as “alt ac”—ie any job that’s not being a university professor—flattens into one undifferentiated lump and leads to asking the wrong questions! There is, dear reader, some variety to the 150M some-odd jobs in the US workforce! Welcome to the party!
(Also this—I hope this sense of mourning was not absent from what I am saying above) https://twitter.com/musicologyduck/status/1328033881833005059
