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Reader query on preparing in grad school for a “plan B”

In the comments section of our newest "How can we help you?" post, Anon Grad Student writes:

The question has two closely related parts:

  1. Should one be doing things in grad school — e.g. taking Stats / Math / CS classes — to lay the ground for non-academic options?
  2. And if so, what exactly, and how much, should one be doing? (Or, *can* one do?) What is a good way of balancing the competing considerations?

The obvious problem with doing such things is that it could take time, indeed quite a lot of it, from dissertating and publishing papers, and taking time away from these things could be fatal for international grad students like me, who really do have to graduate on time.

But there are also obvious benefits, especially given how academia doesn't seem to have good long-term prospects as an 'industry'. Perhaps the solution is just to take 1 – 2 non-phil classes (especially if they also prove to be philosophically helpful) and leave it at that: e.g., perhaps one stats class?

Excellent questions. I think the answer to question 1 is, "Obviously, yes."

I looked up the numbers a while back, and seem to recall only about 50% of PhD students ever finish their degree, and of those who do, only a fraction get a tenure-track job. I almost didn't finish my PhD myself (I came within a hair's breadth of "flunking out"), and then, after getting it, I spent seven years on the academic job-market–all the while feeling like if I failed, I had no other options. Trust me, it was not pleasant–and I've seen things turn out very badly for others (alcoholism, etc.). Having marketable skills beyond philosophy can be a godsend. So, go get them.

This, however, brings me to a (nevertheless very relevant) side-issue. Getting a job outside of philosophy is not just about skills. Surveys consistently show that 80-85% of all jobs are found through networking. It behooves graduate students and even more so graduate programs to forge job-networks outside of philosophy (such as other philosophers from the program who entered non-academic sectors). My spouse's PhD department (in another discipline) does  this sort of thing, and I think we should expect the same of philosophy departments. Let's do right by our students. Given PhD program attrition rates, the state of the academic job-market, high levels of student debt, and 7.5-year median time-to-degree (it took me eight years), programs should do what they can to help their students be successful, not just in academia but outside of it as well.

Question 2, on the other hand, seems to me more difficult to settle. How much should you do to lay the groundwork for a "plan B"? I have no idea, but I would very helpfully say, "Do as much as you possibly can without screwing up your grad studies." Yes, I know that wasn't very helpful–but it's the best I got. 🙂 It might be helpful to hear from people who have laid the groundwork for a plan B on what they did and how they did it.

Anyway, what do you all think? Do you have any tips for preparing for a plan B while in a graduate program?

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11 responses to “Reader query on preparing in grad school for a “plan B””

  1. UK grad student

    I’m not sure I agree that one should do much to actively cultivate a ‘plan B’. It seems to me that either you’ll do so little that whatever you do will be little better than worthless when it comes to actually trying to get an alt-ac job, or you’ll do enough to help you get an alt-ac job but in the process damage your chances of getting an academic job. As far as I can see, to get an academic job one needs to do much more than write a great thesis: one needs to network, attend and present at conferences, teach, build up a few areas of competence (and really be able to shine when questioned on these areas), and practice practice practice talking about philosophy (building fluency, confidence etc). All this takes up so much time that one could not do it all while also doing anything significant to prepare for a non-academic job. (There may be a few exceptions, like where you can prep. for a non-academic job by doing things that will also help you get an academic job.)
    Maybe my view is slightly coloured by the fact I’m in the UK, where taking 8 years to complete a PhD is impossible (most universities don’t allow more than 4 years).

    Reply
  2. Marcus Arvan

    K Grad Student: with respect, you have plenty of time in grad school–too much in fact. I was in two PhD programs and am now a tenure-track faculty member, and this much I know: you will never have as much free time on your hands in your entire life as you do in a PhD program. Here is life in a PhD program: you have an RA-ship or maybe TA for one class, and get to spend the rest of your life on philosophy. Here is life as a faculty member: you teach a full 3/3 or 4/4 course load, serve on half a dozen committees, supervise student groups, grade for all of your classes every day, publish articles and books, supervise independent studies, serve on hiring committees, etc. You have more than enough time to focus on philosophy and networking in grad school–and despite all that time most PhDs never finish and of those who do most do not get jobs. In other words, there are dramatically diminishing returns to focusing 100% on philosophy. Just about every grad student I knew wasted 75% of their time. I spent most of my spare time playing video games and playing in a band. If you don’t have time to do everything you need to do in philosophy in grad school, then you are not being efficient. I have seen too many philosophy PhD students wash out. Trust me, planning for a Plan B is one of the very best things one can do. I would have saved myself a lot of terror and heartache if I did, and I am confident I the same is true of other grad students I knew. My spouse is in a #2 ranked PhD program in her field and all of their grad students do applied work for a plan B despite (quite frankly) having a much harder research workload than philosophy.

    Reply
  3. UK grad student

    Hm, you’ve persuaded me to some extent. But let me play devil’s advocate, since I still have some doubts:
    I worked full time in a relatively stressful job for 3 years before returning to grad school, and frankly that ‘real world’ job was far less all-consuming than grad school seems to me. It’s not just a matter of time: grad school is emotionally exhausting (at least for me). And of course faculty have far less time to spend on their research than grad students do: they should be far more efficient researchers, having done all the hard-lifting in terms of learning the basics in grad school. So I don’t think it’s a very fair comparison. Nor, also with respect, is your having played video games and played in a band particularly pertinent, given that you took 8 years to get the PhD! If one wants to finish in 3 years, as I do (and as is wise to do if one worries one may not get a job in academia, since every extra year spent on the PhD is a massive opportunity cost), then one should devote whatever resources of willpower and time one has to philosophy. Again though, perhaps I’m prejudiced by being in the UK. If I had 5-8 years to get my PhD then I’d probably see things differently.

    Reply
  4. Marcus Arvan

    UK Grad Student: Fair enough. The problem, in my experience, is two-fold.
    First, most grad students (at least in the US) aren’t like you. Only about 50% finish, the median time to degree is 7+ years, and last I checked the average TT job rate of those who do finish top-ranked programs is around 50%. This means that the proportion of students who begin PhD programs who get the result they want (a TT job) is very small. And I’ve seen the consequences very personally. I’ve known so many grad students who washed out and had no other options. I didn’t start out intending to waste time playing video games and playing music. Like all too many grad students I’ve known, it happened slowly and accidentally–from frustration, lack of confidence, etc.
    Second, and more pertinent to your case, I have heard from numerous U.K. grad students that although time to degree in the U.K. Is dramatically shorter than in the US, it is even more difficult to get a job. Go through the recent philjobs appointments threads. There are not many TT jobs going to U.K. PhD’s. I have some close friends in the U.K. who have published up a storm and still can’t get a job.
    Anyway, that’s where I’m coming from. I’m sorry if I sounded dismissive. I’ve just seen too much suffering from students and departments not preparing for Plan B’s that I think it is high time to put unrealistic optimism aside and make sure that our students prepare for other opportunities. My spouse’s discipline does it, and literally 95% of their PhD’s get good jobs. There is none of the desperation in her field as in ours. If they can do it, so can we — and we would all be much the better for it.

    Reply
  5. Anon Grad Student

    I’m the Anon Grad Student who asked this question. I just wanted to say that I agree with UK Grad Student that there’s a real worry that one will end up not having the time or energy to make a proper go at the academic job market (I should also have mentioned the many other things grad students have to do that UK Grad Student helpfully pointed out), which was pretty much why I asked the question. And, despite being in a US grad program, I’m like UK Grad Student in feeling the pressure of the clock: as an international student here, I really have to be prepared to go on the job market in my 6th year, and no later than that.
    But maybe the trick is really just to find a few hours every now and then to work on plan B, especially over the breaks. It wouldn’t take too much time, for example, to just reach out to old friends / acquaintances and get some sense of what various non-acad options might look like, so that one can start thinking about what back up options to pursue (or at least to rule out). And Marcus’ reminder that it’s not just about acquiring ‘hard skills’ is a very helpful point: one can probably get more mileage than one realizes from one’s pre-existing skills.
    I thought I should also just summarize some advice on this very issue from Ben Jarvis, who was interviewed and asked this question at https://freerangephilosophers.com/2016/09/05/benjamin-jarvis/
    His advice is to (i) “work as hard as possible on [the academic stuff, if what they want is an acad job] and try to do only the minimum of what’s required to keep other options open” and (ii) to try to “look for opportunities to pursue multiple aims at once”, e.g. taking coursework that is helpful for both philosophy and non-phil endeavors. His reason for (i) is UK Grad Student’s: it’s hard, if not impossible, to do both effectively.

    Reply
  6. UK grad student

    So I slept on this, and I think one constructive thing I can say is that, if we think about it, most of us could probably do things that would help BOTH our academic and our non-academic prospects at the same time. We should definitely do such things in grad school.
    For the metaphysician or logic person, this might be learning technical math/logic skills that could be put to use both in one’s research and in technical jobs outside the academy. Such skills might not be necessary for one’s research, but may help it branch into new areas. For the epistemologist or value theorist it might be trying to apply one’s research to real-world dilemmas, including by networking with groups outside academia.
    Many of us could also try to publish general-audience articles drawing on our research in venues like Aeon, the Conversation etc. In the UK at least, this can be quite beneficial for one’s academic career chances, even if it doesn’t seem to add much to one’s research. A huge priority in the UK is ‘impact’: academics have to show how their work impacts on the world beyond the academy in order to win grants and excel in various rankings. Americans who want to get academic jobs in the UK should probably be thinking about this too. General-audience articles are a solid way to demonstrate ‘impact’. And who knows? – if you don’t get an academic job, maybe having published such articles could help you into journalism, editorial work, publishing, etc.
    So there are probably creative ways that one can cultivate a Plan B while also, perhaps indirectly, helping one achieve one’s Plan A.

    Reply
  7. Pendaran Roberts

    One thing people should consider, if their pride will allow it, is your backup being a working class job. Car mechanics, plumbers, electricians, and so on can make more money than academics. I’ve heard diesel mechanics are in strong demand. Wittgenstein would approve!
    I don’t know much about how one trains for these jobs, but I have a feeling it’s not at universities. So, keep that in mind. Instead of taking night classes on math, you could work part time as an electrician’s assistant.

    Reply
  8. Shay Allen Logan

    (Posting non-anonymously so folks can verify details/email me directly to ask questions if they would like to.)
    I got an MS in math “on the side” during the coursework part of my philosophy PhD. I was definitely helped by having a fellowship for two of those three years. It was quite a bit of work — I took four classes every semester for all three years.
    My first job after my PhD was a one-year gig in the math department at Smith College. They considered my application because of the degree. After that, what really helped sway them to hire me was (a) a letter from a mathematician, (b) that some of my research is genuinely technical and of interest to some mathematicians, and (c) I’d done a ton of adjuncting in math departments.
    That’s my plan B story. For me, the math plan B worked. Now I have a postdoc at NC State.
    Here are some other things I know about math as a plan B:
    (1) It’s not clear to me that anything less than the actual degree will be very valuable. One hears about mathematicians being able to work in the industry. It’s true, to an extent. But it’s not like there are employers dying to get their hands on people who took a few grad courses in math. In general, math is very non-magic-bullet-y.
    (2) The parts that do transfer well outside the academy are the applied parts. These are (given how things currently are in philosophy) also the parts least likely to be at all connected to your research.
    (3) I have the impression that Statistics and Computer Science degrees are much more versatile than Math degrees these days.
    (4) One of the most tangible immediate benefits of the math degree was the amount of adjuncting it opened up. Math adjuncting also takes up drastically less time and brainpower than philosophy adjuncting. This meant I could teach quite a few classes, and made pretty good money as a grad student.
    Another note: many of the places you might adjunct at will have some sort of teach-one-take-on sort of deal that lets you take classes for free on the side. You might have to dig to find out about it. If you work at a place with such a policy, you should consider taking advantage of it to get a useful degree.

    Reply
  9. shane wilkins

    My advice for graduate students entering a program is: if you want to get an academic job, you have to give it 110% from year one. Publish papers, present at conferences, join reading groups, write grants, organize conferences, write articles for popular press, network in your area of specialization, and look for opportunities to built a robust teaching portfolio beyond your specialization across a bunch of different areas, including areas in applied ethics. I don’t think that means it is impossible for you to be pursuing academia and something else simultaneously, but it does mean that your Plan B needs to be somehow integrated with your academic work so you can essentially be doing two things at once.
    * For instance, if i were working in bioethics, I might think about doing some volunteering on a hospital ethics board; so that this experience is not only going to help me apply for nonacademic jobs on that kind of board in the future, but also going to help me in my scholarship, by providing a more direct grounding in particular cases to be grist for my scholarship.
    * Or, if i were working on topics in social or political philosophy, I might try to join some advocacy organizations or attend events at nonprofit think tanks if available. Those contacts would be invaluable for
    * Finally, irrespective of area, I think I would look at some of the US government fellowships for recent degree holders, such as the Presidential Pathways Program. Also, the Presidential Management Fellows Program is an interesting, albeit competitive, option that I think recent philosophy PhDs should really consider, since many of the positions advertised under that program don’t really require specialized knowledge that one would get from an MBA program. (Although I think a stats class or two would probably help.)

    Reply
  10. Marcus Arvan

    Shane: I think that is all very good advice. However, as a nonideal theorist I think we have to deal not only with ideals (viz. what students should ideally do), but also what they should do when things don’t go right. I started out grad school in fine fashion. But then a lot of unexpected things happened that led me off the rails for a bit. I have seen many bright and conscientious grad students end up down a similar garden path — not because they were stupid, but because there are a lot of pitfalls a person can fall into in grad school. Grad programs could probably do a better job of helping students avoid these pitfalls. However, in reality I suspect many of them are just part of the game. So, by all means, students should give their studies “110%” — but, for all that, there are well advised to do something to lay the groundwork for a viable plan B!

    Reply
  11. anon

    I have to agree with Shane. It can be challenging for some people to effectively pursue two large goals at once, goals that pull one in different directions. I am sure some people can do it. But we should not assume that everyone can.
    From my experience, there were some people for whom graduate school was a poor fit, and who really did not want to do what was required to complete a PhD. It demanded attention to parts of philosophy that they did not care about (at least not enough). So I do not really think it is a problem that some people find out while IN graduate school that it is not for them.

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