By Amy Berg (Research Assistant Professor – UNC Chapel Hill)
Someone asked recently about how to prepare a "plan B" while in grad school. I did this, without really meaning to, and it was enormously beneficial for me. For the last four years of grad school, I volunteered in HR at a healthcare nonprofit. I spent about three hours most Friday mornings filing, doing Excel spreadsheets, and generally being a gofer for the HR staff. Obviously one of the points of volunteering is to help people, but there are also tons of self-centered benefits to be had, especially if you're thinking about careers outside professional philosophy. Here are some:
-Most relevant to the question about "plan Bs," volunteering is a low-cost way to investigate some plans. You can see whether you like work outside academia better. There are lots of things that are attractive about non-academic work: like, for example, many workplaces have the default expectation that your work is done when you leave for the day. You might find (for good reason!) that you like that lifestyle. Getting to know what else is out there can reassure you that academia isn't the only life worth having, and it may also make you feel more secure in your decision if you do decide to stay in academia.
-Lots of smart, interesting–often more well-rounded–people make careers outside academia. Volunteering is one way to make friends with some of them. Those friendships can be helpful for another reason: they're an important network for you if you choose to look for jobs outside academia. Your friends with non-academic jobs know other people with non-academic jobs, and they'll be able to speak to your skill at the work you've done. Plus, they may be better at figuring out how to market yourself outside academia than your adviser or even your campus career center is.
-Volunteering gives you a way to get involved in your community. This depends on your program and city, but it can sometimes be hard to know how to get involved in life off your campus or even outside your department. Plugging into an organization in your community can make you more aware of what's going on in the wider community.
-Volunteering lets you take a break. Most volunteer jobs won't require the kind of heavy mental lifting writing a dissertation does. Enforced breaks, ones where you aren't just on Facebook, can be really good for refreshing your energy for your own work.
-One worry about non-academic hobbies and activities is that they can soak up time you should be working and become an excuse to put off real work. But many volunteering commitments are scheduled into a defined time period. They don't spill over in the same way. And many non-profit organizations are so happy to get help that they'll let you make a relatively minimal time commitment, like my three hours weekly. Plus, as long as you demonstrate a real commitment to the organization, it will probably be fine to get out of showing up on days where you have a big paper or grading deadline.
Those are a few of the benefits I got from volunteering. Although I've stayed in academia so far, I can't tell you how reassuring it's been to feel like I'd be okay if I decided professional philosophy wasn't the life for me. There are huge upsides to getting involved in this way, and, for me at least, there were very few downsides. I encourage you to go for it!
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