I recently came across a social media post by an early philosophy grad student noting that "their dream: is to eventually land a research job. This is, of course, the kind of job grad students are typically socialized to desire (PhD programs tend to prize research). And of course an R1 job may sound great on the surface: a light teaching load, lots of time for research, lots of other philosophers around (both faculty and grad students) to talk shop with, and so on. However, some recent experiences have led me to wonder whether R1 jobs are all they are cracked up to be.
First, there is Ash's experience of being denied tenure at an R1, despite evidently having a strong research record. Although Ash is just one case, my sense is that tenure denials are quite common at R1's. One of my other friends was denied tenure at an R1 despite (in my view) having a stellar research record; another friend is pretty certain they will not receive tenure; another friend of mine got a R1 job the last three occupants of which were all denied tenure; and so on. This kind of situation seems relatively awful to me in two respects: (1) it must be a terribly stressful five years leading up to tenure review (after the stresses of grad school), and (2) it's obviously, as Ash's case illustrates, an awful difficult situation to grapple with if, after so many years of stress, one fails to get tenure. For what it is worth, I've heard of far fewer cases like this for other types of jobs.
Second, there are Anon's kinds of frustrations: "The constant pressure [to publish], combined with the fact that I have to publish on what's fashionable, rather than what I think is worth working on (let alone interesting), has utterly drained my work of any value to me." I've heard these kinds of frustrations expressed by a number of people. The funny thing is, as someone who works at a teaching school I haven't had this experience at all. Because at a teaching school there isn't so much pressure to publish, one is pretty free to focus on research one truly finds valuable, rather than having to publish on fashionable things just to get publications.
Anyway, I don't mean to "diss" research jobs. For all I know, they are awesome. I just can't help but wonder, given the kinds of cases described above, whether grad students and job-candidates may have an overly-rosy view of what the reality of these jobs can actually be like–just like, following Sam Duncan's recent post about his experiences getting a community college job, I wonder whether people have an overly-dismissive view of how good other jobs may actually be.
Consequently, I think it might be good to hear more about research jobs from people who have them. Are they all they are cracked up to be? If you have one are you happy, or are you completely miserable and stressed out? Do you do work you are passionate about–or, like Anon, do you feel constantly pressured to work on fashionable things just to get publications for tenure? Finally, following Ash's post, if you work in a R1 job, what is your sense of how often people receive or are denied tenure?
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