Graduate Student Professional Development Seminar
February 26, 2002
Jack Jobst, Christine Grohowski, Heidi Bostic
--Our M.S. Alumni:Where are They Now?
-CC/University jobs: 11
-High school jobs: 6
-Tech Comm Consulting(for a co., gov, law firm, etc..): 20
--Pros and Cons of Going on the Job Market with an RTC Masters Degree
by Christine
Grohowski
Pros:
-if you have a background in 2ndary ed and think you'd ever like to go back, you raise your pay scale (in most states) without putting yourself out of the market (as you would with a PhD).
-depending on what you've done with your time here, you can look for a wide variety of jobs in many different markets (ex. consulting, publishing, teaching, etc...)
-you can gain more experience in the field which is always good if/when you go back for the “terminal degree”. You will often be more focused, and hopefully take less time to complete it when you do.
-you can often earn just as much money with a masters
as you would with a PhD.
Cons:
-if you go back into education, you will always be the “middle” person.Not quite as qualified as others who have their PhDs, and a bit overqualified in the secondary market.
-it will be harder to leave a job, and return to school for your PhD the second (third?) time if/when you want to do it later.
-a degree from this department at the community college level is a bit ambiguous. Most departments are still “English” departments and are looking for MAs in English. Trying to sell yourself to them takes a lot of persuading, and careful constructing of your skills to fit a likely
picture of a successful candidate. (I like to think that they want us, they just don't know it yet...)
-no matter how sick you are of school by your fall semester of your second year (or one semester before you are to graduate, whichever comes first), you will feel like you've just gotten started in your last. Two years flies by, and there's always more work to be done that's fun, interesting,
and exciting! (I think it can be done lots of places though).
--Sources of Job Listings
-Campus Job Fair (at MTU, twice per year)
-Personal Contacts
-Classified Ads
-RTC Alumni
-Websites
--Here are some Websites courtesy of Patty Ericsson:
Online Academic Job Listings includes community college jobs (which can be harder to search for than university jobs) as well as other links
http://www.english.uga.edu/gradeng/jobs/listings.html
Adjunctnation has a good set of links on searching for jobs
JobTrak is partnered with over 500 college and university career centers nationwide and is a good site for undergrads
Career Resource Center is “one of the most comprehensive general career sites on the Web”
http://www.careers.org/index.html
Online career magazine that includes education-related content.
“PJ Scout” is a search engine for finding jobs.
This is one of many international job search sites.
http://www.coolworks.com/showme/
Education-related job openings at institutions across the nation are listed here.
http://galaxy.einet.net/GJ/employment.html
Other links on searching for nonacademic jobs are
available under “Finding Jobs” on this course resource page, which [Thomas
Miller of the University of Arizona] created for a senior seminar but which
includes links to pages specifically aimed at PhDs in the humanities who
are broadening their job searches and other links, for example, one that
connects with classified pages from around the country
http://www.gened.arizona.edu/tmiller/profession/resources.htm#What'snext--finding jobs
And here are some more links for searching for academic and other sorts of jobs online
http://www.siue.edu/ENGLISH/jobs.html
--Creative Career Strategies
-Telecommuting
online tutor,
online consultantexample:http://smartthinking.com/