"So you want to teach?"

Having spent the past six years pursuing a graduate degree it never ceases to amaze me how little the majority of people know about higher education. On Thursday I will defend my doctoral dissertation and wrap up my graduate career. One thing that has annoyed me for years, and has become even more irksome since I've been looking for jobs, is the assumption that I want to teach. (The other annoying thing is when people call the dissertation a "paper.")

Granted, most people who earn a PhD in history probably would like to have a full-time, tenure track teaching job when they finish their degree, but in the current higher ed environment, those opportunities are becoming fewer and the competition for those available jobs has increased exponentially over the years. Now I can admit that when I first went to graduate school, the goal was to end up teaching at the university level. In many respects, I'd still love to do that. However, I am not willing to make the sacrifices in order to achieve that goal - including enduring visiting professorships, languishing in adjunct positions, living in a place I would never want to visit, let alone reside, and never come close to making enough money to pay off my student loans. I'd prefer to move to a place I want to live, and find a job that I enjoy and go from there.

The problem is when meeting new people or explaining "what I do" the first thing that 99% of people say is some variation of "so you want to teach?" I can't blame them. Most people probably took there 100 level history course in undergrad and never looked back once it was over. Most people haven't the faintest idea about the training and skill sets that graduate education in history provides for someone with a PhD and how those skills might be used in other industries. Therefore, the problem is really with me. But I'm sure one can image that it gets VERY annoying to have to explain the following to almost everyone when asked what is it you do: why I went to graduate school, how I got interested in my subject, what my dissertation is about, why I no longer want to be a full-time teacher, which inevitably leads into a tangent about the supply and demand economics of the current employment climate of the history profession as well as the changing structure of the American university.

Now as I said, it's difficult to expect people to understand all of this, and that is why I often feel obligated to explain to them why I am no longer seeking a full-time teaching job. Although recently, when faced with the teaching question, I just say no, and that I'm keeping my options open.What really frustrates me is that since I am now searching for non-academic jobs, people outside of the academy tend to be too lazy to think about how the skills of an historian might be applied to something other than history. Even when I spoon feed them my skill set, some people have no idea what to make of it. Of course the current job situation in America isn't helping anything thing. So too is that fact that despite the state of the profession, the only thing that graduate school prepares you to do after you graduate is to be an academic. Being 28 and entering the non-academic world with little experience and a high degree can be quite frustrating.

If I have to keep explaining to people why I don't want to teach, so be it, but the question has gotten very old. After all, I'm the one who is annoyed and still without employment. When I first decided to go to graduate school the question was always, "what are you going to do with that?", which, at present, is a much more relevant question. In reality, this is a much better question because it is to so open ended. Apparently that the difference between pursuing a PhD in the humanities and completing one: at the outset, people can't understand what you would do with said degree, but the time you're done, people can't imagine you doing anything but staying in the academy. So people, please do me a favor and undertake a history project on behalf of anyone with a PhD in the humanities and look to the past question you used to ask ("What are you going to do with that") and not the question you ask today ("So you want to teach?"). While neither question is a fun one to answer, at least the former doesn't reduce people of high education to an extremely narrow field.