As Greer mentioned, many of us from the abandoned generation sought the shelter of graduate school to wait out the recession. Our individual stories may vary, but the theme seems to be consistent. Job prospects were few, so we decided to continue honing our skills and building our expertise in an academic setting. Unfortunately, since so many of us had this idea, we have created a new complication for our original problem: there are more graduate degrees being issued than there are jobs that require graduate degrees.

The Economist recognized this two years ago, and the situation has likely compounded in that time. From the article “The Disposable Academic:”

“Indeed, the production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships. Using PhD students to do much of the undergraduate teaching cuts the number of full-time jobs. Even in Canada, where the output of PhD graduates has grown relatively modestly, universities conferred 4,800 doctorate degrees in 2007 but hired just 2,616 new full-time professors. Only a few fast-developing countries, such as Brazil and China, now seem short of PhDs.”

The Chronicle echoed the concerns of The Economist but with more alarming numbers:

“Over 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees (over 8,000 of them have doctoral or professional degrees), along with over 80,000 bartenders, and over 18,000 parking lot attendants. All told, some 17,000,000 Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that the BLS says require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor’s degree.”

The same article notes that there are at least 5,000 janitors in the U.S. that have PhDs, which disturbs me as a graduate student. Admittedly though, I knew these numbers and these risks before applying to graduate school. Not wanting to fall into the graduate black hole that has consumed so many before me, I made a few rules for myself. It is my hope (and the success of these rules remains to be seen), that these rules will increase the chances of my getting a full-time job relevant to my field.

1. No more debt. My debt from my undergraduate degree is not substantial, but I have bills and other debts that are still a major concern. Knowing that graduate school was not a guarantee for a better life, I decided to only pursue a graduate degree if I was able to secure a tuition waiver. This resulted in a bit of a last minute scramble, but I at least have the comfort of knowing that I will not be worse-off financially if an M.S. in journalism does not make me rich and famous.

2. Work with the end in mind. My ultimate goal is to further my career. I enjoying learning, and I enjoy thinking about concepts and ideas, but thinking does not feed my family, and it does not give me shelter. As you may know, I write books, so I started graduate school with the goal of furthering my writing career. The classes I took, the research I did, and the projects I completed were all designed to further this goal. Customizing my education in this manner has worked well thus far, and I believe that it will pay off.

3. Network and collaborate. Graduate cohorts tend to be diverse, and mine is no exception. My peers have backgrounds and skill sets that are very different from my own, and learning from them has been just as beneficial as learning from professors. At the same time, these are professional contacts that could prove to be useful in the future.

4. Don’t abandon your career. While I am in graduate school, I am not allowing my writing career to stagnate. Two more of my books are coming out this year, and I have maintained an active blog and social media presence while at the same time pursuing new projects outside of class. Whenever possible, I fold this work into my graduate study to get as much mileage out of my effort as I can, but it’s important to me that I do not lose the momentum that I gained in between undergraduate study and graduate study.

Graduate and post-graduate students, what are you doing to increase the value of your graduate experience? How are you preparing for the future?