Moron has PhD in History, gets no job; DU sympathetic

[BannedFromDU]

FarCenter (9,717 posts)


 
Even A PhD Couldn't Kept This Man Off Food Stamps Or Out Of The Unemployment Line
Tony Yang is getting beaten to a pulp. He's not wanted by mobsters nor is he another Cybercrime bully. The former University of California doctoral student (c/o '09) just says that's what it feels like each quarter when he wraps up his teaching gigs and goes home without a permanent job offer.

"It can be very tough on the pysche," he told the Chronicle of Higher Education. "The darkest moment had to be when I finished my dissertation. I turned it in and there (was) no job ... So when I graduated, the first thing I had to do was file for unemployment."

...

After the recession took hold in 2007, the rate of PhD holders who've filed for government assistance more than tripled to 33,655 by 2010, according to data collected by Austin Nichols, a senior researcher with the Chronicle's Urban Institute.

...

Like Yang, who holds a PhD in History from the University of California, many graduates are delaying marriage until they can afford the walk down the aisle.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-mans-phd-hasnt-kept-him-off-food-stamps-or-the-unemployment-line-2012-5

A PhD in the Humanities is a CONSUMPTION GOOD unless you are an absolute rock star in your field.

longship (10,963 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore
13. Sorry, Bud. You just didn't get born into the right family.

View profile

Last edited Tue May 8, 2012, 09:31 PM USA/ET - Edit history (1)
Don't ya get it!? Edumacation doesn't mean squat. You can have 1,000 PhDs, but if you are not born to an entitled family, or if you're not of the correct religion, you just don't matter.

Go screw yourself.


on edit: By the way, whether you get a job or not, we'll be needing those student loan payments on time! Or maybe your parents will get a friendly visit from our friend, Guido. Heh, heh, heh!

     Odd that I see no posts promising to offer the guy a job. I wonder why that is? Could it be that he HAS NO JOB SKILLS?

     Only a liberal would get a degree in the humanities and feel entitled to a living.

[Big Dog]

A PhD in the Humanities is a CONSUMPTION GOOD unless you are an absolute rock star in your field.


     Odd that I see no posts promising to offer the guy a job. I wonder why that is? Could it be that he HAS NO JOB SKILLS?

     Only a liberal would get a degree in the humanities and feel entitled to a living.

Doctor Unemployed, PhD should have gone to truck driving school.

[miskie]

Doctor Unemployed, PhD should have gone to truck driving school.

Hey Doc --

You either evolve, or you go extinct. If I followed my college path without adjusting, I would probably be an unemployed music teacher. - perhaps giving private lessons for table-scraps. Instead I deliver mail eleven out of twelve workdays every two weeks.  - Because I realized that going where the money is to keep my family housed, clothed, and fed meant more than my own personal vanity.

[I_B_Perky]

Well I wonder why? Let us look at the best bets for jobs there dummie.

best bet for jobs

Now let us look at the highest paying occupations:

funny, no history or womyns major degrees here

Now let's look at 50 best jobs in America. Notice number 2. College prof. Doesn't say anything about the demand though. Good work if you can get it. Is there demand for it? Don't look like it.

Don't see no history majors here either

Sorry you spent however many years studying for a degree that is worthless there dummie. Maybe you should have learned a skill like plumbing.

[I_B_Perky]

Oh by the way dummie. Dominos is hiring. Go here:

Pizza hero

[Kyle Ricky]

I know a couple of people with PHD's who can't find jobs. The main reason is because they major in something that either has too much competition or will force them to move out of state when they don't want to. They think they will get this degree and be a professor at  Penn State making $80,000.00 a year. That is never the case.

History is actually a good major. I love history- when the professor teaches you real history and not his history. By that I mean when they leave things out that go against their agenda. Like not teaching about the real reason for the Civil War, or not teaching the real civil rights act. He could have went to law school and got a job somewhere.

[DumbAss Tanker]

My best bud in law school had been in the second year of an extremely-competitive and fairly prestigious English masters program at Duke, working as a graduate assistant, when they had an opening for a very junior faculty position.  He said they got hundreds of applications for it, many from very established people with national reputations and killer resumes, and multiple books published listed in their curricula vitae.  He said "At that point, it dawned on me that I couldn't possibly get a real job in that field, and I started looking at other options.  That's why I'm in law school." 

[BlueStateSaint]

An AA sponsee of mine is in the same spot.  He lost his job, due to his drinking, and his wife seems to spend rather extravagantly.  Well, the money's gone.  He got an informal 'counseling session' from my sponsor and I a couple of nights ago.  It had to do with humility and having God in control--two things that the DUmb****s would never understand.

[txradioguy]

And yet I'd be willing to bet there are School Districts and Junior Colleges that would snap him up in a heartbeat.

My guess is that he thinks positions like that are beneath him and he's holding out till he gets "the call" from Berkley or Harvard.

 

[miskie]

And yet I'd be willing to bet there are School Districts and Junior Colleges that would snap him up in a heartbeat.

My guess is that he thinks positions like that are beneath him and he's holding out till he gets "the call" from Berkley or Harvard.

 

He still might -

If he has any reason at all to check that 'Native American' box, he could be working at a prestigious university tomorrow.

[longview]

And yet I'd be willing to bet there are School Districts and Junior Colleges that would snap him up in a heartbeat.

My guess is that he thinks positions like that are beneath him and he's holding out till he gets "the call" from Berkley or Harvard.

 

That would be my guess, too.  May well not be willing to live in the communities where there are jobs, either. 

[Gina]

So when I graduated, the first thing I had to do was file for unemployment."

Pardon me for my stupidity but he was going to college, finished college, and file for unemployment?  Can you just go from a student to unemployment?

[Karin]

I noticed that too, Gina.  I thought you had to pay into it for some period of time (even small). 

Boortz was talking about this yesterday afternoon.  That article in Chronicle of Higher Ed seems to be all the buzz.  They also featured a woman who had a PhD in medieval history.  She was on foodstamps, working only 20 hours a week, doing grunt work at the community college.  She was fat, had DWS hair, and tattoos.  

Most of the commenters at CHE did not get it.  They thought all these TA's ought to be paid handsomely, just because.  Any dissenters got raked over the coals.  The Smartest People on the Planet apparently cannot think outside of their boxes.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I noticed that too, Gina.  I thought you had to pay into it for some period of time (even small). 

I expect he was working under some sort of grant or fellowship at the university prior to getting the degree, most likely as a graduate teaching assistant or researcher.  Whether you can collect unemployment from a job like that (Non-permanent, and part-time by most measures) is something that varies from state to state.

[Rebel]

Dumbass #1 has a Ph.D. in Medieval History

Dumbass #2 has a Masters in Film Studies

Think I could, you know, pretty please, keep my own f'n money rather than dole it out to idiots like this to pursue their dreams that have not one damn thing to do with me? You minor in what you want to do. You major in what pays the f'n bills. You don't do what "you" want to do and then turn around and expect everyone to subsidize your STUPID behavior and piss-poor choices, DUmbasses.

[Celtic Rose]

I noticed that too, Gina.  I thought you had to pay into it for some period of time (even small). 

Boortz was talking about this yesterday afternoon.  That article in Chronicle of Higher Ed seems to be all the buzz.  They also featured a woman who had a PhD in medieval history.  She was on foodstamps, working only 20 hours a week, doing grunt work at the community college.  She was fat, had DWS hair, and tattoos.  

Most of the commenters at CHE did not get it.  They thought all these TA's ought to be paid handsomely, just because.  Any dissenters got raked over the coals.  The Smartest People on the Planet apparently cannot think outside of their boxes.

My medieval history professor encouraged me to pursue a Master's degree, and presumably eventually a PhD, in medieval history.  He encouraged me to start a third language during my undergraduate, and told me that he could help me find a graduate program.  I decided to start working after earning my BA instead.  

I was pretty lucky, I was unemployed for about two months total after graduation before finding a good job.  However, when I realized that after 4 years I was making less than half of my friend who had recently found a job as a high school math teacher, I decided to pursue a career with a bit more income potential.  Now I'm a third of the way through a Nursing program, and am looking forward to never having to be unemployed again unless it is by choice  :cheers mate:  Plus, I suspect that I will enjoy nursing a lot more than I enjoyed being a paralegal.  I also left my job on excellent terms with an open job offer from my boss if I ever decided that I didn't like nursing.  

[Karin]

One of the commenters at the Chronicle said, "I love history, I'm a history buff.  I read about it voraciously in my leisure-reading time.  I don't expect to earn my living with that."   They all piled on him, saying, "just going to a Renaissance Faire does not make you a history buff."  These people are idiots. 

[Celtic Rose]

One of the commenters at the Chronicle said, "I love history, I'm a history buff.  I read about it voraciously in my leisure-reading time.  I don't expect to earn my living with that."   They all piled on him, saying, "just going to a Renaissance Faire does not make you a history buff."  These people are idiots. 

Yes, they truly are. 

[BannedFromDU]

One of the commenters at the Chronicle said, "I love history, I'm a history buff.  I read about it voraciously in my leisure-reading time.  I don't expect to earn my living with that."   They all piled on him, saying, "just going to a Renaissance Faire does not make you a history buff."  These people are idiots. 

     As someone who has earned a PhD, let me assure you that 99.9999% of professors completely ignore the realities of the job market when advising promising students to pursue graduate careers.

     We know that DUmmies are already mush-headed and easily led, so when they're 18 and have put their lack of social skills to good use by studying worthless things, they're easy prey for shitheaded profs who got tenure in 1979 and couldn't give a shit less if anyone coming behind them is able to support themselves.

     I got my degree in 1995, when the baby boomer profs were ALLEGEDLY going to start retiring in droves and academic jobs were SUPPOSED to start opening up. It's nearly 20 years on and those baby boomer profs are hanging onto those professorships like grim death.

     The joke is on you, academic wannabes. 

[wasp69]

longship (10,963 posts)
13. Sorry, Bud. You just didn't get born into the right family.

Don't ya get it!? Edumacation doesn't mean squat. You can have 1,000 PhDs, but if you are not born to an entitled family, or if you're not of the correct religion, you just don't matter.

Go screw yourself.

Uh, no, dickhead, that is not true.  I manage to have a nice home, more than one vehicle, raise more than 3 children, and live comfortably without a college degree or some oligarchical pedigree.  I managed to do that having come from nothing in Central Appalachia to building a nice life.  I did it without grants or worthless degrees or leaning on the family fortune.  I am pursuing a degree in engineering because I choose to do so, not because I think that money and job offers will fall into my lap while I'm sitting in the graduates section of a ceremony.

Go screw yourself, DUmmie, and quit your whining for your failings.

[Kyle Ricky]

 She was fat, had DWS hair, and tattoos.

I would guess that this has something to do with why she can't find a job as well. If you look like a slob, you won't get anything.

[BannedFromDU]

Uh, no, dickhead, that is not true.  I manage to have a nice home, more than one vehicle, raise more than 3 children, and live comfortably without a college degree or some oligarchical pedigree.  I managed to do that having come from nothing in Central Appalachia to building a nice life.  I did it without grants or worthless degrees or leaning on the family fortune.  I am pursuing a degree in engineering because I choose to do so, not because I think that money and job offers will fall into my lap while I'm sitting in the graduates section of a ceremony.

Go screw yourself, DUmmie, and quit your whining for your failings.

    ^5 and I will add that I have a PhD, yet I came from NOTHING. My parents gave me NOTHING.

[NHSparky]

Uh, no, dickhead, that is not true.  I manage to have a nice home, more than one vehicle, raise more than 3 children, and live comfortably without a college degree or some oligarchical pedigree.  I managed to do that having come from nothing in Central Appalachia to building a nice life.  I did it without grants or worthless degrees or leaning on the family fortune.  I am pursuing a degree in engineering because I choose to do so, not because I think that money and job offers will fall into my lap while I'm sitting in the graduates section of a ceremony.

Go screw yourself, DUmmie, and quit your whining for your failings.

Pretty much, wasp.  Amazing how guys like us "only joined the military because we couldn't make it anywhere else" (according to the DUmmies) and yet we're the ones who tend to do far better than average?  I don't like the fact that there are still far too many vets who don't get into the job market right out of the military (vet unemployment is 12 percent) but a lot of that is our guys not understanding HOW to market themselves as much as HR/recruiting laziness...(what's an 11B?  Infantry?  How does that help our company?)

[thundley4]

Dumbass #1 has a Ph.D. in Medieval History

Dumbass #2 has a Masters in Film Studies

Think I could, you know, pretty please, keep my own f'n money rather than dole it out to idiots like this to pursue their dreams that have not one damn thing to do with me? You minor in what you want to do. You major in what pays the f'n bills. You don't do what "you" want to do and then turn around and expect everyone to subsidize your STUPID behavior and piss-poor choices, DUmbasses.

And those are the people that the DemonRats want to give lower interest loans to.   

[BannedFromDU]

Pretty much, wasp.  Amazing how guys like us "only joined the military because we couldn't make it anywhere else" (according to the DUmmies) and yet we're the ones who tend to do far better than average? 

That's because it's harder to join and stay in the military than stand in line waiting for a handout. You learn how to work with other people and in a team, and that in most ways you are not as special and wonderful as the coddlers of the world claim you are.