Livre d'Or

Oh, this is all very useful.

First (as someone who has a MLIS, and who hangs out with academics, and who has a friend currently working on finishing a PhD in the humanities) yes, to all of this. Specific pieces:

- I very much agree with Elf's comments about initiatory witchcraft. You want to do a process that will fundamentally reshape you with people you trust not to break you. And academia makes that hard, because you don't get much - if any - chance to really meet the people you'll be working with before you have to work extensively with them. Which is a sort of large flaw.

(There is no real equivalent to "come hang out at some open rituals and social events and see how you like us" for academia: you get highly structured events/interviews/whatever, and very little one-on-one time. And even if you had that time with your supervisors/professors, you don't get it with your cohort until you all show up on campus.)

- I also agree with the advice that taking time away from academia (or even just not-working-on-degrees can be really helpful) The friend who's finishing her PhD (she's on schedule to finish in spring 2014) is my age (late 30s), got her Master's right after we finished undergrad, but then took time to work.

Most of that was at our college, as a lab assistant, but it gave her a lot of chance to decide what she wanted to do, where she wanted to do it, etc. (And it's also meant she's had more time to research funding options, the schools that would be the best fit for her, etc.) because she wasn't trying to fit all of that around an existing degree finishing at the same time.)

- The other part about some PhDs - depending on field - is that they may very well mean picking up and moving somewhere else for an extended period of time. (Said friend just spent a year in Japan, but it's plenty common for people to need to spend a month or two researching, or working with an archive somewhere else, or moving to where a researcher is doing X thing, or whatever.)

And it's quite likely (starting from your undergrad) that you're looking at at least 2-3 and possibly 4-5 moves to different schools, locations, etc.

If you're someone who is geographically dependent for other reasons, or if you're someone who likes having local friends (but is not always quick to make new ones), you may find yourself really isolated socially at a time in your life when you particularly need some friendly people. (Even just for the stupid stuff, like company while moving apartments, or to bring you soup if you're sick.)

And if you're someone who has geographic limitations on where you're live (I do not do well with heat, for example, so a lot of the US South is really not a good fit) you have to be really really aware that there might only be a handful of positions in your field at the end of the degree, and you might need to compromise in all sorts of other ways to be able to even consider making those jobs work. (i.e. be far away from family, friends, places you'd enjoy living more, places your partner could find ideal work for them, etc.) People make that work, and it's not always dire, but it's really not easy.

- And finally, there's a lot of bits about what it takes to succeed with what happens *after* you get the degree. Some people are fine with working out how you navigate references and explaining your research to search committees, and handling applications and rejections for jobs, and so on -but some people find it all entirely baffling, or that it hits *all* of their trigger buttons. And that's tricky.

- And on the larger topic, I have the same issue with people wanting a MLIS (which is a much smaller commitment in time and money). And part of me wants to go "Yay, Librarians!" because I do think the profession is awesome.

And part of me wants to go "Look, be realistic. Let me tell you about the job market. Let me tell you about the future of the field. Let me tell you what you really need to succeed in both." And people sorta don't want to listen to that.