The spite, hate, rage, apathy and mild irritation thread...

[D.o.S.]

Overqualified is a real thing in the US. Although I wouldn't have thought Boston would be as bad for that as other places, but on the other hand there are a load more people in the area with terminal degrees all gunning for the gigs that the terminal degree qualifies you for (academia is a weird, scary place)

[jrfox92]

Overqualified is a real thing in the US.

Back just before the recession my dad spent 3 years unemployed because of that bullshit.
Now he just can't get a job because all the millennials are afraid of hiring an old guy that does their job better than they do.

[Disarm D'arcy]

Over here diplomas are the key. The more and the higher will get you on top in your field. #1 factor in career paths.

[D.o.S.]

I'll cede to the folks who know more about this but in the U.S. once you get beyond an undergraduate degree, broadly speaking, you're looking at some variation on academia or medicine or law -- not really career paths for large swaths of the "everyone" that's been told to get a degree because "everyone should go to college."

Part of the reason Sanders left such a mark on this current election has been the fact that the bachelor's degree has been entirely devalued (in the job market sense) because they're seen as almost mandatory, which has saddled a lot of folks with crippling student loan debt -- it's another reason why so many people went back to school when the recession really started to show itself, because all of a sudden they were looking for jobs only to find that, even compared to a decade prior, "everyone" had a bachelors degree and hey, they're all ten/five/three years younger than you are with the same qualifications.

[Disarm D'arcy]

Oh it's the same here. Except I don't agree with the idea of devaluation in France. We believe highly in education. After hell it's the #1 public spending post. It's just that every job has been made more complex because the world is more complex. We need a high level education because we need high quality performance.

Look at this way. To manufacture a phone 50 years ago, any high school graduate would have been able to do it. Nowadays, to manufacture a phone you need GPS, coding, chips of all kind, wireless of all kind. it's the same with agriculture. Automatizing production and higher standards of quality rendered necessary a bump in education level. We have civil engineers for agriculture now.

The real question is to rethink the way we see education. It is a very productive activity that will not generate immediate revenue. We need to salary people to study on a national level if we want to live up to the challenges of humanity. How are we gonna feed the world, live without fossil energy, conquer the seas without generations of highly educated humans? After all, we salaried teachers, engineers, magistrates, civil servants, train conductors and so on while they were still studying. They were recruited at 16 and paid to complete their training. This is how had generations of excellent teachers and public servants and made this country of lazy Mediterraneans the 5th power of the world.

For fucks sake it's like paying taxes for roads. IF THERE'S NO ROAD TO DRIVE IT FROM WHERE YOU MANUFACTURED IT TO THE CONSUMMER YOU CAN'T SELL YOUR SHIT. UNDERSTAND WHY THE MARKET IS STUPID WHEN IT COMES TO THINGS THAT CAN'T BE VALUED IN MONEY SUCH AS EDUCATION, HEALTH OR ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION?

[Inconuucl]

For me it's the degree couple with a lack of work experience on my resume. I was sucked into the "more education = better life 100%" bullshit given to you by the academia circles, fell line hook and sinker. I've lived my college life mostly supported by scholarships, which means that I never went and got a serious job until the end stages of my academic career where I did data analysis. And I'd hate to admit it, but moving to Boston was another misstep, as I've come to realized that any non-Boston college is severely devalued here, which is another cherry on my shit sundae. I like this city a lot though, so I'll push until I can settle in, but it hasn't been easy.

[Disarm D'arcy]

Hang in there

[Invisible Man]

FACK

All true as far as I can see. Wanna write more but I am tired as hell.

Had a fun thing happen today where I copied a long email to a former colleague into a meeting agenda in Google Docs for a bunch of people to see. I griped pretty mildly and non-specifically about work...still, one person caught it, told me about it, and I promptly deleted the shit out of the document. Made for an oddly anxious day.

Excerpts:

The job: hoo boy. I am happy/not happy to write as much or as little as you would like to hear. This is full-blown administration. Like, hiring, firing, accreditation, board meetings, budget cuts, facilities management, data science, conference organizing, faculty evaluation- type stuff. After almost seven months, I am growing into it, but the process has been incredibly painful. What's the Fitzgerald quote about holding two opposing ideas in your mind at the same time? Mostly the days are long exercises in cognitive dissonance.

But I am entertained. Learning is happening, though it is not of the literary theory variety. Now the idea is that I have to find ways to change the direction of a dangerously backward institution, starting with its leadership. Mostly, I send chastising articles on Panopticism to the president, or try to needle the Deans about their corporatist and obfuscatory rhetorical choices. So it's not like I've totally left my training at the curb, but...it's more about applying it to really resistant and economistic forces. Short story: I have to be the 'professor' in a place that is actively--and in very pointed ways--aggressively anti-intellectual. This means that I take heaps of abuse, which is a job for which I feel uniquely and idiosyncratically prepared.

FUCK

[Invisible Man]

Short story: academe is a weird and scary place.

[Invisible Man]

Over here diplomas are the key. The more and the higher will get you on top in your field. #1 factor in career paths.

STOP BRAGGING YOU FUCKING BAGUETTE

Ok, Ok...your nation sounds like a goddamn utopia. Can you put me, my bride, and our two kids up?

[Lurker13]

FACK

All true as far as I can see. Wanna write more but I am tired as hell.

Had a fun thing happen today where I copied a long email to a former colleague into a meeting agenda in Google Docs for a bunch of people to see. I griped pretty mildly and non-specifically about work...still, one person caught it, told me about it, and I promptly deleted the shit out of the document. Made for an oddly anxious day.

Excerpts:

The job: hoo boy. I am happy/not happy to write as much or as little as you would like to hear. This is full-blown administration. Like, hiring, firing, accreditation, board meetings, budget cuts, facilities management, data science, conference organizing, faculty evaluation- type stuff. After almost seven months, I am growing into it, but the process has been incredibly painful. What's the Fitzgerald quote about holding two opposing ideas in your mind at the same time? Mostly the days are long exercises in cognitive dissonance.

But I am entertained. Learning is happening, though it is not of the literary theory variety. Now the idea is that I have to find ways to change the direction of a dangerously backward institution, starting with its leadership. Mostly, I send chastising articles on Panopticism to the president, or try to needle the Deans about their corporatist and obfuscatory rhetorical choices. So it's not like I've totally left my training at the curb, but...it's more about applying it to really resistant and economistic forces. Short story: I have to be the 'professor' in a place that is actively--and in very pointed ways--aggressively anti-intellectual. This means that I take heaps of abuse, which is a job for which I feel uniquely and idiosyncratically prepared.

FUCK

Whoa, FUCK is right! But keep fighting the good fight, IM, you're a good man.

[Chankgeez]

Short story: academe is a weird and scary place.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXkZI7WZWOo[/youtube]

[kbit]

Reading more about tendons healing is making me so depressed. Im not going to be able to play as much as I want to (I.e. enough to write, practice, and play out) another few months, amd its already been two months since ive started taking care of my wrist

[Inconuucl]

Isn't double think an Orwell thing rather than a Fitzgerald thing?

[rustywire]

Short story: academe is a weird and scary place.

Not enough trigger warnings & safe spaces. I keeeeed

To be a reductionist... [academia] has become a humorless, hiveminded climate of cliquey, haughty know-it-alls with childish politics, affinity for bean-counting, and contempt toward individuals who display exceptional ability or deviate from the ideologically approved models and templates.