Synthesizing information accurately and coherently is a technical skill. Becoming an analyst sounds like a great next step for you!
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I think it could be a great one for sure.
I’m also not sure if CollegeConfidential will show the link, but here’s the post in question that I mentioned yesterday. The responses from academics are something else: phd - Why do most US regional colleges/universities/institutions have poor reputations in academic circles? - Academia Stack Exchange
I’m not reading the posts and you shouldn’t either. You are working on your own health issues and the opinions of random strangers don’t mean squat. Keep moving forward. The reputation of US regional colleges in academic circles is meaningless to anyone who is not in academia.
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Alrighty. Looks like I’m going to keep my focus outside of academia still then. Not that I never wanted to stick around in academia anyway, but still. Good to know folks outside of academia will not care at all.
I did my PhD at a public R2 because it had a collection of researchers in my niche field. I did my postdoc at an R1 and have been employed as a professor at two R1s. I don’t have the foggiest idea where most of my R1 colleagues did their PhDs because almost no one cares.
You have simply got to stop focusing on the prestige or lack thereof of your graduate school. You will be so much happier as soon as you can forget all about it. And yes, you may find it easiest to do this outside of academics.
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That’s good to know. I appreciate you mentioning that to me.
I think the main reason I’m focusing on it so much is because I’ve only now realized how much attending a regional college and university set me back reputation wise for my undergrad and Master’s. Ph.D sounds like it’s up to someone in their program to develop independently with the resources they have.
I will be happier if I focus less on prestige for sure but at the same time I’m trying to acknowledge the reality of tne situation as well. I don’t want to apply for jobs or work where someone will see where I got my degrees and reject me based on that alone (even one of the StackExchange comments said they’ve been a hiring manager and rejected regional college graduates before). I’ve been told by someone in the federal Workforce Recruitment Program that there’s been a push for federal hiring to consider college graduates who went to less recognizable, but still accredited, places for their degrees but they’re the only exception I can think of right now.
You need to get over this. Both my husband and I graduated from very regional and LOW rated colleges. My masters was from a very low rated program that happened to be accredited in my field. DH graduated from an ABET accredited university…but the university as a whole was and is VERY lowly ranked.
None of this mattered as we both had very very successful careers in our fields. Very successful.
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OP , please focus on being more positive.
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I’m trying as much as I can, but I need to be realistic too. It’s not like my undergrad, Master’s, or Ph.D are the types of schools folks would have eyes on, which is something I learned the hard way.
I’d also reply to Thumper if I could but hearing that response is the most reassuring one I’ve had so far.
I also got news just now that the APA accepted me as a mentee for their Disability Mentoring Program! They’ll help me big time with looking for jobs and whatnot.
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The answer really comes down to money. And academic circles are no exception. Academic studies require grant money, and bigger schools have more of it, so that’s where the bias comes from from, in my opinion. Big rich schools either have huge football programs, or rich donors with large endowments. Academic rigor or “reputation” really comes down to perception than anything else. It’s because these schools have the money to advertise to smart students. Good brand marketing means more applicants. More applicants mean selectivity. Smarter students create the perception that the school is “better.” But that’s not necessarily the case. That’s like saying GM makes better cars because only high quality drivers use them. That’s completely backwards.
In fact, local/regional universities DON’T have a poor reputation. I’ll give a couple of examples. Most employers hire locally and regionally. Their programs are centered around employers in the region. UNLV, for instance has a nationally prestigious Hotel Restaurant Management program. That’s because the university is right next to the Las Vegas Strip. It’s the same thing with UTSA, the school I went to. This school pioneered a degree program called “cyber security.” That degree program actually turned San Antonio into the largest cyber security tech hub next to the Pentagon.
Prestige is really a matter of perception. I never went anywhere prestigious, but my career hasn’t been affected by it.
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That’s good insight! Thank you.
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Hey everyone,
This post was made on its own thread. However, I was encouraged to update one of my existing threads so here we are right now.
Fortunately, nothing consequential is going to come out of my latest incident. I’m currently following up because I finally have the opportunity to do something that’s low stress for me should this upcoming interview go well for me despite graduating from a regional college. The position is a Clinical Research Coordinator position. However, it would come at the expense of being potentially underemployed in this case.
Does pivoting to Master’s level jobs look bad when someone has a Ph.D? I was told previously to not worry about overqualification so I’m not concerned about that.
I’m also doing this because everything that could go wrong with my Ph.D has gone wrong and more (low Master’s GPA, funding cuts, no publications, only one manuscript, worked on only one project at a time, developed multiple psychiatric conditions, visiting position going poorly, etc.).
With all of those details out of the way, I’ve been applying for positions with my Ph.D that may as well be an advanced Master’s degree at best. I recently got a conditional job offer for a psychology technician position in a federal prison and am about to interview for a clinical research coordinator position. The former position is one where I’m overqualified because they want someone with “18 credit hours of graduate experience” while I fit the qualifications for the clinical research coordinator position since I don’t have my Ph.D yet.
After my Ph.D, I really want to stick to being a clinical research coordinator (if I get it) given what I’ve developed over the course of the program and need to pivot to a lower stress job so I can avoid the stressors that led to my autistic burnout this year in the first place. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get any letters of recommendation from this SLAC either given how poorly its gone all throughout this academic year.
Would sticking to a clinical research coordinator position not look favorably to future employers if I ever look for a job in the future? Is there a chance I’d be overqualified if I went to another clinical research coordinator position in the future after my Ph.D is conferred? I’d like to know.
I’m also looking into Research Assistant positions or anything else with similar duties as a Clinical Research Coordinator.
It’s a little difficult to follow which job(s) you feel overqualified for. IM0 I would avoid the psych tech position in the fed pen. As for the others, you currently have a masters (don’t know what an “advanced masters” is and while some people use the fake “ABD” term (all but dissertation) there really is no such delineation.) Take the job where you can adequately manage your stress, because regardless of whether you feel it is being underemployed (it probably is not) it’s better than being unable to handle a higher stress job and then being unemployed. Get some experience under your belt and finish that doctorate. You can consider other opportunities later.
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The jobs where I’d feel overqualified are the clinical research coordinator (since it’s a Master’s at most) and the technician position (since it’s basically someone with half a Master’s degree they want). As for the term, “advanced Master’s,” I don’t mean that in the literal sense. I mostly mean that as far as my Ph.D experience goes it feels like an advanced Master’s degree. Not working on multiple projects at the same time, few technical skills, etc.
As awful as it sounds, I feel like I’m at where I was in my undergrad where I graduated with a less-than-stellar academic record and had an uphill battle to get in anywhere and only got into my Master’s and then Ph.D programs thanks to the help of the career coach my parents got for me to help get my foot in the door both times.
Regardless, it sounds like the lower stress job is something I should be pursuing for sure. I just need to get myself out of this hole I’m in right now since this past year has felt like the weight of everything I’ve done coming down on me.
Find a job that suits you and stop perseverating.
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Many professionals have degrees they don’t fully use. I worked at a government agency and 6 of our 8 paralegals were licensed attorneys but weren’t eligible for hire as attorneys as they didn’t have the required 2 years of experience working as a licensed attorney. They made more as paralegals at this agency (with really good benefits) than if they worked as attorneys by starting their own practices. When our agency closed, several got jobs with our contractors or affiliated businesses. You take the job you can get.
I can’t see how taking a research position would hurt you. You need to keep up with your career path, whether that be publishing, teaching as an adjunct while working a full time day job, attending conferences, applying for positions. You can’t sit back and hope opportunities will come to you.
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Spouse and I both have PhDs. Spouse has the kind of job that one might expect. I spent several years as a community college adjunct (only a masters required) and now teach classes for homeschoolers, which I could do with a BS. There isn’t a ton of prestige in the jobs that I’ve had, but I like the work. It doesn’t matter that I’m technically overqualified.
There are reasons to choose a job - it advances your career goals, it pays the bills, it looks like an interesting way to gain experience, etc. If you have jobs that are available and check some of those boxes, then pick one and take it. I know plenty of people who have taken jobs that they are overqualified for but that are a good match for their life priorities, whether it be income, work-life balance, schedule flexibility, lower stress, or other considerations.
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This is also a reply to @twoinanddone as well. I appreciate those examples you all gave.
It’s also an encouragement that I need to be more active as well. I was passive in undergrad and graduate school this whole time, I’ll admit. It doesn’t help that my mind operates in a super linear fashion and I want something where I can continuously do something linear.
Research assistant work seems like there’s enough repetition and not demanding as far as leadership goes that I’d be comfortable with it. At least that’s my impression. From what I’ve seen with clinical research coordinator positions as well, they strike me as similar to essentially being a graduate research assistant, which is something I’ve enjoyed. Reviewing literature and disseminating information, submitting IRB proposals, and similar things I like a lot. Main problem I have though is that I’ve only managed one research project at a time throughout my graduate career. I nearly did more this academic year, but my struggles with this visiting position at the SLAC and it being a full time gig pretty much meant no more research projects outside of my dissertation. It’d be one thing if I did well at this position and I could springboard a possible teaching career, but I don’t see that happening at all.
Mondoz, you need to actively participate in your therapy and in getting well in order to move ahead.
You seem to take great delight in finding all the reasons why a particular path is wrong for you, why you’d never succeed at something, why you failed in the past and why you are going to repeat those failures in the future.
I think your mental health team can help you move on from this destructive thinking (and to learn not to care about things like “being over-qualified”). But you have work to do.
There are many, many happy and successful people in the world who have Masters and Doctorates that are not required for the jobs they currently have. You can be one of them.
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They’ve suggested staying present focused and not so much future focused at this time. This is probably me just thinking aloud (and I’ll likely bring this up to my therapist next time I meet him this weekend), but I’m not sure whether its the future focus and fear of finding stable employment given my poor credentials that’s giving me anxiety or its the lack of present focus. Both possibly? I don’t know at this point.
As for the delight part, I don’t take delight in it. I’m trying to be realistic and all of this is a plea for help to get myself out of the hole I’m in right now and stay out of the hole. I’m not sure if things will get better until I manage to carve a path for myself where I can either use what I’ve learned right now or I find a way to expand on my strengths further by adding new skills.
Hopefully, this all makes sense.