I have been reading these forums for a long time even though it kinda hurts. I am in the same boat as many here in that I have a PHD (performing arts) that was conferred late 2013. I have been unable to find stable work since then despite applying for everything I can
All the jobs here (Australia) go to people with 10yrs of experience or some internal candidate. I couldnt pillage my PhD for articles becsuse of ethical constraints and I got only sporadic tutoring work throughout my study. I honestly dont know what to do anymore and am in a very dark place. I have been unemployed since february and lining up for welfare with my phd in my back pocket is humiliating in the extreeme. Honestly dont k ow what to do.

Aw BTD, I feel your pain. I'm still looking for work too, and I finished 11 months ago. Some entry level jobs have some pretty high reqirements, pretty much short of asking us to eradicate world hunger/poverty, initiate world peace, perform open heart surgery by the age of three using nothing but a ball point pen, and have a reference from the queen...and even then it goes to an already chosen internal candidate. Annoying is not the word.
I've really not added anything to alleviate your frustration here :/..sorry about that. Just know you're not alone. I personally am considering retraining in something completely different now. Reevaluating my options. A whole year of job hunting has put a big festering dent in my confidence. I want out.

PhDefault & BTD,

It's horrible isn't it? The number of applications you send out to consistently get rejected before the interview stage. Or, if you make it to the interview stage, you miss out because a candidate has 'more experience than you.'

BTD, it sounds as though the main problem you might be running into is a lack of direction or focus. One of the things I've been told repeatedly is that I need to know what I want to do before I apply for a role, as opposed to applying to anything and everything I think I could be good at. That means I apply for maybe 5-10 jobs a month if that, and spend large portions of my energy working on pro-bono consultancy work that *might* lead to a job or opportunity. Networking, which really sucks, is slowly starting to help.

BTD, Have you joined an industry organisation in the industry you want to work in? Do you know what industry you want to work in? How is your LinkedIn profile? An industry organisation that I pay membership for offers a graduate traineeship program each year to place graduates in companies. I applied this year and made the final round, so hopefully something will come from it (will keep you posted). In the meantime, I joined a number of the Linkedin groups as part of the organisation, and was able to take on a pro-bono consultancy gig that had popped up, which has given me more experience in doing applied social research, and might be the step I need to get something that's paid, or at least a good recommendation.

I know it's hard when you're on welfare, but have you tried some volunteer work to give yourself something to look forward to? You mentioned performing arts, are the there local theatres or music ensembles you could join? I know you need money and a stable living, but sometimes volunteering can be a gate way into a job, or help you network with the right people.

Hey awsoci

Horrible is probably too kind a word. A good range of expletives would cover it better. I woke up to ANOTHER rejection email today with the generic "other candidates more closely match the requirement to the vacancy" reason. I've applied to so many posts now, that I can't even remember what this particular job was! I don't have it in me right now to look up what the job was (I keep a copy of all applications I send off on my laptop)....

Isn't it really patronising when they say, "oh but you should be proud of yourself that you got short listed to this stage or that stage", it's like I'd be prouder if you'd freaking employ me instead!

All these rejections had better be building character. Because at the moment all it is building is anger, disappointment, resentment, and frustration.

PhDefault,

Ugh, those are the worst. I had one the other week, two actually (you won't believe this!).

The first one was a personalised thank you for attending the interview for a role I had applied for back in September but that I was not chosen.

I was never invited to attend an interview for this role.

This was followed by a second, generic email saying that my application had been unsuccessful for consideration.

HR messed up and it made me so angry that I had received that first email. Luckily my partner talked me out of responding, but I couldn't believe it.

You know what really grinds my gears? When applications request a resume, and then ask for a CV in brackets. Those are two separate things! My resume would be tailored specifically, but my CV is four pages long. And then asking to address the selection criteria, but no indication as to how they would like this done, or how many pages it should be, or whether it should be done in the cover letter.

I was reading somewhere that apparently a number of HR recruiters will turn down CVS and Resumes that use special formatting, such as boxes or aren't sent as a word document because they have to reformat it. It makes me wonder how many rejections I have received have been the result of this, as I send my applications via PDF (because it looks more professional!) and use invisible boxes for clean lines and formatting. And then I think, well don't list PDF as an option for submission, or how about stating requirements for CV/Resume formatting to suit your systems.

Gah!

Oh noo!! The immense unprofessionalism of some institutes/companies makes me wonder how they got as far as they have. I'd be angry too. It's a good thing your partner was there to support you.

I'll be honest with you, I really had no idea that a CV/resume had any difference. I just googled it. In the UK generally CVs are used for applications, but yeah they really should specify which of the two they want, how odd! :/

I've met some real nutters too, this 11 months. A few months back, I got reprimanded by a CEO of a company for being "unprofessional" and for "not being able to communicate adequately" OVER EMAIL!?...and I got this long reply back at how they expect members of their company to have these qualities...!! I was like WTF??!! All I did was ask if there were any vacancies going recently, and please find attached my CV and cover letter...I couldn't believe the reply!! I didn't have anyone around to stop me from retaliating, and I went into a full-on angry mode reply saying I'm amazed at the kind of response I got for simply enquiring about possible vacancies, and that if this is the way you speak to potential applicants, then I'm worried at the kind of treatment you give your employees!! Bridge fully burned on that one. Shouldn't have done it, but it felt good.

Another one, which I still can't quite understand is I went for an interview, and the guy interviewing me kept on saying "but you'll find this job boring!", looking really worried at me, and he'd huff and puff and hold his head in his hands...I wasn't quite sure how to react!

I thought I should share my experience here. Not having much luck with other applications and nearing the end of my PhD with a young family and needing money I leapt at the opportunity when I was offered a lectureship with a top Australian uni with a campus in Asia. I had a contract for 5 years and to be honest I loved the work. I was able to flex my wings as an academic, get grants, get projects going and was living the dream having skipped the 'post-doc' rung of the ladder. After two years though the hectic asian lifestyle so foreign to the one my family was used to started to wear on us. The traffic, smog and pollution was the final straw. I realised during this time that was I was also missing was mentorship. Whilst I was protected somewhat by working for a global uni these resources weren't necessarily directly on hand. I thought if I kept going my research could seriously take a wrong tack with no guidance. So we returned home. Now with a long string of publications, 2 years lectureship experience and lots of grants I still can't get a job! So... my point is - if you can put up with a difficult lifestyle and are able to find your feet with no guidance then there are LOTS of jobs going in Asia. I don't regret my decision and am still happily putting out all the papers that arose from my time there but it was quite a sacrifice. Academia is taking a scary turn over there (there were 25 more global universities going in over the next few years in the country I was in) and internationally (saw 950 PhD scholarships offered at Oxford the other day but no post-doc funding). I'd like to see a better post-phd path offered by universities/governments that encourages people to step outside the departments where they started but still get some guidance.Hope this helps.

950 PhD Studentships with no post-doc route?

That shows for sure that PhD Studentships are a cheap labour resource for academia and sponsoring industries.

Ian

One of my friends who also got great difficulty finding a job after her PhD said to me "I wouldn't recommend academia as a proper career choice to anyone - it's a bit like the media or film industry - there are far too few jobs for so many people and it seems to come down more to who you know and not what you know or can do. It far too difficult to get in unless you know someone". I have to agree, no proper career structure.

Hello all,
I guess my story would make some of you abandon all hope.
In March 2015 it will be four years since I finished my PhD. Needless to say, I haven't managed to secure an academic job, otherwise I'd probably be too busy to comment on sites like this. For the past year I have been totally unemployed. In the first three years I remained attached to a university, working in the uni library in a kind of clerical position. It was a part-time job that did not pay much, but at least gave me some benefits, for example, free access to databases and journal articles, which when you lack institutional affiliations it's a good advantage provided that you want to remain "active", that is publishing and embarking on research plans on your own and without funding.
I haven't applied for "everything". I have been rather selective and tailored my CV and cover letter according to the job's specifications. However, I have received 72 rejections since I decided to record them.
Back in the beginning of my PhD, I went once to one of those career workshops aimed at guiding you to get a job in the academic market. At that time, I was unemployed with a tuition fees-only scholarship and in desperate need of a job, because my wife was also looking for a job and we lived in a pretty expensive city. So I had applied for a lot of menial jobs, things I could have done while working on my PhD. I must have sent over 100 applications. When I pointed that out to the workshop trainer (who also happened to have a PhD), she was rather dismissive, as if I had forced her to veer from her main topic. “Nobody sends 100 applications”, she stated matter-of-factly. So, when I started applying for academic jobs, I decided to make a note of every application, to prove her wrong, I guess.
(To be continued)

Part II
As I said, I have had more than seventy rejections, and I am only counting the emails and letters from those potential employers, which make the effort to let you know. Sometimes months pass and you never hear from them. With this awful record, I have only received three invitations for interviews. In two of these, the jobs went to candidates that were under qualified. One was for a post-doc position, but it was given to an MPhil graduate. The other, an early-career position in an American University, was given to a candidate who, by the time she started her job, had not had her Viva yet. Funny enough, they were looking for a PhD graduate, media experience (I worked as a journalist for 10 years before starting my PhD), experience working with ethnic migrants (which my research dealt with) and fluency in three languages, which I had, nothing extraordinary (my native language is Spanish, my wife is Portuguese, I had lived in the UK for more than six years at the time). So ONE year after the interview, they informed me that I would not be considered for the position. On the university webpage they announced the new member of staff, who as I said had not finished her PhD at that time, would probably know Spanish from a Latino heritage, but in her CV there were not predictable links with Portuguese, but of course, she was an American citizen, which made the hiring process easier for the university since they would not have to go through all the paperwork required for sponsoring a green card.
I was based in the UK, but I applied for positions in other European countries (Spain, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Germany) and overseas (Canada, USA, Australia). I have managed to publish three articles in academic journals, a book chapter in and edited book, with two other coming up this 2015 from prestigious academic publishers (Palgrave Macmillan) and keep working on other articles and research proposals, and whenever possible (in terms of logistics) I try to go to conferences and present papers.
I have not abandoned the idea of getting a job though. A good friend of mine told me she sent 68 applications before getting her current job in a very good American university, I always told her I was going to surpass that number.
So, here I am. I also write fiction and have published some books. In these unemployed years, I have finished a collection of short stories, currently being evaluated by a publisher, so I always think that all this hassle would count as research and live-experiences for literature. I wish I could tell a more rewarding tale of good luck and success, but as some of you have already narrated, it’s a jungle out there. Keep the faith.

Got to hand it to you for this line. That's quite an ordeal you've been through, yet you're still able to stay positive. Very commendable.

In response to idawo's/Doc Insanity post (Part I):

It is, really, about who you know and I am (unfortunately) probably that similar Mphil candidate you spoke of.

In December I was offered a one-year contract for a level A academic position at the university where I completed my PhD. I had only just received my PhD examination reports less than a week prior to being offered the role, and was away doing some pro-bono research consulting to help boost my CV/experience in making a transition to industry.

I didn't plan on staying in Academia and had not been actively searching for academic jobs. Rather, I had made a tentative decision to move into industry, and was beginning the long process regarding this. At the end of November, I received my examination reports, 2 months earlier than I had expected that were passed with no changes/passed very minor changes. I had been lecturing/unit coordinating as a sessional, and I was asked to submit a CV to be considered for a teaching contract. So I did, not expecting much, my head was elsewhere, getting ready to conduct interviews for the consultancy gig. Three days later, I got a phone call asking me if I wanted the job.

I never interviewed, nor were my references checked. Mostly, because I was already working in the department as a sessional, it was I suppose, a promotion. It was not an advertised position either.

I didn't have my PhD yet, but I had passed. I only had two publications under my belt (only one of which would be considered as the other was in an undergraduate journal), and a couple of conferences, but nothing major. The only thing I had that would perhaps be different, is the high level of research projects I had completed for not-for-profits as pro-bono consultancies, and engagement with the community in being a member or board member of some organisations. While not academic regarding the level of theorisation, they did count as practical experience.

Part II

The reality is I got the job because my thesis supervisor put in a good word for me. It’s mostly teaching based, and I would be teaching units that I had already taught/taught in as a sessional. A couple of academics in my department were leaving, and so a space opened up.

But I have this nagging sensation of guilt, like I haven’t put in my dues for PhD unemployment while so many others are struggling to scrape by. My heart breaks when I read these unemployment posts, because I can’t imagine the frustration and the sense of worthlessness you are feeling. I feel guilty because I don’t have much of a publication record or ‘presence’ in Academia. I’m quite introverted and struggle with putting myself out there.

I feel guilty because at the end of the day, while I know I have worked hard with what I have achieved so far, I feel as though things have been handed to me while others struggle to even get a look for an opportunity.

This doesn’t make me feel good in the slightest. It makes me doubt myself even more.

I’m scared sh*tless, because while I know what I’m doing teaching wise, everything else I haven’t got a clue. I don’t know the first thing about attracting grant/funding. I know I need to publish, so I’m working on journal articles from my thesis and will be co-authoring a piece based on the most recent collaboration I did, but I still feel lost.

I’ll be honest and say I don’t feel as though I deserve this job, but I’m going to try my hardest to make something out of the year I’ve been given. I’m keeping a foot in the not-for-profit/industry sector because Academia is fickle and definitely not a chosen career path.

I can 100% support the statement that it is, all about who you know and not what you can do.

Hi fellas.

Same sh*t here. I came to the conclusion that it's time to get more rational.

They always say: "Oh c'mon dude don't give up, all problems are in yourself, keep trying and you will find what you want or even better ..." and all such rubbish.

This is a common misconception. We are scientists, we gotta think rational. If there is such a tremendous, ridiculous and totally senseless lack of positions and a reciprocal number of candidates -- what's the deal after all? It's like if you did some experiment which hopelessly didn't show the result you desire and you were trying to "process" the data in all possible ways to show correlation while there is none. It's all bullsh*t like from those funny pastors and motivation speakers.

This is frankly and honestly just time waste, stress and loss of self-confidence. I decided to just stop f*cking j*rking off and looking for a job which I never ever get.

In this world, there is one and only way to land a good job (at least in academia) -- through bed ... ooops ... relations. Ask your PI or other connections, only they can promote you. If you found a not so good PI like I did, well, pull yourself together, ask anyway. Or stay at home and whine.

Regards,
Andrew