Posted By BillHeise on July 10, 2010

I found this on the the Internet today. It’s a question to Michael Berube, future President of the MLA (the organization for bigwigs in language and literature) and author of a book about the sad, sad state of the job market, Employment of English, about whether he or she should go to graduate school or look for another profession. Berube had written that the situation looked bleak for employment in 1997. In 2010, it looks positively abominable.

Several respondents told the student that grad school is an important and thought-provoking exercise, and advised him/her to go. That is in line with my experience with graduate students giving other potential graduate students advice.

I have replied to this thread, saying that his/her options are not limited to newspaper work, lawyering, and grad school. I pointed him back here for more detailed instructions as to how I got over my grad school experience.

Anyway, if anyone is interested, here’s my initial response to a student being asked about whether he should go to graduate school or should pay off his enormous ($250K) debt. My academically-trained colleagues gave him the advice to try graduate school. I had a different response.

• My Letter to A Hopelessly In Debt Student

And here’s some advice on how I got started in the world of business.

• Business Advice

And more importantly, here’s what I learned in business that I could have never learned in academia:

• Tales Told Out of School

My view is a different one. Although I learned long ago that nobody listens to me, I keep trying anyway.

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