I considered launching a website this month called “Unsolicited Advice.” The “About Us” section would read: Unsolicited Advice is a chronicle of the myriad of unsought after tips, ideas, opinions, and suggestions people offer up regarding not-their-own future. This site is a forum for examining the tenability of the claims. More specifically, it would be documenting the journey of one particular post-graduate student [yours truly] from graduation to employment. Comments are welcome.
The impetus for this site was the fascinating amount of rather useless unsolicited advice I have received since graduating from graduate school. Mind you, dear readers, I have been a proud M.A. recipient for an apparently gasp-worthy two weeks. Before I could even take a moment to exhale from the painful amount of work that went into receiving that degree (not to mention, concurrently interning and doing research), I was verbally bludgeoned by friends, family, and acquaintances.
Those who were succinct and clear about my direction told me I should write a book, open a tattoo removal business, consult to pharmaceutical companies regarding clinical trials, be a clinical psychologist, and apply to be a notary. Then there were the bizarrely nebulous suggestions that proved to be the most useless such as: work for a nonprofit, narrow down my research interests, expand my interests, publish something, go out on my own, and go volunteer somewhere. By and large, the most common piece of unsolicited advice I received was, “You should go back to school. With the economy the way it is right now, it’s a good time to be in school. Ride it out.” These individuals seem to ignore the fact that I just finished doing exactly that.
The odd part of all this is not the ineffectual advice. The advice itself is irrelevant. I think any grad student can attest to being the recipient of unwarranted career recommendations that tend to be immaterial to your end goal. The business people tell you to get out of academia, the academics tell you to get more research experience, the researchers tell you to get more published, and your mom tells you to get some sleep. What is relevant is why people seem to be soliciting advice. Is there an implication that those who finish graduate school without a job are directionless? That we are wandering aimlessly in unemployment? That we are acting as leeches on the economy? I am not sure.
It is amazing to me, though, how few unsolicited advice-givers have stopped to ask me what my degree is actually in or why I went to graduate school in the first place. These bits and pieces of information just might be relevant…in the meantime, I am off to research becoming a notary…
