2. Full-time doctoral students’ workload is equal to five full-time professional jobs with no salary
The mandates of being a doctoral student are growing. As a graduate researcher specializing in your field, your primary mandate is to conduct ethical and responsible research; however, society has started to expect more from you.
You need to be a part-time therapist and a full-time influencer. As your workload increases, you need to listen to and calm your colleagues. At the same time, you need to inform the general public about your research – your job is not limited anymore to publishing in academic journals and presenting your findings to a niche expert audience.
Academics no longer stay in the ivory tower. In this respect, I am very grateful for the public scholar program - it provides opportunities for PhD students to be present in various spaces and utilize their diverse skills to become public scholars.
New PhD earners are social media specialists as they keep up with their multiple active social media accounts every day. You need to excel in your communication skills to write regular blogs and present your research in numerous talks. In addition, you should be an organizer, moderator, and marketing specialist to promote your research-related events to have a greater engagement with the community.
Sometimes, you need to act as a journalist networking with local and national newspapers, editing articles, and writing opinion pieces about your specialized topic. Some days, you act as an idol dealing with interview requests after giving invited talks.
The requirements list is not even close to finishing: you need to prove that you are a perfect teacher. Having lots of teaching experience will support you in building your teaching dossier and delivering courses confidently. At the same time, you need to be a great team player to satisfy both your department and your students’ needs.
Finally, let’s not forget that you are still a full-time student. You need to finish your courses and submit your assignments on time. You need to continue your research work and write that dissertation down.
You need to do this work with a minimum income as no one talks about the elephant in the room of academia: the salaries of graduate student-researchers. But, then, you may consider writing funding and grant applications and cover letters for awards.
How many jobs did I say – but honestly, who’s counting? A PhD does not have time for calculating it.