By Jennifer Polk. What did you hope for in terms

By Jennifer Polk. What did you hope for in terms of employment as you completed your PhD?  
Like many PhDs in the Humanities, I initially hoped for a full-time, tenure-track professorship at a university. I was actively on the job market from 2006-2010, but probably applied to only 50-60 schools total (much less than others). Although we were quasi-warned in graduate school about the surfeit of humanities PhDs and dearth of full-time positions, I kept my hopes up at some level. We kept hearing about those “older professors who’ll be retiring soon,” though in hindsight I was too idealistic and gave the university system too much credit in thinking my career ambition would work. More...