The Philosopher Realtor

Someone sent me this column by Barry Rubin about education and careers.

I’ve recently made the acquaintance of a young man who has a problem. He is 28 years old; smart, of good moral character, and willing to work hard at part-time jobs. He does not expect anyone else, including the government, to support him. Yet he is puzzled and increasingly bitter that he cannot make a good living.

What’s his difficulty? It’s not the economy (in this specific case) but the fact that he has a degree in linguistics and is now studying Oriental philosophy at a fine university. His case is not altogether typical, but is immensely revealing.

Here’s the secret: He cannot make a living because the market for people with degrees in linguistics and in Oriental philosophy is limited. He should have known that. Someone should have told him that. The calculation of practicality should have been made. It wasn’t.

When I read this, I could not help but think of myself decades ago.  When I began college, I planned to be an English major.  Then, my first semester, I took a philosophy class - and fell in love.  I felt as if philosophy was the discipline I'd been waiting for all my life to study.  Thus, study it I did - all the way into a PhD program in graduate school.

What I did not contemplate greatly, however, was what I would do with my degree when I finished.  I assumed I'd teach...  But, as time passed, I realized that I would have to have my dissertation totally completed to secure that teaching job, unlike generations of philosophy professors who had come before me.  The thought of spending years holed up in my office, typing away... combined with the fact that I (sadly) became much more disillusioned with the life of a university professor caused me to change course.  There I was; armed with a thorough understanding of metaphysics, philosophy of language, logic - and, perhaps with the exception of good logic skills, woefully unprepared for the Real World.

I studied what I wanted to study and what I loved.  Yet, no one had ever drummed into my head that what I loved might not well prepare me for a career and supporting myself (except, perhaps, for my poor mother who kept on telling me "go to law school!" instead of Philosophy Professor School).

Anyway.  I learned my lesson.  I went out, battled my way with the common refrain "you have no experience" combined with "you won't stay around for this job with your education" - then finally found something.  I became a Realtor, a career and lifestyle that has served me well, until the recent crash of the last half decade.

If I had it to do over again, would I do it differently?  Some of it - you bet!  An older and wiser me would have made many different life choices.  When talking to young people, I'd give them Barry Rubin's advice:

Get a useful education, a job, and a hobby in that order. And don’t expect the hardworking people, who have had to make compromises in their own lives, to pay for you to do whatever you want.

The more we have a society of responsibility for ourselves - combined with a useful education - the better we all will be.

Comments

[John Pepple]

If I were doing it all over, I'd try to master two foreign languages, one European and one Asian. Doing so would have kept me in the humanities at the same time that it gave me good job prospects.

[J. Reed Anderson]

I went to college late. Got a degree in English, minor in philosophy, Honors Program graduate. What I learned from college is never listen to someone who's tenured, and who's last real job was in high school flipping burgers--maybe. Am I unhappy that I received a mediocre education at a state university? Not really. Because I learned how to educate myself using research. But I made one hell of an investment following career advice given by folks who were and always had been government employees.
My opinion, formed not too long after I graduated and was framing houses in the Cities, and barely scraping by (sometimes, in the winter, on welfare) is to eliminate all loans and grants and watch the cost of education fall. Then oriental linguists wouldn't have to worry about finding a $60K or $80K a year job just to afford minimum repayment.

[jammen]

Hey Peg, do you still be that Darwinism is a tautology?

[Peg]

I'm not sure to what you refer. I'd need more clarification to answer.