One of the blessings, and the curses, of the United States education system as it now exists is that we are by most metrics a very educated society. According to the World Population Review somewhere around 2% of the US population holds a terminal degree in their field, by their counting putting us behind only Slovenia, Switzerland and Luxembourg in this highly educated population percentage. In some ways this can be viewed as a good thing, because having a well educated populace is good, right? Well... yes and no. Having a PhD can be very useful in the private sector in some fields, largely the hard sciences, but for many other fields of study a PhD is mostly good for teaching other people in that field who are also looking to get a PhD, in a way that some have compared to a Ponzi Scheme with debatably some justification. But regardless our colleges and universities continue to punch out new doctorate holders at a furious pace in a dizzying array of fields, and with only a limited number of available schools at which to teach this has led to something of a log jam of PhD holders with nowhere to actually use their PhD.
To some this is just too much; they worked for that degree, they earned that degree, in many cases their educational institution promised them (implicitly or otherwise) that they'd be able to find employment with this degree! A good high paying job is their right!!
A PhD should guarantee a stable job after graduation.
— Ashley Ruba, PhD (@ashleyruba_phd) January 9, 2024
A decade of post-secondary education should teach you fundamental job search skills.
A degree conferred to < 2% of the world's population should lead to a six-figure salary.
Should it be guaranteed though? By whom should they be guaranteed a job? Businesses? Institutes of higher learning? Perhaps an argument can be made that the school that led a person on thinking that a degree in Gender Studies would be their ticket to (at least) the middle class could employ them once they're out, but we all know that isn't going to happen. Once you're done most colleges and universities largely wash their hands of you, outside of a periodic solicitation for donations of course. But none of this was anything that a Doctoral student couldn't have figured out themself... after all as someone who's looking to earn a PhD you'd think being able to do basic jobs market research would be a given. Apparently not.
I have a stable job, thank you very much
— Cave Beater, PhD (@cavebeater) January 10, 2024
Is this a joke?
— Meara (@MillennialOther) January 10, 2024
Tell me you don't understand supply and demand...
— Kieran Eleison (@KieranEleison) January 10, 2024
Recommended
Yes, we can take it as a given that Dr. Ruba doesn't have her degree in economics it seems. Her degree, in fact, seems to be in Developmental Psychology and she appears to be trying to market herself as some sort of self-help guru for academics who are trying to transition to a non-academic environment. Hopefully her career advice doesn't revolve around telling people that they're being treated unjustly through no fault of their own, right?
Hahahahaha. Not unless your area of study is useful, Jack. If you study something because you love it, great. Accept you may not make much. If you study something that will make money; that’s also your choice. There’s a reason I didn’t story history as much as I love it.
— 5% NaCl (Concentrated Electrolytes) (@TwoRulesOfWar) January 10, 2024
Because of all the real-world experience in an actual labor market it represents?
— Moves Product (@tomabella) January 10, 2024
There are 2 guarantees in life. Neither require a PhD.
— Super Jer Deluxe, Bemused Xer (@BakoJer) January 10, 2024
The only difference it makes is that if you have a PhD you get to have 'Dr.' on your gravestone if you want, really.
We are the < 2%!
— Les Clay (@LesClay) January 10, 2024
Demands six-figure salary.
More than 2.5K likes.
I got my PharmD in mid-life for the express reason that there were several well-paying career paths that would be available when I was done…and there were. Many, if not most, PhD candidates are doing it so that someone will call them “doctor.”
— SinNombre (@SinNomb54107159) January 10, 2024
Not really. Having a degree shouldn't guarantee nothing. Its entirely up to you to make sure there is valid employment and worth the investment, not on us.
— Redneck Rogue Elf🐿 (@TheRogue_Elf) January 10, 2024
This is treading dangerously close than expecting people to take personal responsibility for their choices and actions, something that's simply not done these days. Very déclassé.
Best I can do is “PhD” Twitter handle https://t.co/KMaG4A6W8R pic.twitter.com/Iu64SrZtu1
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 10, 2024
A right that Ashley Ruba, PhD, seems to have happily accepted the use of.
No one… and I mean NO ONE needs another gender studies or culture awareness PhD. They are a zero value add to any business and it’s not marketable skill outside of academia. https://t.co/1Lvz1OUN43
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) January 10, 2024
Dwelling on "Should" is the first mile marker on the road to disappointment https://t.co/dfVZVv6gY8
— Andrew Donaldson (@four4thefire) January 10, 2024
Not if your PhD did not confer any marketable or useful skills and knowledge. No one is obliged to pay you for your life choices, no matter how expensive or how long it took you. https://t.co/efmcNWVrPe
— Jon 🔬 (@JonnyMicro) January 10, 2024
There's a reason that the higher you go up the academic food chain you go the more likely you are to find a high percentage of the degree holders to hold Socialistic or downright Communistic sympathies (we say based on observation, don't ask us to back this claim up with statistics). You work and slave to finish your schooling and dissertation through the majority of your youth only to finally graduate and find out that your plumber is making more a year than you. It's certain to chafe.
Again, it's important for a society to have an educated population and no one should. There's a reason that many of the major Communist regimes have begun their reign with the mass deportation into exile and/or straight up slaughter of the intellectual classes... people with more educations are, ideally, trained to ask more questions and are often the people coming up with the concepts that will shape the economy in the future. This is in an ideal scenario, of course, because in our modern age it seems like in America the Universities are putting out fewer in the way of Milton Friedman's or B.F. Skinner and more in the way of... well, Dr. Ruba here.
But the idea that anyone should be guaranteed a job simply because they managed to get their dissertation passed through a doctoral committee is silly on its face. You'd Dr. Ashley Ruba, PhD would have learned that while she was earning that degree of hers, but apparently not.
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