The academic job market has become a lottery. More PhDs graduate than tenure-track positions exist, so universities hire cheaper adjuncts instead. The speaker has helped hundreds find academic jobs anyway, but warns PhDs to plan strategically and keep options beyond academia.
A tenure track isn't a track, it's a lottery. The old path was clear PhD to Assistant professor to tenure. But today there are way more people who hold doctorates than there are tenure track positions available, and universities are increasingly hiring adjuncts over full time positions. Now, I don't want to make this sound impossible. We've helped hundreds of people land academic positions. But it is important to recognize the reality of the situation right now so that you can strategize effectively and maybe not limit yourself to academia. The pandemic may have made things worse, but this crisis actually started decades ago when universities realized that it would be a lot more profitable to rely on contracted labor than full time tenured faculty. Too many PhDs and people with doctorates teach one adjunct class after another, hoping that they'll get a full time position, but the pay is unsustainable and the work is invisible.
