What was Mr. ABD getting his doctorate in? Translators for technical documents are (relatively) highly paid. It takes knowing both the material and the language, lest the document read like assembly instructions from IKEA.
ABD's German is semifunctional, not fluent. Teaching English might work, but I don't think translating's an option.
and a vague feeling that I should be able to find some way of making enough to survive for the next year or so doing English tutoring, editing, test prep stuff.
I don't know that you'll find the big picture answer before actually living the answer quoted above from the OP. In my mind, life is like Plinko from The Price Is Right, and you piece together small decisions as you go that get more and more like where you'd like to be. No one decision is crucial, and they all add up over time to create direction.
Excepting the Germany stuff, I was in a similar situation. I just asked around until I found a job doing research and kind of ran from there.
In my mind, life is like Plinko from The Price Is Right, and you piece together small decisions as you go that get more and more like where you'd like to be. No one decision is crucial, and they all add up over time to create direction.
Yet, nevertheless, results are normally distributed.
Move to Berlin. Nobody works there.
Are they? What is the sample space?
Are they? What is the sample space?
I don't even understand the second question, but I do know that Plinko boards are essentially Galton boxes with prizes, and that's the basis of my claim.
I don't even understand the second question, but I do know that Plinko boards are essentially Galton boxes with prizes, and that's the basis of my claim.
I thought you were saying outcomes in life are normally distributed.
"[D]oing English tutoring, editing, test prep stuff" typically requires a level of hustling and self-starting that ABD hasn't found to be one of his strengths.
Is this from personal information? Because not being able to complete a PhD is a completely different thing than cobbling together a living from three or four part-time jobs.
"[D]oing English tutoring, editing, test prep stuff" typically requires a level of hustling and self-starting that ABD hasn't found to be one of his strengths.
Will this be true in Frankfurt? In Berlin there were lots of English schools which seem to suggest that one must not hustle for clients (though I'm sure the work itself still requires a lot of energy).
You know who else was young, unemployed and directionless in Germany? Just saying.
15: the correspondent is Christopher Isherwood!
17: How much does ABD know about railroads?
Why is everybody assuming ABD is male? Can ABD give a fuller picture of zir skills and educational background.
Take the work nobody wants in a rapidly-changing field. That's where an ability to quickly figure out what's going on will yield the greatest advantage.
Just as a general matter, I wouldn't be so sure that you don't have employable skills. Academics are usually over-focused on training and credentialing. I'm not trying to say that finding a job will be easy, though, particularly in Germany, just saying that failing to have completed Life Path A needn't mean "OMG I will never be able to do anything but be a busboy," which is how it can look from inside the Ph.D. program.
I know a guy who dropped out of grad school and wandered to Mozambique. Then he hooked up a job with an oil company over there, became an executive, went back and got an MBA, and is now back in Africa and rich. So you could try that.
Law school and maybe management consulting will probably welcome you with open arms, depending on your background. Then they'll fuck you over, but they'd be initially welcoming.
How important is being in Germany? It seems like it would be significantly more difficult to start over there, particularly without total fluency, than in the USA (or wherever home is).
"[D]oing English tutoring, editing, test prep stuff" typically requires a level of hustling and self-starting that ABD hasn't found to be one of his strengths.
KR doesn't know me personally (I don't think?), but is absolutely right about this. It's even true at its most literal--simply getting out of bed is often the biggest stumbling block, and I've probably lost about 2.5 days of every week to this over the past few years (I plan to use the power of Indian outsourcing to buy professional morning wake-up calls, but haven't yet set that into motion.) This is definitely the biggest problem with my current non-plan. OTOH, there's a test-prep company in commutable Frankfurt that offers $50/hr for GMAT tutoring (though that's one of the few tests I haven't yet taken).
KR's suggestion seems wise. I also want to be very alienated from my work-product, which would also recommend bartending or something of the sort. I'm actually in Heidelberg, but it also has a ton of English schools. The problem with finding a real job is it would require me to regularize my immigration status--I was on a 6-month educational visa, but haven't done any legwork to prepare things for my return. (US citizens can visit for 90 days at a time.)
LB is right that I couldn't do translating, not yet anyway. To get a sense of where I'm at--I'm reading Cornelia Funke's YA "Inkheart" in the original right now ('Tintenherz'), and while I don't need a dictionary, it's slow, and many words I only get from context.
BA econ, ABD politics (but in p-theory, and my econ was ages ago, so I don't have any statistical jujitsu). More comfortable with computers than most--been using Linux for two years, at one point built and resold systems--but no programming or even real scripting skills.
(No real point of being anon...)
I had a bit of stats and that's what either saved me or kept me from moving on to become a successful lawyer. The answer depends on what mood you catch me in.
23 -- It actually sounds like you're in good shape for a lot of things, except for the getting out of bed problem (a problem which I've shared at various life stages). I guess the big question is what do you want to do. Hang around in Germany with free time but without earning a lot of money? Start down the path towards a more formally professional career? Start a business doing something? Found a right wing militia group and political party?
Stop in Amsterdam on the way to Frankfurt. Go to a coffeeshop. Purchase some psychedelic mushrooms. Go to a nice park and trip you balls off. Figure out your place in the universe.
After that, you can work on finding a career.
19: ABD is, in fact, male, but good point.
How important is being in Germany? It seems like it would be significantly more difficult to start over there, particularly without total fluency, than in the USA (or wherever home is).
This is true, and a real consideration. My reasons for staying are:
1. I already have a bit of a social network there--nice apartment, roommates, etc.;
2. Learning the language gives me a nice, mid-range project that can be built up through lots of different daily steps;
3. There's a certain pleasure to Being Somewhere Different. I also feel the burden of my past a little less there--partly for the reasons in 20/22, partly because it just feels 'away'. Plus, I can't -not- think about politics, culture, etc., and I'm not yet familiar enough with German/Euro politics to feel completely hopeless about it all (vs. the US).
4. Oh, also, I love how people ride bikes everywhere, and there's no need to own a car.
Against that, of course, it *is* harder than it would be in, say, NYC, where most of my friends are. But I spent 6 years there, and feel like I'd want to move even if I stayed in the US--maybe somewhere warm, like San Diego, since I hate cold weather. (Yes, I know Germany is not very good w.r.t. weather.)
This might sound a little dorky, but it's the one useful thing I've ever learned from career counseling: start jotting down notes about things you have liked doing and/or that demonstrate a particular skill. It could be from work experience, school at any level, volunteering, hobbies, or anything else (for me, this includes tutoring my nieces). Don't start from, "what marketable skills do I have?" but from, "I found learning about Z interesting at that otherwise crappy internship" or "people in my classes told me my discussion comments helped clarify things for them."
One very concrete way to use this is in a job interview, so that instead of saying, "I'm great at X" or "I'm passionate about doing Y," you can tell a story that demonstrates it (the old "show don't tell" maxim).
Another outcome can be seeing what themes/skills/interests show up. I have no formal background in training, but once I started writing things down, I could see that going all the way back to high school most of my jobs and volunteer stints have included some training element, which makes me a little more confident to claim that I could do such a thing professionally.
27: My first thought was "tune in, turn on, drop out", but I feared it might seem glib. Abe speaks the truth!
If x. trapnel can stomach it, he should send a gussied-up resume to one of the SAP-implementation sweatshops (e.g. Accenture).
& I guess the big question is what do you want to do.
Yes, this sounds right. Part of the problem is that what seems the easiest pathway to Life Security would be finance/consulting of some kind, but that's a big DO NOT WANT.
27, 30: as a matter of fact, I did sublet out my HD room for a week beyond my return to Germany, so traipsing around Europe for a bit is already on the menu, so to speak. Feel free to offer more detailed suggestions along these lines, and/or couches to crash on...
(I was thinking I should check out Zurich, and I do have a friend in Utrecht, as well as a sister in Innsbruck.)
One very concrete way to use this is in a job interview, so that instead of saying, "I'm great at X" or "I'm passionate about doing Y," you can tell a story that demonstrates it (the old "show don't tell" maxim).
I'm passionate about showing.
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Boy, Tim Burke has been really hitting 'em out of the park lately: http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/2010/09/28/viruses-assassination-arming-insurgents-how-could-that-go-wrong/
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No, Christopher Ischerwood.
Hitler was never young and directionless in Berlin - Vienna and Munich, more like. Berlin came later when he was neither, although he never liked the city much and stayed away as much as he could.
Munich is much nicer than Berlin, says the guy who spent 48 hours in both.
38: I know, I was talking about UNG.
39 gets it exactly right. Also the beer is better.
This wasn't quite the original question, but I think that it's important to know one's own weaknesses-- obsessives should recognize that tidying again won't help, and drifters should recognize that more improvising will not magically clarify things this time.
As another PhD dropout (and depressive flake), I would not recommend the freelance tutoring path for the faint of heart.
My own plan for forging a path back to normal adult employment involves a 1-year teacher certification program in a field that my degrees are not in. It will require taking classes full-time (most of them actual college classes in the field, some teacher-training and ed classes), and I plan to schedule early morning classes every day. I'm already taking classes part-time this semester. Hopefully, that will put me in a position to both develop the basic life skills required to be a competent and reliable professional (or "bourgeois drone," per taste), while having fairly decent job prospects at the end.
I was on a 6-month educational visa, but haven't done any legwork to prepare things for my return. (US citizens can visit for 90 days at a time.)
But isn't it still the case that U.S. citizens can enter the country as a regular tourist, and then get the Arbeitserlaubnis later, with help from the employer? I'm more worried about your prospects for getting employment as a tutor, though. I don't know what it's like in the Frankfurt area, but in Berlin (and Munich and Hamburg to an extent) it's way harder to snag that kind of a job than it used to be.
Depending on your financial needs and your stomach for working under the table, you might want to consider keeping student status. Apply to the university at Frankfurt (or Heidelberg or Mainz or wherever) to one of the fields with no numerus clausus, and then you can get a student visa and cheaper health insurance. You are automatically legally allowed to work a certain number of hours per week at a Studentenjob, and then can make up the rest of your income needs with Schwarzarbeit. You'll have to make it to the university to register, but after that you can go at least a year without anyone bothering you or expecting you to do anything to retain student status.
I had a job washing and loading UPS trucks in Germany. It was great. (I memorized all the postal codes in the country, and then they went and changed them).
You know, I'd be a little worried about turning 40 without at least something going on towards retirement: Schwartzarbeit is a fine short term solution, I suppose, but, well, you know already . . .
44: Very useful information.
Don't you need to pass a language exam to register as a university student? Or am I completely wrong?
44: Wow, yes, very helpful. Thanks.
43. Don't go to law school.
This cannot be emphasized enough. Don't go to law school.
You do need to pass a language exam, though in my experience, the exam is pretty easy. I mean, was pretty easy years ago, before I was particularly good at German and before I had lived in Germany for more than a month or two at a time.
Ah yes. My ">comments about the exam from that same thread KR links.
As for immigration status separate from questions of work, do you have any money saved up that you can show? IME, the people at the Ausländerbehörde will give you ('you' being an American) a residence permit so long as you have 1) proof of German health insurance, 2) whatever kind of made-up reason to be there you might choose, and 3) evidence that you can support yourself. This can be a letter showing that you have some kind of grant support (my situation a few times), a statement showing money in the bank, or even a letter from your parents saying that they're sending you XXX Euros per month. (Translated, of course. The time I used this, it was entirely made up. Like my parents would be giving me an allowance at age 23? But in Germany parents can get Kindergeld until those Kinder are 25, so.)
Also, the time I used the made-up letter from my parents, the civil servant who signed off on my residence permit was named Herr Böse.
I want to second the suggestion to find what you like / want, and I agree that it's something you have to actively note if you want to get an honest portrait of the things that bring you joy. I know it sounds inane, but for me at least, it's taking a while to separate what I actually want / enjoy from what I've always thought I wanted / should enjoy. Everything seems simpler when you enjoy what you do. Getting out of bed, for instance: easier when you're excited for the thing you do immediately after that.
55 is good. Trying to want what you think you should want is a fast road to misery. I'm still processing the implications of this for myself, but once I realized that a major portion of my dissatisfaction was due to trying to fool myself I immediately became happier and more comfortable.
Getting out of bed, for instance: easier when you're excited for the thing you do immediately after that.
I fucking love to pee.
You must, if you don't even walk to the bathroom.
I am a bit surprised that one can go for seven years in a Ph.D. program barely having started one's dissertation
As it turns out, it's remarkably easy to not get much done on one's dissertation. I can't believe I've been here for 5 hours today and haven't written a word. Fuck. But I did talk to two recruiters, so that's something. I wonder if I can figure out how to make it through phone screens and technical interviews.
As I job search and think about my qualifications, I'm starting to realize what a shame it is that so many of those of us who should not be in grad school soldier on nonetheless. One's skills and motivation really can atrophy after several years of dicking around on the internet professionally. I used to be a go-getter, I swear.
It may be that I possess enough skills to salvage my chance at being a bourgeois drone, though. We'll see.
OK, time to work.
One's skills and motivation really can atrophy after several years of dicking around on the internet professionally.
Boy, does this resonate.
I am a bit surprised that one can go for seven years in a Ph.D. program barely having started one's dissertation
Combine an extremely hands-off DGS with a completely hands-off advisor, add in some serious illness afflicting the latter, and viola!
This cannot be emphasized enough. Don't go to law school.
No fear of that--a good part of those 7 years have been spent dealing with law-stuff, giving me enough exposure to the sociology of the legal profession to know what a terrible choice it would be.
Combine an extremely hands-off DGS with a completely hands-off advisor, add in some serious illness afflicting the latter, and viola!
Despite all the jokes, I know a violist who managed to finish a Ph.D.
As for immigration status separate from questions of work, do you have any money saved up that you can show?
Actually, yes. This, and the other stuff in 44, is part of why I feel relatively sanguine about regularizing my status. I mean, this is where white male 1st-world privilege should really come through, no? My impression is that I'm not the foreigners that the Ausländerbehörde is looking for. [/obiwan]
As it turns out, it's remarkably easy to not get much done on one's dissertation.
Scheduling your defense has a way of focusing the mind.
and viola!
Oh, I didn't realize there was a musical instrument involved. At least you can busk for spare change.
Scheduling your defense has a way of focusing the mind
Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
61: Let me guess: they started it late, finished early, and no one took any notice?
[Logging off til late night. Thanks, Mineshaft!]
Otto: what I meant was, to go so long without working on one's dissertation without being asked to leave the program.
Nearby is a key cutting place. Serious key cutters who know what they're doing. On the walls are pictures of the mountains they climb when not cutting keys. I've got to think that beats law, management consulting, and SAP bodyshop by more than a little.
Ben: I was deliberately reading without charity, because I am a stingy bastard.
69: You'd be surprised at how many places don't actively kick anyone off the books.
73: I'm afraid to send an e-mail and ask if I've been kicked out. I haven't had contact with anyone from my department since 2005 or so.
Someone I know was ABD for 18 years, and only buckled down to write when s/he was threatened with taking comps over.
Simple. Join the Foreign Legion. And then liveblog it.
More seriously: VSO or equivalent? (Peace Corps?)
Hey Guys, if teo shows up, please wish him a happy birthday for me.
47: if you move slightly to the West (without having to cross a sea), you can follow university education in English - and your German will be enough to get by for most things.
Past Köln. (why do I associate Kaiserslautern with shitty soccer?)
(And it shows my age, I guess, that I associate it with the US military. I wouldn't think of Cologne as 'west' of Heidelberg -- and anyway, are you sending him to Amsterdam? A fine choice, and it's true that English will work better than German . . .)
Amsterdam would be fine but slightly more South is even better.
Thanks, BG. Happy birthday to you to.
Happy birthday!
and south of 88, north and west of 89 and I do NOT want to look up where 90 specifically is.
x. trapnel: What subfield are/were you working in? Any chance of NGO work?
If you haven't already received an MA from your program, it might not be difficult to apply for one--in my program, it's basically a formality. You fill out the paperwork once you're ABD/whenever you get around to it.
Also, I have waited until the absolute last moment to writing my "statement of teaching philosophy." I want to shoot myself.
91.last: Not that I've traveled very extensively in Europe, but "Den Bosch" is actually one of the more pleasant towns I've visited there.
I was happy to see that most (maybe all?) of the jobs I'll be applying for don't ask for a teaching statement, but I was a little surprised that they don't at least put up some pretense of faculty positions having something to do with teaching.
92: political theory, so, uh, not really. And yeah, I'm taking care of the MA thing while I'm in town. Well, when I return to town in a week and a half. If any NYC-Mineshafters want to hang out between 10/11-14, lemme know...
91: Brussels!
If any NYC-Mineshafters want to hang out between 10/11-14, lemme know...
Sounds like a good excuse for a meetup to me.
91 is a good third, 94 just falls of the podium, there are 2 major Universities left
95: I would say: 'I can imagine.' if it weren't for the fact that I can't.
JESUS FUCK ENOUGH ALREADY.
Just what one could expect from somebody coming from a region that gave us: that man with the white wavy hair.