I have always advised doctoral students who have not yet defended to try as hard as they can to finish their degrees (at least having a dissertation defense date on the calendar) prior to taking a tenure-track position. This advice is based on two points: 1. If your work is strong enough to land a position while A.B.D., it will be even stronger after the degree is awarded, and 2. If you land on the tenure track too soon, you run the risk of never earning tenure before the clock runs out.
This story has reminded me of a third point that should be made: Institutions that will hire an A.B.D. in the kind of market we now have are likely to be offering positions that will be backbreakers, the kind that all but guarantee that the dissertation will never be completed.
To some extent, A.B.D.’s on the market need to consider the old Woody Allen joke, “I would never join a club that would have a member like me.” It’s worthwhile to ponder, “Why is this position available to someone who has only two chapters written?” As I have written in this space before, we all need jobs to pay our bills, but not every job is created equal. Just because a position is in the professoriate doesn’t mean that it is worth taking; sometimes other jobs are much more worthwhile, especially until the dissertation is complete.
Would you agree that A.B.D. applicants are at a particular disadvantage this year? Would you advise them to wait and enter the job market full force?
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25 Responses to The A.B.D. Search
bronwyns - October 13, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I wonder if there is any data to support claims like this? I’m ABD, and have more job offers than I can handle. I’m really glad I did not spend another five years doing my research and defending after passing my exams. Five more years of working for low wages for some university and being treated like I’m half human.
Maybe you should be asking people who are actually ABD if they regret their decision. Most of the ones I know, do not regret quitting their PhD programs. Many of them feel that they would have earned less money if they had completed their programs.
22055209 - October 13, 2010 at 3:42 pm
Quote about not wanting to be a club that would have them as member is usually associated with Groucho Marx: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx
kmcarey - October 13, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Bronwyns, what field are you in? I should think it would vary with field. Even if employers are eager to get the skills and knowledge of an ABD candidate, there may eventually be a ceiling where the finished degree would come in handy. Again, that could vary by field, too.
ufenglish - October 13, 2010 at 4:03 pm
As is often the case, this is likely to be discipline specific. An student in a computer engineering PhD program is likely to be hired away at a very high salary that may not depend on completing the PhD. I thnk the author here is likely writing about students who plan to finish the PhD after they get the job. This is often quite hard for students in the humanities who still have much of the dissertation to write. However, even in English (my field), a comp/rhet scholar may have many good offers as an ABD, while a Romanticist is unlikely to be offered a good position. Finally, of course, individual students must look at their own cost-of-living issues as they come to a decision. But generally, yes, I do advise my students to finish or at least come very close before entering a full time position.
cerebellum - October 13, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Our college does hire ABDs. However, not having the doctorate limits possiblities for promotion, ensures that you will start as an Instructor, rather than an Assistant Professor, and MAY make it harder to get tenure. If you take a position as an ABD, you should make the commitment to complete your doctorate. It will result in higher pay (a $5000 bump at our institution), more opportunities, and will result in your being more valued by your institution. My department has had 3 ABDs complete their doctorates while working full-time during the past year and a half. We also have some that look like they will never finish. You can finish your doctorate while working full-time. It is hard, though, and you should look carefully at what you commit to when you take the job, as Dr. Fant suggests. If you take a position as an ABD, and are truly working on completing that dissertation, most institutions will cut you some slack in terms of committee work, etc. You should avoid taking on non-mandatory tasks that will make it harder for you to complete your dissertation.
srossmktg - October 13, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I’d tend to agree with ufenglish. In business, where there is a glut of positions relative to other disciplines, it is not uncommon at all for ABD candidates to go on the job market for tenure track positions. Typically the expectation would be then that the dissertation would be complete before one sets foot on campus.
That said, it also seems like the economy affects university hiring practices in different ways. When business schools are the receivers of higher funding, they can hire ABDs more easy and bank on the assumption that the expectation of a complete dissertation will be met.
fergbutt - October 13, 2010 at 6:18 pm
A job in the hand is worth two after the diss.
bbaylis - October 13, 2010 at 9:55 pm
I believe much depends upon the discipline and the type of institution the job candidate is seeking to join. In my 40 years in higher education, prestigeous institutions can almost always find a candidate who has completed a dissertation, rather than taking a chance on an ABD. Forty years ago, five members of my class and I tested the job market waters a year before we finished our degrees. All six of us had offers, I stayed in school and completed my degree and received a job offer the next year. Of my five class mates that took offers early, four never complete their degrees. Those four never got tenure at the school where they started. The whole process took a real toll on their personal lives. For three of the four, their marriages failed and they left higher education as bitter people. Ever since then I have advised graduate students to try to finish their degrees before jumping into the job market. In the subsequent years, I have had the privilege of hiring faculty at four differnt institutions. I can’t count the number of ABDs I have had to hire, but I cab tell you that the majority of those hires were not completely successful and many moved onto other institutions once their degrees were completed. Now I counsel students that if it is at all possible finish the degree before getting that first job.
thomasmrobson - October 14, 2010 at 9:20 am
I’d also like to point out the negative impact the ABD professor who doesn’t finish can have on students. At my undergraduate institution there was a much-loved teacher in an adjacent department to mine who was hired ABD and never found the time to finish. As a result, when it came time for his review his contract was not renewed, despite several years of excellent teaching (college policy was to only employ professors with completed terminal degrees.) It left many students extremely hurt, confused, and feeling betrayed by a process that they did not understand. As much as decisions like applying for/taking jobs ABD are personal financial decisions, they also have repercussions on our eventual students that we should at least bear in mind. [And in the interest of full disclosure, I am currently on the job market ABD, with seven of nine chapters completed, but I consciously slowed down my writing process to make sure that I would be near completion when I began submitting applications.]
betsyny1 - October 14, 2010 at 10:28 am
This is not a new problem at all. Twelve years ago my favorite professor advised me not to take one of those positions for exactly those reasons. Not only do you spend extra time researching and creating classes for the first couple of years, new professors who hope for tenure also have to serve on various committees. This recipe for dissertation sabotage has been known among established professors for years. In this market it’s also a waste of time to apply for jobs when so many PhDs are competing with you. Better focus all attention on just finishing.
jselwell - October 14, 2010 at 10:37 am
I think the opportunities for ABD’s are very much alive even in this economy. I took a position ABD and finished my dissertation in the first year while teaching a 6-5 load and working on theatre productions. You can achieve whatever you want to achieve if you’re willing to make the necessary sacrifices. We are currently looking for 26 faculty (14 replacements and 12 new positions) and the only difference that an ABD would find is in salary ($5,000 less until the Ph.D. is in hand). The course load would be the same.
phrozenpharoah - October 14, 2010 at 11:21 am
An additional consideration is that there are also many full-time employees like myself that have pursued their PhDs and are working more than 40 hours a week anyway in student affairs. So a reduced workload and the evenings free to write, revise and finish their research is probably pretty enticing to ABD candidates in student affairs.
oldcommprof - October 14, 2010 at 12:28 pm
It really does depend on the field and the person. Fifteen years ago I took a 4/4 teaching position ABD with one chapter of six written, but 90% of my research done. I spent every weekend working and defended 14 months later.
22228715 - October 14, 2010 at 12:42 pm
I’ve known enough people making this decision to know of examples in each category (stayed and finished before getting a job, stayed and never finished so got a job, stayed and finished and now can’t find a job, left for a job and never finished, left and finished). If the job taken pre-graduation is administrative, it seems more end up in the left-and-never-finished category. If the job is in the tenure-track world, there are more opportunities to schedule time to finish (reduced load, summer w/o teaching) but unless the tenure clock gets turned off for a while, it becomes fairly painful if not very difficult to complete both the degree and tenure/promo minimums in that period of time. Of course… field/institution/personal factors confound…
eleza - October 14, 2010 at 12:45 pm
I am not an A.B.D but I have an experience that once an opportunity is gone it may not come back soon. Listen to my story. In the middle of my dual masters degree I was offered a full time job but declined because I wanted to graduate first. It is now over a year since my graduation and my dream job is yet to come. It may be advisable to get the job available now for you may never predict what the future hold. All the same, I am proud of my graduation.
quiero_leer - October 14, 2010 at 1:54 pm
I’m almost ABD and expect to defend by the end of next academic year. However, my specialty has maybe a handful of jobs open each year, and those go to the already-established, multiply-published folks. I do have recourse to returning to my previous profession, but am leery of temporarily falling back into adjuncting (which I did far too much of between master’s and Ph.D.) and getting trapped there. Is this a misconception? Also, I am well-qualified to teach introductory and intermediate classes in 2-3 related areas in my field (letters), but most job postings are written specifically for specialists in those areas. To what extent do hiring managers distinguish between a well-rounded generalist with related training in another specialty versus someone who completely ignores the job description and applies anyway? (Is there a difference?)
creamcity - October 14, 2010 at 1:56 pm
This is not new; it was true as well almost a quarter of a century ago, when I went on the market as an ABD, because it was a year when great openings were available in the locale where I needed to live (for personal reasons) — openings that were unlikely to be there again for years, if the hires were successful. So I was one of those hires but, yes, walked into all of the horrors listed above: create new courses and, indeed, an entire new program that also meant an extraordinary advising load while teaching a 4-3 courseload and serving on endless committees, etc.
It became clear that I was not supposed to succeed, to make it to tenure. Why? Beware, ABD’s: My tenure clock was started too soon, when I started at the institution rather than two years later, when I did complete the Ph.D. and made it to assistant professor. Still, I did land tenure despite coming up too soon — but at great personal cost to my family. Would I do it again? Doubtful. But if I did it again, I’d watch like a hawk those who hire and start the tenure clock.
statethenji - October 14, 2010 at 2:08 pm
It all boils down to personal circumstances. Today, many ABDs are being bumped out of their programs due lack of funding after about 3 years. Here, you have little choice but to find work.
I think those who are able to finish their programs ahead of time or on schedule can easily make these decisions based on luxury of time. I defended end of Spring without a single application out there because my first priority was to finish. I got a post-doc position and started in Fall.I am now applying for tenure-track positions with two years of post-doc experience.
snwiedmann - October 14, 2010 at 3:12 pm
If you are hired into a position in which you have at least two preps (courses) and have to teach four classes, how much time do you think you will have to write? Let’s not forget the service you will be expected to perfom and the advising. If there are equally good candidates that have their degrees in hand, or even if another candidate is slightly less good, that completed degree with often win the day. A factor that may be overlooked is the hiring department’s past experience with ABD’s. One department I was with hired a fellow who was ABD. Four years later he was still ABD. One bad experience can sour a department for years to come.
1233312 - October 14, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Eh, this misses the fact that the generic term ABD hides a variety of people with varying degrees of completeness. I imagine the story for someone who is still finishing the research vs. someone who is just polishing up the intro and conclusion is rather different.
eudaimon - October 14, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Over the years I have noticed that we have a hiring system that focuses on persons just leaving graduate school. I have seen job candidates who were indistinguishable from their prospective undergraduate students. The fact that ABDs are considered for tenure track jobs when there is a glut of Ph.D.s suggests that Ph.D.s have a short shelf life and that experience outside the academy is undervalued.
11161452 - October 14, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I left my graduate university with ABD status for a tenure-track faculty position in a small liberal arts college–too varied a job description, too much teaching outside my areas of expertise (more time), too much of a service component expected. The result was that I came right up against tenure hearings not having finished; finally I convinced the school to give me a one-course relief (I paid the part-timer out of my own salary), and I managed to finish that summer just as I was having to submit the tenure documents.
This had far-reaching, and devastating effect on my future career, I believe. Due to being ABD, I did not apply for better jobs, because I thought I’d be new somewhere (again) and would never finish the degree under those circumstances. This meant that I stayed in what should have been a starter job (2 or 3 years) for way too long, and I was never able to move on. Trying to move after tenure was problematic. I ended up quitting the small college job in frustration, and I am now no longer working in academia.
So I offer this: by all means do whatever you have to do to finish the darn thing while still in residence–you will never have that kind of time and environment again.
agusti - October 15, 2010 at 8:38 am
It’s interesting to see the variety of opinions here; it does seem as though there’s a conventional wisdom that says “finish!”, but then exceptions to the rule. In Spring 2009, after 5 years in a PhD program and about 2 chapters done, I took what would definitely be considered a “starter” job, but mostly because a) the economy was tanking and b) the job was located in a metropolitan area where I suspected my wife would be able to start a successful career (and where my family lives, important especially as we have a baby on the way). The career part panned out perfectly (for my wife), and we’re now a two-salary family of two professionals rather than the all-too-common 1/1.5-salary family in which one person is the itinerant academic and the other is the trailing spouse. In the first year on the job, I created new courses and wrote another two chapters, and now have improvements to my main chapters, plus an intro and a conclusion to write an hope to defend this Spring.
Hard? Absolutely. Risky? Possibly. I might be “stuck” in my present position forever, but I think for the greater good of my family, I made the right decision. I can’t imagine being on the market now, with no assistantship or health insurance, a child on the way and a spouse without many career prospects.
My point is that the “toll on the family” issue can go both ways. I have no doubt that those who say it was hard on the family because they took a job ABD are telling it like it is, but I think that in my case, the ABD job move basically saved our collective bacon as a family unit, especially in these uncertain times.
Just one story/perspective.
this_beats_research - October 22, 2010 at 9:10 am
The posts which point out that it is discipline specifc make a very good point. In high demand fields, ABDs are not a bad plan, provided the field stays hot, and you actually publish well. MIS in 1998: Hottest field in B-schools. MIS in 2003; bug ugly.
I saw something interesting; those who came out ABD, but didn’t publish well, they were disadvantaged to the new crop of ABDs. The reason: the new crop was unproven, but had potential. The existing crop; not so much.
Me, I went the opposite route; I finished, then took two visiting positions while I worked on research. My pipeline was full when I started the tenure clock, and tenure was not so stressful. It worked beautifully for me.
docyoc - October 24, 2010 at 11:07 am
“Eh, this misses the fact that the generic term ABD hides a variety of people with varying degrees of completeness.” 1233312
Great point 1233312. In my situation I put my head down and defended my dissertation in late August with all edits due by late September and an official graduation in early December. Meanwhile I assumed that I would be staying on at my current position at a small research firm, with pay raise and title upgrade.
When I finally took a deep breath and looked at some of the job boards I found a total of one job that specifically mentions the field my degree is in. It does qualify as a “dream job” for me so I have applied, noting that I have successfully defended, but have yet to graduate. I’m extremely hopeful, as the riches and splendor I assumed/was told would coincide with my successful defense seem to have gone sour at my current employer. Wish me luck!