Good Work If You Can Get It: How to Succeed in Academia

by Jason Brennan

Overview

What does it really take to get a job in academia?

Do you want to go to graduate school? Then you're in good company: nearly 80,000 students will begin pursuing a PhD this year alone. But while almost all new PhD students say they want to work in academia, most are destined for something else. The hard truth is that half will quit or fail to get their degree, and most graduates will never find a full-time academic job.

In Good Work If You Can Get It, Jason Brennan combines personal experience with the latest higher education research to help you understand what graduate school and the academy are really like. This candid, pull-no-punches book answers questions big and small, including

• Should I go to graduate school—and what will I do once I get there?
• How much does a PhD cost—and should I pay for one?
• What does it take to succeed in graduate school?
• What kinds of jobs are there after grad school—and who gets them?
• What happens to the people who never get full-time professorships?
• What does it take to be productive, to publish continually at a high level?
• What does it take to teach many classes at once?
• How does "publish or perish" work?
• How much do professors get paid?
• What do search committees look for, and what turns them off?
• How do I know which journals and book publishers matter?
• How do I balance work and life?

This realistic, data-driven look at university teaching and research will help make your graduate and postgraduate experience a success. Good Work If You Can Get It is the guidebook that anyone considering graduate school, already in grad school, starting as a new professor, or advising graduate students needs. Read it, and you will come away ready to hit the ground running.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421437972
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jason Brennan is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University. He is the coauthor of Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education and the author of When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice and Against Democracy.

Jason Brennan (FAIRFAX, VA) is the Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor of Strategy, Economics, Ethics, and Public Policy at Georgetown University. He is the coauthor of Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education and the author of When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice and Against Democracy.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Unpleasant Truths about the World's Best Job
Chapter One. Do You Really Want an Academic Job?
Chapter Two. Success in Graduate School Means Working to Get a Job
Chapter Three. How to Be Productive and Happy
Chapter Four. The Academic Market, Tenure, and the Job Market outside Academia
Conclusion. Exit Options
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Tyler Cowen

In Good Work If You Can Get It, Jason Brennan tells it like it is. You will get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is the one book to read about trying to become a professor.

Benjamin Ginsberg

Each year, thousands of bright and ambitious students begin doctoral programs hoping they will earn PhDs and find rewarding positions at great colleges and universities. Good luck! Brennan offers the advice graduate students need but seldom receive.

John V. Lombardi

Jason Brennan's book is clear, effective, and captures the process of academic faculty employment exceptionally well. While the lessons Brennan provides aspiring academic faculty may seem stark and unfair, what he says about how this system works is accurate. That is the primary virtue of the book: it tells its readers the way things work without losing its way into a discussion of how they should work. Many of us give variations on this unwelcome advice to our graduate students and colleagues, and now we can just tell them to go read Brennan's book.

From the Publisher

Jason Brennan's book is clear, effective, and captures the process of academic faculty employment exceptionally well. While the lessons Brennan provides aspiring academic faculty may seem stark and unfair, what he says about how this system works is accurate. That is the primary virtue of the book: it tells its readers the way things work without losing its way into a discussion of how they should work. Many of us give variations on this unwelcome advice to our graduate students and colleagues, and now we can just tell them to go read Brennan's book.
—John V. Lombardi, President Emeritus, University of Florida, author of How Universities Work

In Good Work If You Can Get It, Jason Brennan tells it like it is. You will get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is the one book to read about trying to become a professor.
—Tyler Cowen, George Mason University, author of Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals

Each year, thousands of bright and ambitious students begin doctoral programs hoping they will earn PhDs and find rewarding positions at great colleges and universities. Good luck! Brennan offers the advice graduate students need but seldom receive.
—Benjamin Ginsberg, Johns Hopkins University, author of The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters

Editorial Reviews

Good Work If You Can Get It is a frank, realistic, and data-driven discussion of what it takes to succeed in academia. It's the kind of book every aspiring scholar should read.
--Forbes

America has needed a book like this for a long time and bravo to Johns Hopkins University Press for publishing it.
--National Review

Don't let anyone you know apply to grad school without first encouraging them to read Good Work If You Can Get It.
--James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

Economist and strategist Jason Brennan delivers a data-driven, punchily practical guide to succeeding in academia, aimed at PhD students.
--Nature

Few advice books come closer to presenting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Don't just read this book. Become it.
--Econlib

From the Publisher

Don't let anyone you know apply to grad school without first encouraging them to read Good Work If You Can Get It.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal

America has needed a book like this for a long time and bravo to Johns Hopkins University Press for publishing it.

National Review

Economist and strategist Jason Brennan delivers a data-driven, punchily practical guide to succeeding in academia, aimed at PhD students.

Nature Lib

Good Work If You Can Get It is a frank, realistic, and data-driven discussion of what it takes to succeed in academia. It's the kind of book every aspiring scholar should read.

Forbes

Few advice books come closer to presenting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Don't just read this book. Become it.

Econlib

"Economist and strategist Jason Brennan delivers a data-driven, punchily practical guide to succeeding in academia, aimed at PhD students."

Nature

"Few advice books come closer to presenting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth... don't just read this book. Become it."

Econlib - Bryan Caplan

"Good Work if You Can Get It is a frank, realistic, and data-driven discussion of what it takes to succeed in academia. It's the kind of book every aspiring scholar should read."

Forbes - Art Carden

"Don't let anyone you know apply to grad school without first encouraging them to read Good Work If You Can Get It."

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal - George Leef

"Economist and strategist Jason Brennan delivers a data-driven, punchily practical guide to succeeding in academia, aimed at PhD students."

Nature - Andrew Robinson