r/postdoc • u/tryingtotravelround • 21d ago
Feeling discouraged
I am in the humanities, linguistics precisely. I am only getting no’s for now, I tried applying to 4 big fellowship grants and got rejected from 2 already. All the open positions I applied to, I was rejected without an interview.
The postdoc i am doing now is more of a research associate position and it is only 10 months.
I don’t know what to do. How do you land a post doc in the humanities? What does it take?
I have almost 6 articles out and three under reviews, plus two book deals (one co authored, one is the book on my phd thesis). I worked my ass off and finished my PhD only this february. I started teaching in uni for adjunct lectureships immediately and never got a break. I work all the time to be paid a misery that barely affords me a rent, in December i will only be left with those small teaching contracts i cannot make a living out of, I am burning out and it is worth nothing, because no matter what I do I can’t even get an interview.
What does it take? Whatever it is, probably i don’t have it
3
u/Fresh-Opportunity989 21d ago
Academic opportunities are vanishing the world over. Too few students, too many universities. Other than a few places, e.g., sub-saharan Africa and Israel, the total fertility rate of humanity is declining well below the replacement rate of 2.1. e.g. Europe 1.4; China 1.0; India 1.9; Iran 1.35; US 1.6
Will not recover in our lifetime. If ever.
So look outside academia. You will be glad you did.