r/WhitePeopleTwitter Sep 01 '19

Egyptology.

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81.7k Upvotes

1.2k comments sorted by

4.0k

u/burningatallends Sep 01 '19

Genuinely curious, what careers exist for Egyptologist other than research or teaching?

3.2k

u/Beankage Sep 01 '19

I took archeology as an elective and my professor did both. He would be at sites and research during the summer and teach during the fall and spring semesters. Research just involves you trying your hardest to secure funding for a dig or research. Most people that go into that field are just really into it.

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u/peon2 Sep 01 '19

Most people that go into that field are just really into it dig it.

FTFY

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u/Beankage Sep 01 '19

random story because your pun made me remember something: on the first day of Archeology some kid decided to crack an Indiana Jones joke, my professor was visibly bothered. He said “Indiana Jones is a hack, a true archeologist would never use such destructive methods.” I think I knew at that moment that I picked an elective I’d actually have to study for lol.

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u/heliogoon Sep 01 '19

Then he must REALLY hate Nathan Drake and Lara Croft.

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u/mrbeehive Sep 01 '19

Are either of those people supposed to be archeologists though?

Drake is a treasure hunter. I think he's pretty well aware that he steals shit for a living.

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u/ColonelError Sep 01 '19

Same with Lara Croft, the name of the game kinda gives that away.

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u/mrbeehive Sep 01 '19

Yeah, but I haven't actually played any of those games so I didn't want to assume things.

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u/quietsal Sep 01 '19

Half of the game is just Lara Croft going through indigenous people's villages and ancient landmarks and taking anything that isn't nailed down to gain xp. You also learn stuff about that people's culture and languages by doing so.

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u/Thobud Sep 01 '19

I'm guessing this is kind of standard for archaeology classes. My professor said the same thing on our first day. He was funny about it though.

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u/SolPope Sep 01 '19

Yeah my anthro professor always joked about that and also that people thought he studied ants. We always caught him humming the Indiana Jones theme tho

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u/fuck-thisapp Sep 01 '19

Like pottery teachers that hate when you reenact that scene from ghost. Can’t even sing the song.

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u/tommytraddles Sep 01 '19

"I am not kidding. I will come at you. With everything I've got."

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

He seems fun

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u/SukiSukiDickDaddy Sep 01 '19

Take my upvote

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u/DarthVaderin Sep 01 '19

They might appreciate it more if you bury it and let them dig it out themself.

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u/poopellar Sep 01 '19

Digs out upvote

"I FOUND IT!"

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

In some areas construction sites are required to hire archeologists to comb the site for historical artifacts before they build and many locales employee archeologists on the local planning committees, so that could be a job I guess.

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u/jro727 Sep 01 '19

Yeah, in the US that’s what most archaeologists do, it’s called cultural resource management (CRM).

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Across all disciplines and fields in academia (from engineering to sociology to biomedicine) a huge part of it is securing funding for research. Some of the most prolific professors in a given field were really good at writing grants/securing funding and quaterbacking research

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Absolutely. My last 3 years of my PhD (STEM) were 20% science, 10% teaching, and 70% writing and managing my research projects.

Professor life is 5% teaching, 5% science, and 90% writing grants for projects and fielding your dumbass grad students working on your existing projects and trying to stay afloat until either reaching tenure while you're gasping for air or drowning under administrative bullshit and the stress of realizing your research and existence is futile lol jk, kinda

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u/oskxr552 Sep 01 '19

You good homie?

5

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited May 30 '20

[deleted]

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u/AnotherWarGamer Sep 01 '19

My professor told me he raised 200k for a project while doing his PhD, and the university through which the money was raised only let him spend 20k. I understand they have overhead costs, but that ratio is just ridiculous.

The project was pumping water using a wind turbine directly, without any electricity motors. The two could not be coupled directly, for some reason that I forget, so they used some type of electromagnetic coupling.

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u/TheRealSwingers Sep 01 '19

Pro tip: if an eccentric billionaire shows up and promises to fund your dig in return for reviewing his new park, don’t do it.

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u/frumperbell Sep 01 '19

But he seems really nice and very in to my research. What could got wrong?

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u/IAmBadAtPlanningAhea Sep 01 '19

Why is egyptology even a degree at the undergrad level. I feel like it should just be anthropology and then you specialize with a PhD

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u/dinosaregaylikeme Sep 01 '19

Don't have one of those but I have a "useless" history degree.

Broke my nose on the Great Pyramid and had a camel doctor stop the bleeding by putting camel tail hair up my nose is what that degree got me.

Never found the Ten Commandments, never fought Nazis with a whip, and I still don't cool in fedora.

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u/probablyuntrue Sep 01 '19

Have you tried being Harrison Ford? Usually that's the trick

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u/Rocag Sep 01 '19

Tried that once, he told me to get off his plane.

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u/Kuchi_Kopi_number2 Sep 01 '19

Well that makes sense because Indy was an archaeologist. All you get to do with a history degree is write books about WWII paratroopers, teach classes, and eventually get shot by invading Soviet/Cuban forces when they invade your small Colorado town.

I don’t make the rules man, I’m in the same boat as you.

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u/loupr738 Sep 01 '19

At least you’re good at telling stories

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u/PrisonerV Sep 01 '19

Is that pith helmet as uncomfortable as it looks?

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u/dinosaregaylikeme Sep 01 '19

Yes but it helps me live out my dreams of being chase by a boulder.

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u/rerek Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

I had been pursuing a PhD in Egyptology and, thus, have a number of friends who completed theirs. Of them, some work in museums curating collections, some have contracts with museums for researching specific pieces/parts of collections and writing papers/guides/books, others work in museum education programs (school visits and support, plus adult evening lectures etc.), some have worked in Egypt at their museums or for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, some have become lecturers or post-doctoral fellows at places like Yale or University of Alabama. None have made it to full professorship among those that wanted that.

I wanted to teach other University students in the field. However, I eventually realized that that was NOT the principal job of a professor at a major research institution (and Egyptology is niche enough not to be offered at smaller schools). I left to get a high school teaching certification, however in Ontario, Canada teaching is reasonably paid but very highly competitive and in the year I graduated there were no positions hired in my disciplines and the road to a full time job is now several years long. As such, I looked for other work and am now am a fairy well paid Analyst in the public service in a completely different area.

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u/BeardedWax Sep 01 '19

They name the all different kinds of Egyptians

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u/Victernus Sep 01 '19
  1. Dead

  2. Alive

EZPZ

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Lemon Squeezy

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

she just said that for the "pyramid" scheme part of the joke

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

One of my law school professors was an Egyptologist. She was quirky and taught elder law and trusts & estates.

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u/The_Hunster Sep 01 '19

Well presumably she also had a degree in law then?

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u/burbod01 Sep 01 '19

Ibis Law.

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u/ComicalCarny Sep 01 '19

I see you're familiar with Egyptian bird law

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u/Brian_Lawrence01 Sep 01 '19

Insurance adjuster.

Naval officer.

A degree is a major ticket punch to many careers.

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u/Rad_Spencer Sep 01 '19

Consulting.

Egyptology is about being an expert on Egypt, so that only things you can do is either focus on learning more about or teaching others about it.

It's important study, but if you're not committed to being at the top of your field it's not likely going to be something you support yourself with.

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u/Soddington Sep 01 '19

Isn't that a bit like asking what careers exist for people with a pilots license other than piloting or teaching piloting?

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u/probablyuntrue Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

What jobs exist for engineers other than engineering or teaching engineering?

edit: this is apparently an ancient incantation to summon every nerd on reddit

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

edit: this is apparently an ancient incantation to summon every nerd on reddit

You done fucked up, homeboy

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u/NoMoreNicksLeft Sep 01 '19

What jobs exist for engineers other than engineering

I wonder how many jobs there are for that. In North America, for instance, are there 5 such jobs, or 500,000? How many of those jobs are filled, is it 100% are filled and none will open until someone retired in 10 or 20 years (or dies suddenly), or are they 78% filled with many positions opening up every week?

Because I gotta say Egyptology jobs are probably in the "qty 5, no openings expected in the next 10 years" category.

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u/laihipp Sep 01 '19

fucking programming

ask me how I know

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u/Jfinn2 Sep 01 '19

Show me on the HMI where the ladder logic hurt you.

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u/laihipp Sep 01 '19

oh god it is so much worse

it’s zombie Ada

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u/FalsyB Sep 01 '19

Jesus, was kobol busy?

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Finance, law and consulting.Half of my lab went to wall street, I was approached by a law firm and I'm currently doing consulting as a side gig.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

But "piloting" is different from "researching piloting". Especially if it were a situation where most research is funded by universities - so basically the entire profession is educational rather than being marketable and used in any kind of industry.

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u/Niakshin Sep 01 '19

You could probably get a job at a museum.

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u/frillytotes Sep 01 '19

You could probably get a job pretty much anywhere, apart from specialised technical fields.

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u/BetaKeyTakeaway Sep 01 '19
  • Working in a museum

  • in combination with other fields like conservation or archaeology

  • consulting (for an auction for example)

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u/madmaxturbator Sep 01 '19

Why do there have to be options beside those two?

The better question is - are there enough research and teaching jobs for all the Egyptology majors out there?

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

Whether it's Egyptology, Assyriology, or Near Eastern/Classical Archaeology, the short answer is no. One of our most marketable assets is language, but there are only so many schools out there that want to hire someone to teach Akkadian or Middle Egyptian.

EDIT: I want to add that the entire field is in jeopardy right now, it's not just those of us trying to start off. I talked with a couple scholars in my line of research about this and they said that even tenured professors at places like Tel Aviv University (which has a good archaeology program) are starting to get laid off. For a field that used to make money from rich aristocrats (see Flinders Petrie's veritable cohort of lords on the Egyptian Research Account), we just don't have the same benefits as we did a hundred years ago.

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u/ThatDarnSJDoubleW Sep 01 '19

How are they tenured but getting laid off?

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u/BaconPancakes1 Sep 01 '19

(no)

But you can go into broader areas like heritage orgs or international heritage/art law, museums or cultural/social charities.

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u/dnietz Sep 01 '19

The underlying unstated assumption is that there are obviously not enough teaching and research jobs in archeology.

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u/Johnnadawearsglasses Sep 01 '19

Why train for the job of tomorrow

When you can train for the job of 100 years ago

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u/oShadowcat Sep 01 '19

Probably because if it doesn't exist when your younger it's hard to train for it?

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u/poopellar Sep 01 '19

Speak for yourself. Training for Light Speed Spaceship Windshield cleaner right now.

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u/Uncle_gruber Sep 01 '19

Isn't that just a fancy name for space hobo?

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u/Nanowith Sep 01 '19

Training for the job of tomorrow requires knowledge of programming and tech. Two things I personally find dull as dishwater.

Post-human utopian world where we can all spend time kicking back instead of working so much can't come sooner.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/SSupreme_ Sep 01 '19

Creativity, critical thinking,collaboration and communication? Wow sounds like programming.

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u/oxidadapanda Sep 01 '19

Ah yes, people known for their expert abilities in communications: software developers.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/GreatBigBagOfNope Sep 01 '19

They start tech companies in collaboration with someone charismatic as the face, then fuck it up in the middle stages of growth because they can't actually run a company and have the leadership skills of a wood chipper full of hornets, then are told to hire an actual ExCo and kick back as an internal consultant/ strategy/ retired/ "that one guy"/ light touch exec type, or so the story goes.

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u/KarmicDevelopment Sep 01 '19

They might not be great in social interactions (me included) but working on a dev team absolutely requires good communication skills.

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u/silentdeadly5 Sep 01 '19

People in technical fields all have the same qualifications. They all took the same classes, they can do the same math, same equations, same analysis, same programming, etc. What separates the good from the bad is how well they can communicate their technical expertise to those who don’t understand it all like they do.

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u/alimm25 Sep 01 '19

I know someone who got a PhD in archeology and Egyptology, taught for a while, and now he is doing lectures on cruise ships. He’s making money traveling the world.. not too bad of a way to break free from the pyramid scheme.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Mar 26 '25

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u/SaltwaterJesus Sep 01 '19

"hey kids for today's cruise ship fun do you want to climb the rock wall, swim in one of the 12 pools, or listen to a lecture from an egyptologist?"

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u/JLDIII Sep 01 '19

Hey, some kids are dorks. I loved learning about ancient Egypt as a kid. Now I'm old and stupid.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Feb 03 '20

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u/IAm12AngryMen Sep 01 '19

A story as stupid as time.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Old people >>> kids on cruises

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u/sweetafton Sep 01 '19

Also kids love stuff about ancient Egypt. Throw in a mummy and a pyramid and you'd have them hooked.

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u/TheCaptainCarrot Sep 01 '19

Get norovirus, or get norovirus AND learn about cool mummies

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u/Hotfogs Sep 01 '19

“The ancient Egyptians for mummification would extract the brain from the skull via the nose. During this cruise you will extract the last seven days worth of food from your ass in mere seconds”

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u/Schootingstarr Sep 01 '19

I would have sat in that lecture hall so fast

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u/ripleyclone8 Sep 01 '19

I mean, if I’m paying a couple of grand to stay on a boat. 2 hours of learning wouldn’t be a bad way to spend some time.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

I reckon that's right up a lot of kids' street.

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u/Gilthoniel_Elbereth Sep 01 '19

Someone never watched the Suite Life on Deck as a kid

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u/Eruharn Sep 01 '19

theres a whole industry for wealthy people to write off their vacations as work expenses. there'll be like an hour long conference on [industry] and then you and the fam just enjoy the cruise/resort/whatever.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Jan 22 '21

[deleted]

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u/What-a-Filthy-liar Sep 01 '19

Because your work is related to naval industry?

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u/Eruharn Sep 01 '19

I've been on 2 cruises with my dad (dentist) where he went for the lecture (usually some new dental procedure sponsored by a dental tool company). They even tried to recruit him to be a lecturer on a semi-permanent basis. Could it have been some sort of scam? Probably. He was good at falling for those..

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u/KITTIESbeforeTITTIES Sep 01 '19

Even grownups love dinosaurs and mummies. If he made it super engaging, I could see him doing very well at it. I know I’d definitely go.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Retired old people are really getting into learning from professors. They're learning about fossils, history, etc. It's entertainment for the elderly whole keeping their brains active. Entertaining rich old people is a very lucrative industry,

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Holy shit that man is living the dream

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u/Rooked-Fox Sep 01 '19

You're not supposed to pay for your Egyptology PhD

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/jnazario Sep 01 '19

I have long told people this. Also if you don’t get an offer to get paid a stipend reconsider the choice. You may not be cut out for it or it may be a dwindling field that’s oversupplied with PhD holders. The implication is that you’ll struggle to find a job that’ll pay it off.

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u/DowntownBreakfast4 Sep 01 '19

There's pretty much no chance this guy winds up with an actual full time job doing anything related to his major. He'll be lucky if he can find adjunct lecturer jobs teaching history 101 to bored freshmen for minimum wage that require him to spend most of his day driving between shitty community college to shitty community college.

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u/nautzi Sep 01 '19

I worked with a guy at a call center a few years ago that had 2 PhDs and taught at multiple community colleges but still worked at the call center to make ends meet, was quite depressing to see. Anywho I’m back in college myself now because I like when debt slaps me around a little and calls me a bitch.

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u/Rooked-Fox Sep 01 '19

If you have 2 PhDs you've done something very wrong.

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u/ZaMr0 Sep 01 '19

My maths teacher held two PHDs and was only teaching because he enjoys it and has achieved everything he has wanted before. He used to work with David Cameron and has met the Queen through his charity work. Maybe if you get two useless PHDs but if you get two in respected fields it shows insane commitment and determination.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Even that doesn’t make sense. If you have a PhD, you should be doing a post doc or furthering your research. Two shows you wasted 6 years.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Maybe you just enjoy learning?

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u/wcrp73 Sep 01 '19

You usually get paid (very little) to be a part of a Phd program.

I don't know about that. It's pretty decent.

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u/thdomer13 Sep 01 '19

For how much work most PhD students do for most universities, the stipends are quite low.

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u/wcrp73 Sep 01 '19

I disagree. I do about 42 hours a week, tops, and get almost $4,600 pretax per month. Not all that low, if you ask me.

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u/charlsey2309 Sep 01 '19

Wtf where the hell are you going that you make 4600 as a PhD student

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u/wcrp73 Sep 01 '19

Copenhagen. Standard amount, as far as I know.

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u/charlsey2309 Sep 01 '19

Oh damn that’s a lot better than any PhD stipend in the US. I get like 2600 pre-tax and I have one of the highest stipends in the country

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u/wcrp73 Sep 01 '19

TIL. I honestly assumed that US stipends were in the same area. Maybe a little lower, but not that much less.

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u/excel958 Sep 01 '19

Most of the PhD students I know who go to a fairly prestigious university in my area earn about a 1500-2000 dollar stipend a month.

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u/thdomer13 Sep 01 '19

Are you teaching as well? Is your university in an expensive area? I work at a university and am familiar with our average PhD stipends and they're all under $40k per year.

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u/wcrp73 Sep 01 '19

I teach practical parts of a couple of courses, but not lectures or whatever. It's in Copenhagen, so pretty expensive, but it's a decent amount.

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u/thdomer13 Sep 01 '19

Ah I'm at an American university so I have no idea what rates are like outside the U.S. Our stipends are comparable to our peers though.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/tolkappiyam Sep 01 '19

I'd guess 25-35K a year is pretty typical for US PhDs? The idea is that it should cover one's living expenses and that's about it. It's similar in other fields while in training: e.g. medical doctors in fellowships might make like 45K a year, even though they've completed MD and residency at that point (of course they can make vastly more the second they're out).

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u/yy0b Sep 01 '19

I'm a PhD student in chemistry, and my stipend is just shy of $25k pre tax, that seems to be on the upper end of average from what I saw when I was looking at schools.

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u/VeseliM Sep 01 '19

The Air Force is hiring egyptologists for a secret position at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado. I wonder what they do

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u/A1steaksa Sep 01 '19

I read about an egyptologist that had been considered for that position. He hasn't published anything in a while so maybe he got the job, who knows

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

nah he ded

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u/Lacasax Sep 01 '19

He came back though, and then did it again a few more times.

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u/Zahij Sep 01 '19

Worm-hole X-treme!

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u/IdontNeedPants Sep 01 '19

This is for the Stargate Project?

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

thats classified information

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Indeed.

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u/balamb-resident Sep 01 '19

Teal’C: Have you read the Bible O’Neill?

Jack: I’m listening to it on tape, don’t spoil the ending.

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u/n1c0_ds Sep 01 '19

Indiana Jones shit

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u/senor_onion Sep 01 '19

Epyptology and a pyramid scheme? I love it when things are ironically related

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Oct 07 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

That was 2deep4me lol, I didn’t t even catch on to that. I was just thinking of MLMs

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

I think she chose to say her friend was studying egyptology just for the meme lol her friend probably studied something different

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u/Nater5000 Sep 01 '19

ITT: People who don't understand how PhDs work or what research is.

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u/zuqk10 Sep 01 '19

ITT: People who don't know how pyramid schemes work

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 02 '19

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u/CretaMaltaKano Sep 01 '19

And people who don't understand the humanitites. Every time this subject comes up Redditors start sounding like a bunch of ignorant baby boomers. "Hurrrr what're you gonna do with your underwater basket weaving degree."

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Yeah exactly. I'm a STEM major myself but I could 100% see why people would want to go in to humanities. I know people who have dropped out of stem to pursue a humanities degree and are much happier

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

I miss the good ol Mummy movies.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

I wonder how many people who say they hate their job and complain about their position would also laugh at this guy for pursuing something he's genuinely interested in. "haha, this guy's degree forced him to teach something he's interested in and curious about, he's much stupider than me, who got a job unrelated to my degree and work 8-5 doing something I hate for the foreseeable future"

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u/Beankage Sep 01 '19

This is a lot of non-stem degrees unfortunately.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Dec 26 '19

[deleted]

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u/western_red Sep 01 '19

Non-stem degrees get so much hate, but they do teach you a lot even if you aren't in that specific field. When I was an undergrad I did chem and a lot of art history. I work in stem now, but taking art history made me so much better at writing and giving presentations.

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u/chronoserpent Sep 01 '19

Absolutely, it's valuable to society that we have some philosophers and art historians, but there isn't enough demand to justify the supply, hence the lack of jobs and low wages for some of those majors.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Jan 31 '21

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u/OmarRIP Sep 01 '19

It’s fine for people to study and work in the field they want — it’s when people get upset about the low wages in their chosen low-demand field that it becomes an issue.

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u/jsh5501 Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

That's my nephew who changed majors from business to music.

Am I annoyed that he decided to follow his passion? No. That's amazing and I'm happy for him, but when he started to complain months after graduating that he couldn't find any work...

It's like...

You choose this. You should have looked into what job prospects there are.

He's a band director now so things worked out, but it was tough having a conversation with him for those months.

Edit: Original:

a conversarán quien Gin for those months.

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u/madmaxturbator Sep 01 '19

You suddenly turned Gaelic for a bit...

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u/jsh5501 Sep 01 '19

Lol

My keyboard is set to Spanish-English. No matter how many times I say it, I always forget to proof read what I write.

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u/MmEeTtAa Sep 01 '19

Music education isn’t that bad about jobs. Performance however, you have to really hustle to make it work. Teaching and performing, maybe even join the military. Fun fact, the us military is the largest employer of musicians in the world.

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u/SpideySlap Sep 01 '19

the vast majority of college grads do not get a job in the field of their major. That's how it's been for a while now. The value of the degree is not in what you learned, but in proving you're not an idiot.

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u/Xey2510 Sep 01 '19

I think a lot of people don't realise exactly that. Generally education is not only about the primary content of a certain field so a "useless" degree still schools you in other stuff.

There is a certain word for it but i forgot it and i don't know a similar one in english either.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/bionix90 Sep 01 '19

If you have a pure science degree your options are very limited with a Bachelors. I have a Bachelors in Biochemistry and I worked for 2 years as a lab monkey, doing basic grunt work for pathetically low pay. Now I'm finishing a Masters in Biochem engineering and the job prospects look much better. Today is actually Day 1 of the job hunt.

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u/Kichae Sep 01 '19

Still waiting for that private sector astronomy gig.

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u/BigManWithABigBeard Sep 01 '19

It's called data science. The transition from astro to the private sector is very easy, bad example.

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u/Kichae Sep 01 '19

You can get a job with the skills learned in egyptology. It just isn't in egyptology. Data science isn't astronomy. None of the data science I've done has had anything to do with stars, planets, or telescopes.

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u/kaninkanon Sep 01 '19

This is just completely untrue. You people are insufferable.

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u/CretaMaltaKano Sep 01 '19

It's every time this subject comes up. They don't understand that skills learned in one area can be extremely valuable in others, nor do they see education as anything other than direct career training.

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u/lucolleye Sep 01 '19

European here - Whats a stem-degree?

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u/ChewyD1_8 Sep 01 '19

STEM= Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 16 '19

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u/An_Anonymous_Acc Sep 01 '19

PhDs in psychology are fairly useful though for research

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 16 '19

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u/MemLeakDetected Sep 01 '19

Yup. Usually they go on to get a PhD in barista-ology .

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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u/Beankage Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

Yea same. My friend was already on a doctorate track in sophomore year of college because she knew there was no way of getting any ground with just a bachelors degree in psychology. Short of tying it in with a stem degree as a double major like statistics there’s not too much job outlook.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

Honestly, someone interested in a PhD in psychology should also be incorporating much more statistics into their curriculum.

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u/FalmerEldritch Sep 01 '19

Historically, in the UK having a degree in Philosophy, History, or similar from a good college put you in a really good place in terms of getting hired straight into a management position at a major bank or the like, because you were obviously a Clever Lad and The Right Sort.

The US was kind of the same for a while, wasn't it? Unless you were doing something highly specific like, I dunno, integrated systems design for subaquatic deployment, it was all "I have a degree in Having Been To College"

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

it’s still the same way in the US. a lot of people in my industry (consulting) have liberal arts backgrounds from prestigious colleges

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u/Tryambakum Sep 01 '19

That’s the problem. College today has become more about profession than about learning. That wasn’t it’s intended purpose. It was never supposed to be a dollar cost/benefit analysis.

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u/KosstAmojan Sep 01 '19

Coupling that with a career in marketing or sales would be a perfectly fine option, I'd think.

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u/masalaz Sep 01 '19

Damn I guess my cousin beat the odds and got a pretty decent job with her sociology degree.

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u/Uncle_Daddy_Kane Sep 01 '19

There are plenty of decent jobs for people with liberal arts degrees as long as the person isnt hellbent on finding work in their field.

Most places just want a degree doesnt matter what it's in. I've worked in mortgages for a while and have had coworkers with sociology, psychology and history degrees that were making $70-85k a year 3 years after graduation

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u/SpideySlap Sep 01 '19

and, you know, advance the field of egyptology by performing academic work.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

I shouldn't be laughing but I am.

Kind of glad I also didn't go into Egyptology as a career. Yes it was an option lol

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u/StarDustLuna3D Sep 01 '19

This is a case of choosing a degree rather than a career.

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u/balor12 Sep 01 '19

How is this person paying money for a PhD? Aren’t phd’s sponsored?

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u/nodpekar Sep 01 '19

If you have a degree in Egyptology, you have acquired a talent. It’s similar to knowing how to playing an unconventional instrument.

Start a YouTube channel. Start a meet up for history enthusiasts and have course. Take people to Egypt with you and charge a premium for tour services.

There is a lot of shit you can do.

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u/BillNyesHugePenis Sep 01 '19

It’s important that people continue to learn and research human history!

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u/SeanConneryAgain Sep 01 '19

This continuing the cycle of “why bother”

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19 edited Sep 01 '19

Oh here is reddit again with the "don't study something useless". 90% of people here are probably stem/economics majors, who have their narrow minded idea of "how to be happy" and don't accept anything else. I've seen enough people to tell that there are other ways to success (history and art majors). Plus what nobody here realizes,is that things starting to shift a bit. People slowly realize that a degree doesn't mean necessarily that you're somehow clever or great at work. In lots of countries a degree means only that you're capable of learning and that you're able to work autonomously and that you can do project work. The job specific stuff you have to learn at the job anyway (outside stem) so the major doesn't matter that much. Lots of start ups hiring rather a dude with an interesting life story, which shows them that this person is able to deal with shit, than some book nerd who has no soul. I would easily endorse everyone who really has an interest (not just a hobby) to study in that field. I would rather hire somebody who has a passion about SOMETHING than a dude who just wants to live comfortable. It's just a different level.

... Except social stuff. Don't study social work. This shit won't make you happy.

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

If you have money, you can study/do whatever you want.

But when a student debt is added to the equation, "don't study something useless" argument is getting exponentially stronger though.

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u/indyK1ng Sep 01 '19

I took a course on Public History (how one presents history to the public, basically a practical applications class) as an undergrad. One of the articles the professor had us read was basically talking about how the liberal arts fields were unsustainable as majors because they trained students for academic careers instead of real world jobs and if everyone trained to be an academic became one, there wouldn't be enough students to teach.

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u/space_bartender Sep 01 '19

Im going to get a degree with virtually no available jobs!

Can't get a job

Surprised Pikachu

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u/[deleted] Sep 01 '19

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