Sorry your job market sucks

Speaking of Mr. Hilton, all of those wayward PhDs (generally in humanities fields) who couldn't find a job through the grind of the AHA, MLA, etc. jobseeking mill come to mind. I feel for them, I really do, not least because I'm married to someone who actually survived that and landed a decent tenure-track job. But my sympathy has its limits.

If you can't find a job as an academic, don't come whining, hat in hand, to my profession, claiming--as you are told by all those "retool your PhD into other skills" consultants--that your experience as a researcher in a library or archive qualifies you to work as a professional librarian in a research library. We'd be happy to have your PhD knowledge, but only if you come to us with an MLS in tow. Say what you will about the MLS (no, it's not the most difficult nor gratifying degree), but it is a career essential for librarians, not only for the knowledge one gains--cataloging, reference, library software systems, acquisitions, etc. are learned skills, not self-evident--but as a means to create the culture and values of the profession. Just look at the disastrous state of any collection that is built by giving faculty broad discretion to make purchases if you want evidence of the effectiveness of having professional librarians do the job.

I recently vacated a job for which one of the requirements is a second graduate degree in a humanities field in addition to the MLS. It's galling to me to see the number of PhD-holding individuals who either can't read or willfully overlook the letters MLS and applied anyway. Fortunately, the good people on the hiring committee know the perfect use for such applications--recycling bin filler--so the position will remain open until one of these knuckleheads' peers decides that, hey, if I had an MLS a whole world of job prospects would open up.

Chew on this, PhD-holding non-librarians: when I look back at my humanities grad school colleagues, I outearn them, have generally always chosen where I work and in what capacity, have the ability to earn academic tenure, and, perhaps most importantly, I don't have incessant anxious thoughts about my future and/or whether or not my employer will spit me out when it suits them. I also have a nicer office, more travel funding than most of them, and don't have to beg my chair or dean for little crumbs like decent computers and printers. Do I regret not finishing my PhD and getting an MLS instead? Ha!