Absent people in particular fields saying yes, the ones who get hired are the ones who went straight through, I would say that Noveggies’ advice is very good. Most people considering the academic life should take a couple of years to sample something else and decide whether it really is for them. I can imagine this is more of a problem in disciplines where skills rust quickly — I’m thinking those that involve heavy doses of math and/or languages — and the personal gains from time outside the academy would be offset by the skill losses. Otherwise, I think that approaching a doctoral program with experience gained outside of school benefits everyone involved, and the candidate most of all.

I was very lucky in that the job I took during this inbetween time was somewhat academic–assistant curator at a history/culture museum. This happened by accident (and only after slogging away for a year as a phone receptionist–definitely the get one foot in at an interesting place by doing a horrible job and wait for a good opportunity to come around approach). I went to a pretty good liberal arts college, and the horrid phone receptionist job was the best thing I could have done my first year out–very humbling but character building experience. I caught the eye of the head of the curatorial department, and got into that department as an assistant, then was given more and more responsibilities, eventually becoming an asistant curator. This of course isn’t typical, and is as much a result of the size of the institution. But through my job, which involved organizing exhibitions and working with a lot of primary source material, I was able to think through what it was that I wanted to do, as well as what specific issue or theme I was really interested in. And since this job, while interesting, also fell in the category of workiing 60-80 hours a week for a meager income at an incompetent non-profit, grad school in comparison (despite those moments of extreme self-doubt and despair over the job market, etc) doesn’t seem so bad.

Also, since my work involved regular interactions with academics in similar fields, I didn’t suffer from feeling intimidated by professors to the same degree that many other grad students do, since I had had the experience of interacting with them as colleagues. I realize this approach, especially working in a somewhat academic institution, isn’t available for everyone, but if at all possible, I think taking time off for at least 3 years to do something else and to spend time thinking about whether or not grad school is a good fit is a very good idea. Working in the “real world” forces you to grow up in a way grad school doesn’t, it gives you perspective on grad school once you are there, and in my case, helped me to approach grad school as a kind of a job. I can say with certainty that grad school was the right decision for me, but I don’t think it would have been had I gone straight from undergrad to grad. I think there are only a few instances, at least in the humanities, where it will hurt more than help to wait a few years. You’ll be a little older when you finish, but not by much. Just a few thoughts.

This is why for some disciplines, it may not be quite so necessary, because some disciplines have a variety of end states–you don’t have to be a professor if you have a doctorate in economics, for example.

I’m pretty sure we agree that it’s a good thing for students to have a sense of what they’re getting into. But I’m curious to know if you really mean what I think you are saying about the need to have such specific research areas in mind. My initial reading was “Wow, that’s really different”. But rereading the post and seeing more of the qualifiers, I’m not so sure. Rambling rumination here…

Given our shared desire to discourage applicants who drift into grad school and stay in a rut until they get shoved out the other end as embittered critics of the academy, l don’t think you’d want undergraduate environments to be fitted to what people will encounter in grad school. After all, most of the undergrads aren’t or shouldn’t be headed there. For those who are, this highlights the importance of undergraduate research opportunities that are as close as possible to the real thing.