De rerum academica

* The truth about academic "careers". As nearly as I can tell, if you don't get a tenure-track job while you're still in graduate school, you might as well tattoo LOSER on your forehead and stamp DO NOT HIRE! in three-inch-tall red letters on your resume. Anyone who has worked as a "temporary" or adjunct academic is marked as a failure.

* And getting a tenure-track job doesn't mean much anyway, since spiteful academic colleagues love to torpedo people's tenure bids for no apparent reason, dumping them onto the job market after six years with "DENIED TENURE!" gleefully stamped on their forehead. And as the author of this article finds out, job experience is of negative value on the employment market. A clueless newbie with ink still wet on his diploma is more likely to get a job offer than someone who knows what he's doing.