Okay, This Is What I Have Been Up To

Okay, when I originally started this blog, it was my intent to kind of chronicle or journal the procss of finishing my degree and the various milestones, and the process of finding a job. While I have done bits and pieces of that, talking a bit about my comprehensive exams when I was doing them two summers ago, I did very little talk about my prospectus and my dissertation to date. I have also done a little better on the job front, but both of those have simply been overshadowed by my use of this blog as a place to write my professional ideas on various things related to associations I belong to and other research interests.

Well, here's trying something a little different, let's talk about my dissertation. For the most part, my data collection is done - has been since June. However, I have sitting on a lot of untranscribed interviews. Transcriptions that I had originally intended to do over the summer, but then something happened.

Actually, it wasn't quite that bad - this summer I did get some stuff done for an AECT committee that I am sitting on, five AERA proposals submitted, along with at least seven manuscripts (two of which have already been accepted for publication). So I did do something, just not the most immediate thing that needed to be done.

But even that troubles me a bit. I was fortunate enough to win a dissertation completion award here at UGA, so I am being paid until May to simply complete my dissertation. But at the same time I am putting myself on the job market in the Fall and over the Winter. So I wonder if those five proposals, seven manuscripts that were submitted, along with my involvement in a professional organization, won't help me more in the long run in terms of developing my CV in the hopes of getting THE job. And even under my current, adjusted for the summer, timeline I still hope to finish my dissertation in late January or early February.

In that final year of doctoral studies, how does one balance their priorities of dissertation, getting experiences needed to make you marketable, and actually spreading time on the job search?

tags: dissertation, graduate student, graduate students, graduate school, higher education, education