system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
So give me a better alternative.

I'm feeling insolent.

There is a tendency among some academics on this forum to advise against pursuing graduate studies. They cite the usual reasons--decreasing salaries, job insecurity, etc.--as evidence. Presumably they are motivated by one of three reasons: 1) sadism, the joy of crushing dreams; 2) egoism, "I successfully navigated the world of academia but I would not expect as much from you"; 3) sincere concern for the well-being of the student, which I suspect is the primary reason, but I could not help including the other two.

Certainly the concerns are substantial. Attrition rates alone indicate that many students either are not adequately prepared for graduate school or are attending graduate school for the wrong reasons. That being said, many students want to attend graduate school because the skills they have developed as undergraduates are unlikely to be rewarded outside of graduate school. Whether or not that reason is sufficient, I do not know.

Which brings me to the title of my post. You don't owe your students an alternative. Providing the answer to the question "How should I live my life?" is not, for better or worse, your purpose as professors. But at the same time, each of you is complicit in a system designed to develop skills applicable only within that system. It is also an unsustainable, increasingly corporatized system that charges students an exorbitant tuition so that they might pursue positions within that same system for wages too low to cover the cost of the initial expense in the first place. Moreover, your jobs are dependent upon, among other factors, the student's or her financial providers' willingness to pay for the classes you teach. We can, of course, quibble over the degree to which the critical thinking skills valued in undergraduate classrooms apply outside the classroom but, on the whole, my reasonably intimate knowledge of postcolonial theory has yet to land me a job. I do not intend to imply that you are culpable, or even responsible, for the scores of overeducated, underemployed (to borrow a phrase) students on the job market who increasingly consider graduate school preferable to positions hopelessly unable to recognize the value of books beyond entertainment, if they can recognize the value of books at all, but I do think complicity should be given due attention.

So I ask, depending not on your sense of duty, since I don't think that you are obligated to provide the answer, but on the same sense of sincere concern that motivates you to discourage graduate studies in the first place, what is a better alternative? Where can I use these skills that mean so much to me that I dedicated four years to honing them, that help me define who I am, if not within the very system that encouraged me to develop them in the first place?

Full disclosure: I recently completed my Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature and am in the process of pursuing graduate studies. My question deals with the humanities more than the sciences since the sciences tend to develop skills applicable outside academia. Finally, if a sense of betrayal pervades this post, please know that I do not regret my time as an undergraduate, I am merely concerned by how quickly professors discourage graduate studies without stopping to asses the ambivalence of their position or, if they do asses that ambivalence, then it has not been done publicly, *to my knowledge*.
gpt
I think one of the fundamental misconceptions that people have (especially undergraduates but also parents, etc.) is the idea that an undergraduate major is supposed to prepare you for a specific career.  The old adage: "what are you going to do with that philosophy degree, open a philosophy shop?" is demonstrative of the utter misconception of what undergrad is for.

Unless you are pursuing a very specific major for a very specific goal, such as engineering to become an engineer, history to become a historian (in which case, hopefully you *will* understand the ramifications of going to graduate school when you apply) or the like, it really doesn't matter what major you pursue.  

The goal of a 4 year undergraduate degree is to make you a well rounded person, able to think critically and contribute to society and to function in complicated and complex situations.  It is not to prepare you for a specific "career", per se.  If you want to prepare yourself for a specific career through a specific path of education, perhaps trade school is the answer (keeping in mind that undergrad *can* but doesn't have to be a trade school for an academic career).  Otherwise guess what, uncertainty (and not always liking your job) is part of being an adult.  Even those in graduate school/academia suffer from it!   

Comp lit teaches you how to look at disparate cultures, styles of writing. and ideas and to synthesize, analyze and craft ideas about your observations.  Guess what, there is no career and no place in life that *isn't* well served by these skills.  But they are not skills designed to slot you into a job, they are skills designed to make you a more competent thinker and doer.

Sorry if you don't find that particularly helpful, but it is kind of the truth.

By all means apply to graduate school if what you want is a career in academia.  But that's what it is, a career training center, not an extension of undergrad.  You don't currently have the skills you need to be an academic.  You will learn them in grad school, and once you're done, you'll be looking for a job.  Just like you're looking for a job right now.  

If you are unsure about academia as the thing you want to do for the rest of your life, go out and use your college experience reading and grappling with ideas to find a job that is interesting.  Barring that, use it to do interesting things when you aren't at work.