Academia or Creative Media?

[mynameismuse]

Hi All,

I'm so excited to be here. Finally found my clan!! (I might be an INFJ too, yet to figure that out.)

I'm sure some of you have experienced what I am going through right now. I recently graduated from college, and I interned in structured corporate environment for a year. Unsurprisingly, as many of you would have known, I'm not cut out for that. I did my job well but I don't have any passion for following bunch of rules or sticking with a less optimal practice.

Now I'm considering going into sociology PhD (social mobility and immigration to be more precise). because it studies peoples and allows me to be surrounded by knowledge and knowledgeable people. But on the hand I'm a creative person, not super artistic though, and I want to use media as a means to reveal social issues and give meanings to people and our society. (I'm also borderline INFP.)

I don't know if academia is for me. Any advice?

 

[Pyropyro]

Hi All,

I'm so excited to be here. Finally found my clan!! (I might be an INFJ too, yet to figure that out.)

I'm sure some of you have experienced what I am going through right now. I recently graduated from college, and I interned in structured corporate environment for a year. Unsurprisingly, as many of you would have known, I'm not cut out for that. I did my job well but I don't have any passion for following bunch of rules or sticking with a less optimal practice.

Now I'm considering going into sociology PhD (social mobility and immigration to be more precise). because it studies peoples and allows me to be surrounded by knowledge and knowledgeable people. But on the hand I'm a creative person, not super artistic though, and I want to use media as a means to reveal social issues and give meanings to people and our society. (I'm also borderline INFP.)

I don't know if academia is for me. Any advice?

Pragmatically, having a PhD opens a lot of doors and not just immigration. I really prefer that you stay at your country though. Unlucky doctors and doctorates usually end up washing toilets in their "dream" country. You can crawl your way up though.

Academia is very stable IMO. However, you have to deal with politics.

Well you can practice your creative side through social media platforms and blogs. It won't get you money at first but at least you can try your talents for a spin.

 

[mynameismuse]

Pragmatically, having a PhD opens a lot of doors and not just immigration. I really prefer that you stay at your country though. Unlucky doctors and doctorates usually end up washing toilets in their "dream" country. You can crawl your way up though.

Academia is very stable IMO. However, you have to deal with politics.

Well you can practice your creative side through social media platforms and blogs. It won't get you money at first but at least you can try your talents for a spin.

I meant that I want to specialize in social mobility and immigration.

 

[Pyropyro]

I meant that I want to specialize in social mobility and immigration.

Ah I see.

Well, if you can earn a tenure (which is hard) then you're set in the academe.

 

[Absurdity]

Not sure what part of the world you're in but in the States academia is imploding. The job market is awful and tenure is all but disappearing, especially for the humanities and social sciences. It will be extremely difficult to land a job that provides even the slightest financial security unless you go to a top 5-10 program, and even then it won't be easy. It's something I considered myself for a long time before a lot of people (including my professors) talked me out of it.

Moreover, academia can be just as structured and suffocatingly bureaucratic as any corporation. Assuming you make it through your PhD and miraculously land in a tenure-track position (probably similar odds of winning the lottery), it's "publish or perish," and most of the time that means doing research on something you aren't passionate about to get funding and to get it in a reputable journal.

You really need to do your own research before you start heading down this path.

 

[Jungle]

Academia is full of INTJs. It is not really about ideas so much as it is about building systems of ideas. Having said that, I think there are just enough INTPs and ENTPs in academia that you will find some allies, but be prepared to join the 'creative intellectual' underground.

I want to use media as a means to reveal social issues and give meanings to people and our society.

Cool! Can you unpack that a bit more? What kind of things do you have in mind?

There are a lot of exciting possibilities in the media at the moment. I'm interested in heading in that direction myself. Job security is probably even less than academia, but it should be possible to carve out a niche for yourself.

Perhaps you could go down the path of being a combined journalist/blogger/author/something else/something else. The job security would come gradually as you build up the different aspects over time.

 

[Architect]

You're much more likely to be an INFP, INFJ or some other type. You probably have T in the inferior which is why you self identified (or test identified - same thing) as one.

I want to use media as a means to reveal social issues and give meanings to people and our society

That's a clincher.

Academia is full of INTJs. It is not really about ideas so much as it is about building systems of ideas.

No academia is mostly about navigating a corporate structure, and navigating a cut throat career. I was a Physics PhD upon a time and the department was full of INTJ's all battling with each other.

As an ENTP professor friend of mine says "nominally we're all equal, so therefore everybody competes with each other to gain an advantage." INTP's hate that.

 

[Jaffa]

But on the hand I'm a creative person, not super artistic though

Welcome to the forum.

If you're creative then that will lead to artistry. Learn the tools of said genre of artistry and it is simply another vent for your creativity.

 

[mynameismuse]

Not sure what part of the world you're in but in the States academia is imploding. The job market is awful and tenure is all but disappearing, especially for the humanities and social sciences. It will be extremely difficult to land a job that provides even the slightest financial security unless you go to a top 5-10 program, and even then it won't be easy. It's something I considered myself for a long time before a lot of people (including my professors) talked me out of it.

Moreover, academia can be just as structured and suffocatingly bureaucratic as any corporation. Assuming you make it through your PhD and miraculously land in a tenure-track position (probably similar odds of winning the lottery), it's "publish or perish," and most of the time that means doing research on something you aren't passionate about to get funding and to get it in a reputable journal.

You really need to do your own research before you start heading down this path.

Thank you so much. I will keep your words in mind!