For the first post on observations on grad school after grad school, go here.
The idea of doing extracurricular activities during grad school is a touchy subject, and here’s why: On one hand, activities outside of your research are often the best way to run into interesting, new, out of the box opportunities. On the other hand, most grad students can easily point to a friend that is spending a lot of time doing anything but their research and is thus well on their way to the dreaded 10-year PhD.
I’m defining extracurricular activity here as anything that is not explicitly related to your PhD research.
I don’t have a definite answer to the above issue, but here are 4 observations I can make on the subject of extracurriculars from my experiences in grad school:
#1: An honest evaluation of whether you are using non-research related activities for procrastination is worthwhile.
Let’s make it pseudo-quantitative. Pick a particular extracurricular activity in question. Answer these two questions instantly, without thinking, and see what happens.
1. On a scale of 1 – 10, how enjoyable is the idea of doing your main PhD research right now?
2. On a scale of 1-10, how enjoyable is the idea of working on the extracurricular you picked right now?
Obviously this isn’t the most scientific test in the world, but I’d say if #2 minus #1 is greater than 5 and you’re spending considerable time on the extracurricular activity in question, it’s worth it to step back and evaluate whether you’re using the activity to distract yourself from bigger issues related to your grad school research. I’m not saying you have to love your research. Just think about whether it’s worth another x years of investment, honestly.
The opposite, if #2 is much smaller than #1, is worth a quick note: this likely means you’re stuck in some extracurricular activity you don’t like. This should be a lot more straightforward to recognize, though. Obviously, the important question to ask yourself, if this is the case, is: Why the hell am I doing this?
#2: If you’re learning a new skill set in your extracurricular activity, you’re doing pretty well for yourself.
What I’m thinking of here is the difference between an engineering Ph.D. doing graphic design for the school’s monthly magazine and being secretary for an “engineers interested in [insert something you're really not that into anymore]” club and taking minute meetings and sending emails more often than is useful. In the former, the grad student learns a new, potentially useful, skill set related to graphic design. In the latter, the grad student is taking minutes and writing emails: gross.
Another great example can be found in my interview with Marilyn Garcia, economics professor turned realtor, who kept real-estate as a hobby for close to 5 years before turning it into a full-time job.
#3: Administrative crap is generally not useful.
See above on taking meeting minutes and sending emails. Maybe you’re not spending much time on this and you don’t care, but it’s still worth re-evaluating.
#4: Your future profession is an important factor.
If you’re thinking of venturing slightly astray from a normal post-grad school job for your field (e.g. chemist working for DuPont or doing a post-doc), then often extracurricular activities can be crucial in making this switch.
A typical example of this is a technical PhD realizing they want to do more business-related activities in industry taking business courses, working with MBAs on business plan competitions, etc. They are simply building up experience for their next career move. Totally understandable.
Such are my observations on the usefull(-less)ness of extracurriculars in grad school. Add your experiences in the comments!
Photo by: Cameron Cassan
