User blog comment:Pvg3/Am I the only spouse who is about to have a breakdown if her husband doesn't get a job?/@comment-79.66.179.124-20100115184933

At three years, a PhD's window of hireability is just about closed. This might be the time to consider alternatives and begin applying, using the anxiety of the job search to fuel the non-academic search so he isn't left floating as another academic year comes and goes. I'm not sure if more school (and debt) is the answer at this moment- just look at all the chronicle articles and anecdotal evidence of the collapsed legal job market and out of work mba's. I agree with the above poster, we desperately need smart people who are critical thinkers in the various branches of the foreign service, he should apply to the State Dept. and CIA there's quite a variety of jobs within each. If teaching is a vocation that he doesn't want to give up, private high schools would offer a chance to teach better students than most he would get at a crappy state university or LAC- at a much better salary. Also remind him that his experience is no the exception but the rule. No one who gets an interview or a job nowadays does so because they are among 'the best.' With hundreds of candidates of equal ability, preparation and credentials and so few jobs with increasingly vague job postings, like buying a lottery ticket, its just dumb luck.