cmpech.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Despite so much doom and gloom from commentators and higher education professionals, it's great to see enrollments up this year basically across the board in the US

submitted 38 days ago • 0 comments

I had a great time chatting with Deepak Bhatt for his Business Talk Podcast. We discussed my forthcoming book, Major Trade-Offs, which will be out this May! I hope you check it out!

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

The jobs AI will replace have more to do with cultural value than skills. AI can do engineering tasks well, but we won't replace engineers with AI. AI is terrible at creating content, but "human editors, writers and content producers" are devalued culturally and replaced even if profitable.

submitted 79 days ago • 1 comment

Starting to plan my Spring Soc of Ed grad seminar. Can't wait to read these books with my students @charlieeaton.bsky.social @caseystockstill.bsky.social

submitted 97 days ago • 1 comment

What a great bit of data visualization. The chart is striking!

submitted 102 days ago • 0 comments

Really disappointing to see a wealthy private university pause admissions to a bunch of PhD programs including sociology. I suspect if this happened in a red state it would be bigger news and all over our timelines

submitted 103 days ago • 4 comments

I'm thrilled to share the cover for my forthcoming book Major Trade-Offs! I love the retro design, building illustrations, and color scheme. The team at the University of Chicago Press really nailed it. Keep an eye out for the book, coming May 2025

submitted 104 days ago • 11 comments

I spoke to Tim Paradis for his Business Insider article on how hard it is for recent college graduates to find a good entry-level job. Check it out!

submitted 146 days ago • 0 comments

My book has a website! It's getting real!

submitted 165 days ago • 0 comments

Really interesting article but I don't think I agree with the proposed solutions. I think there are two ways to fix this. Jobs and wage guarantees for young folks and/or forced retirement (with adequate pension support). Both require major government intervention.

submitted 187 days ago • 0 comments

A month ago, 'bland midwestern white guy' was regarded as a tautology in the VP search: All midwestern white guys are bland. But Tim Walz has shown far greater depth of character than the portraits of masculinity we've been sold by Hollywood and Madison Avenue for the past decade.

submitted 192 days ago • 0 comments

There's lots of recent research on the degradation of office work. One finding from my forthcoming book Major Trade-Offs (out Spring 2025 w/ Chicago Press) is that even for graduates of technical disciplines, much entry-level work is now rote/clerical

submitted 192 days ago • 0 comments

New AAUP report shows grad student and contingent appointments are way up while TT lines are flat. I would love to know how universities calculate enrollment to tenure-stream ratios. It seems to me colleges are scrambling for more instructors but say enrollments can't support more tenure lines.

submitted 248 days ago • 0 comments

Just completed the marketing questionnaire for my book. We're moving full steam ahead toward Spring publication. And I've got an updated (and hopefully final) title. "Major Trade-Offs: The Surprising Truths about College Majors and Entry-level Jobs." Next step: copyedits.

submitted 249 days ago • 2 comments

I just submitted the final version of "Major Tradeoffs" to the University of Chicago Press! Though it feels strange to celebrate anything right now, I'm proud of the almost-decade-long process it took to get to this point. On to production...

submitted 305 days ago • 1 comment

Help me figure out the subtitle for my book. The choices are Major Tradeoffs: (A) "Separating Myth from Reality about College Majors and Entry-level Jobs" or (B) "College Degree Choice and Entry-level Jobs." Which do you prefer?

submitted 319 days ago • 2 comments

This is a great article, but I would add the distinction between "skill acquisition" and "deep learning" of the kind that takes place in the liberal arts is an ideological distinction. The liberal arts do teach useful workplace skills. These skills are just culturally devalued.

submitted 338 days ago • 0 comments

Higher ed, like other sectors/industries, has hollowed out the middle. You can either have a high-paying or low-paying job. There's so little in between.

submitted 340 days ago • 1 comment

Hey sociologists, any recommendations for short essays/excerpts to assign in Intro with Southern U.S. research sites? I work at FSU and it's really struck me this semester how little geographic representation there is in the articles/books that are normally excerpted

submitted 342 days ago • 5 comments

These kinds of laws underscore the importance of faculty unions. The UFF here at FSU and the university have very different ideas about what post-tenure review should look like and thankfully this needs to be negotiated.

submitted 352 days ago • 0 comments

I just put the Reading Response Paper prompt from my Intro to Sociology class into ChatGPT. It produced a very well-written but completely vapid response (I would maybe give it a C if I were feeling generous). I find this encouraging.

submitted 369 days ago • 0 comments

New report shows many college grads are initially underemployed and will still be underemployed 10 years later. One reason I was motivated to write Major Tradeoffs (forthcoming with UChicago Press) is that first jobs vary so much in quality and are so consequential for long-term outcomes.

submitted 374 days ago • 0 comments

I spent 7 years as a grad student and 3 as a postdoc. This means I opened my first retirement account at age 35. I'm lucky to have a job that pays well and has great benefits. But that's wild. I'm not complaining, just pointing out how far behind this career path can put you.

submitted 376 days ago • 0 comments

My book, "Major Tradeoffs: Separating Myth from Reality about College Majors and Entry-level Jobs in the School-to-Work Transition," has been approved by the faculty board at the University of Chicago Press! It's officially Forthcoming 2025! Look out for it!

submitted 381 days ago • 3 comments

Some good news! A lot of hard work went into this effort and it's great to see collective action pay off!

submitted 395 days ago • 0 comments

First day on the tenure track at FSU Sociology. Obligatory picture of my office attached. It used to belong to the great Irene Padavic so you know it has good vibes. It's wild starting in the Spring because I just went from a post-doc to a professor seemingly overnight.

submitted 419 days ago • 0 comments

Just had a paper rejected where the editor said, "Qualitative inquiry is never about generalizability." This kind of thing always gets under my skin b/c it's so wrong. Yes, qual research is not statistically generalizable. But it identifies social or cultural processes

submitted 461 days ago • 1 comment

UNCG Chancellor is worried people will see that the ROI for liberal arts programs is good for both students and the university. This is a problem because he wants to cut them anyway. The article really shows that higher ed admin/boards hire consultants to achieve pre-established ideological goals.

submitted 471 days ago • 1 comment

This is the kind of automation I can get behind

submitted 475 days ago • 0 comments

I would love to see something like this in Sociology. Does anyone know if it exists?

submitted 485 days ago • 3 comments

If I'm being my true lame self then "Rearviewmirror" by Pearl Jam. If I'm being my slightly cooler lame self then either "Game of Pr*cks" by Guided by Voices or "Range Life" by Pavement Sad to say "Birthday" by the Sugarcubes and peak Replacements all predate 1989

submitted 486 days ago • 0 comments

I love every article that says being in a union is associated with "X" positive outcome. There really is no way to overstate how beneficial unions are for workers.

submitted 487 days ago • 0 comments

This is beyond parody. What a joke.

submitted 492 days ago • 0 comments

Just finished a major data collection. 102 interviews in the books! Across my entire postdoc, for two projects, I completed 181 60-90 min interviews. Feels good to be done!

submitted 494 days ago • 0 comments