WHEN I first thought of writing this article I envisioned a series of letters, along the lines of Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth, detailing my journey to the new world for the folks back home?telling it like it is, describing what it's like in the curious place referred to as the real world. For that is how we in academia describe the life that goes on beyond the confines of the classroom. While my stature and the length of my journey hardly measure up to those of Twain's correspondent, Satan, I felt that perhaps my letters could be just as informative and illuminating in their own way. A year out of graduate school, a year of job hunting out in the world, had earned me some battle scars, some amusing stories, and some valuable information. At a time when the number of teaching jobs is dwindling, Ph.D.'s find themselves in the frightening situation of having to choose between unemployment and nonacademic employment. I describe it as a frightening choice, because for most graduate students headed toward an academic career the outside world has become an unknown, alien, and unfriendly place. Cut off from any first-hand knowledge, we tend to believe the horror stories that creep across the campus about college grads driving trucks and Ph.D.'s waiting on tables, not by choice but out of necessity. This, we are told, is the fate awaiting professors or professors-to be. And that is how most Ph.D.'s see themselves?as trained teachers and scholars and little else. While I had decided not to teach before I completed my degree, my situation was similar to that of academics unable to find teaching jobs. I had a degree that qualified me for academic employment. If I could not or did not choose that career, what options were open to me? No one seemed to know what else a Ph.D. in literature could do. I certainly didn't. I had some fantasies, some distorted ideas of what opportunities awaited me in the world beyond. And, of course, there were always the horror stories. So when I loaded the last box of books into a rented station wagon bound for New York City, I had little idea of where I was headed. Yes, I had a physical destination, but I had no clear idea of what direction to take once I arrived. How does one begin looking for a job? What categories do you look under in the employment section of the New York Times? College Grad? Admin Asst? Publishing? What did having a doctorate in English qualify me for? The first step had to be an analysis of my marketable skills. I could read, write, evaluate, research, criticize, teach. I could speak a foreign language and use a library. I could even type, somewhat. Each Sunday I carefully searched through the help-wanted ads for jobs Linda J. Lehrer*