--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: It's difficult to get a job and people…" description: "\"It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their schools, by their ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg" --- # It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school… ![“It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their schools, by their schools where they're graduate students, and that does become exploitative eventually because they're very cheap labor and there's a way in which…” quote by Louis Menand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg) > “It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their schools, by their schools where they're graduate students, and that does become exploitative eventually because they're very cheap labor and there's a way in which in it's not in the institution's interest to give them a degree if they can continue to employ them, I don't think anybody thinks that way, but effectively that's the way the system is starting to work.” [Louis Menand](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-menand/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Graduate students often work for low pay, creating a conflict of interest that can hinder their academic progress. **In simple terms:** Grad students are cheap labor, which can be exploitative. Key Takeaway Advocate for fair compensation and degree completion. Themes education labor exploitation policy economics ethics Mood critical concerned Type policy analysis When to use this quote - universities - research labs - policy making Key Concepts fair wages academic integrity systemic reform Questions to Reflect On - How can institutions balance budget constraints with fair labor? - What alternatives exist for graduate support? A Different Perspective Change may be slow due to institutional inertia. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Cheap labor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cheap-labor/) [Education](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/education/) [Giving](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/giving/) [Graduate student](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/graduate-student/) [Graduate students](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/graduate-students/) [Graduates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/graduates/) [Institutions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/institutions/) [Instructors](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/instructors/) [Interest](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/interest/) [Jobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/jobs/) [Labor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/labor/) [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) [School](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/school/) [Stay in school](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stay-in-school/) [Students](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/students/) [Teaching](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/teaching/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) ## Related quotes > [Sports help women stay in school longer and make them less likely to use drugs, break the law, or get pregnant at an early…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julie-foudy/sports-help-women-stay-in-school-longer-and-make-them-less-likely-to/) [Julie Foudy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julie-foudy/) > [Don't do drugs, kids. Stay in school.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jamie-zawinski/don-t-do-drugs-kids-stay-in-school/) [Jamie Zawinski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jamie-zawinski/) > [I had this health teacher who kept me after class one time, saying, ‘You’re missing a lot of class.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dane-dehaan/i-had-this-health-teacher-who-kept-me-after-class-one-time-saying-you/) [Dane DeHaan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dane-dehaan/) > [I only want to do good projects. I want to make good decisions. If it's just a dumb movie, then no, I'd rather stay…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annasophia-robb/i-only-want-to-do-good-projects-i-want-to-make-good-decisions-if-it-s/) [AnnaSophia Robb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annasophia-robb/) > [I wanted to be a mechanic. When I was 14 I wanted to quit school and go work on my car. 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Marshall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-c-marshall/) Browse all 322 Assistants quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their schools, by their schools where they're graduate students, and that does become exploitative eventually because they're very cheap labor and there's a way in which in it's not in the institution's interest to give them a degree if they can continue to employ them, I don't think anybody thinks that way, but effectively that's the way the system is starting to work.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Louis Menand" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-menand/it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-stay-in-school-longer-because/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Assistants" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-menand/it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-stay-in-school-longer-because/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/faa/louis-menand-8583_assistants_it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-s_429500.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants…” — Louis Menand", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Louis Menand", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/louis-menand/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "It's difficult to get a job...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-menand/it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-stay-in-school-longer-because/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/louis-menand/it-s-difficult-to-get-a-job-and-people-stay-in-school-longer-because/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```