I am very attracted by the given name of the topic – “How did I become a sociologist”. However, given the real state of affairs, I would call my biographical confession “My path to sociology”.
The fact is that I am an expert with two higher educations, each of which is only indirectly connected with sociology. In accordance with my first red diploma I am a labor economist, with the second – an interpreter in the field of business communications. Of course, during training at the general economics faculty of the RGU. G.V. Plekhanov’s professors read us general sociology, but seriously I never thought about work in this sphere.
Perhaps my first unconscious steps along the path leading to the realm of sociology were made during the execution of numerous scientific research papers and writing my thesis on the specialty “Labor Economics.” In this work I unambiguously, as it seemed to me at the time, the economic theme, I analyzed the results of the largest sociological survey, and presented the results of a study that was carried out as part of one of the research projects in which I was the executor. I was very proud of the data provided, although at the same time I realized that my work lacked the strengthening of the economic component – formulas, calculations. In view of objective reasons, my work was not destined to pass beyond the pre-defense at the university department.
However, fate decreed in its own way and exactly the way it really is better for me. Now I work at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is worth noting that when working in this institution, I did not pursue the goal of re-training in graduate school. To this idea I was pushed by wise teachers and colleagues, to whom I am sincerely grateful. It took me a while to decide on the resumption of work on my thesis in a new sociological perspective. And quite a lot. Quite frankly, the fear of going back again, on the one hand, to the familiar postgraduate and scientific research path, but on the other hand, with a completely new and unfamiliar sociological direction, was great, since I did not have much experience in this direction and I constantly asked myself the question “how to write a sociology paper“. But the intention to complete the work begun in the form of the formed results of many years of work in the scientific field – the thesis is also great. So, thanks to the support of close people and colleagues, the decision to start everything from the beginning was accepted, and now I’m an external student in the graduate school of the Institute of Sociology.
There is a well-known expression: “Through the thorns to the stars.” And this statement is perfectly true for me. After all, on the way to achieving the goal you have to overcome a lot of subjective and objective obstacles, to win victories over yourself and over circumstances that are almost always accompanied by useful positive and negative experiences.
