graduate student publishing

Graduate students should definitely be submitting papers to journals before defending their dissertations. The sad reality of the job market is still that the supply of fresh PhDs far outstrips the number of available TT jobs, and having a decent publication or two on your CV really helps you stand out from the huge crowd of ABDs and recent PhDs applying for the same jobs you are. And even if you don't get a paper accepted, submitting something can still be valuable experience because (i) you get experience in how the process works, (ii) you get in the habit of submitting papers to journals, which is a habit you need to acquire, (iii) if you're lucky you might get valuable feedback from the journal's reviewers.

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/advice_to_philo.html