3 ms·
Sense of altruism, more like it. I don't see the sense of entitlement in spending years in low-status, low-paying positions to research Alzheimer's.
by Estragon 11y ago
Sense of altruism, more like it. I don't see the sense of entitlement in spending years in low-status, low-paying positions to research Alzheimer's.
- dnautics 11y agoyou stay in a postdoc because you think you're entitled to a professorial position. You could advance to a staff scientist position or move on to industry, or just do something else. If you've spent 12 years doing something, it means you were probably a bad experimentalist, really unlucky, or just bad at 'playing the game'. If you're in science and any one of the three above applies, you should quit. The market was trying to tell her that, she didn't get the message, even when her institution forced her out.
- danieltillett 11y agoThere are no real "staff scientist" positions less competitive that an academic position. In regards industry have a look at how many Ph.D.s have been laid off by the pharmaceutical industry in the last 10 years. Not every field has had the run comp sci has had in the last few years.
- dnautics 11y agoI'm a biochemist so I'm aware. After four years of postdoc, I quit my job and drove for Lyft for a year. Now I contract code. So, I read the writing on the wall. And by the way, staff scientist positions are most definitely not as competitive as professor positions.
- giaour 11y agoMaybe every year she received several rejection letters telling her just how close she came to making it. I remember getting a few "you were one of X finalists so please try again next year" letters; they made it really difficult to move to industry and really easy to think that all would work out in my favor if I just stuck around for another year.
- dnautics 11y agoI have gotten that letter for startup accelerators, but never for an academic professor slot position.
- giaour 11y agoI was in the humanities, and maybe the process is different in the sciences, but 3-5 finalists for each position would always be invited for an on-site interview. Your rejection letter might not spell out that you were a finalist, but it was clear from the interview process.
- danieltillett 11y ago>And by the way, staff scientist positions are most definitely not as competitive as professor positions. I did say real staff scientist positions, not temporary postdoc-like positions or admin jobs. There are relatively few true research jobs that are not fixed term outside of academia (I am excluding industry of course as that is a totally different path).