4 ms·

The average age of a PhD student is 33 years and even at normal speed, no breaks/hurdles and starting right out of high-school, you are 25(?). Something about a

The average age of a PhD student is 33 years and even at normal speed, no breaks/hurdles and starting right out of high-school, you are 25(?). Something about applying this babysitting attitude of "somebody needs to tell them" to highly educated individuals of that age just doesn't sit right with me. If I were a PhD supervisor, I would probably find it ridiculous that one of my responsibilities would be "pointing people to the universities careers service". I'm also not sure why you would expect a supervisor to be able to give good career advice when some of them have only ever experienced academia themselves.

hycaria 9y ago
That's higher than I thought, but I guess that's US numbers. Are they starting it way later (and if so what are they doing in between) ? Or is it simply a long time spent in PhD ?
- jogundas 9y ago
  Europe Physics adds up as follows: finish school at 18 + 4 BSc + 2 MSc + 4 PhD = 28
chestervonwinch 9y ago
> I'm also not sure why you would expect a supervisor to be able to give good career advice when some of them have only ever experienced academia themselves. Nonetheless, a good supervisor should understand and take into account what the student is ultimately trying to obtain out of the PhD. If the student is aimed toward academia, then producing influential papers is priority. If the student is aimed toward industry, then the advisor can guide the student towards a less theoretical problem and encourage the student to produce results that showcase their ability to tackle and solve a problem that is both research-level and practical for industry. Of course a poor advisor can disregard the students goals and use the student for whatever purpose that advances the advisor's standing in the field.
mattkrause 9y ago
That's not really what I meant. While it would be nice to get more support finding non-academic jobs, you are right that 1) other resources exist and 2) they don't know much about it anyway. However, a professor should be able to give a trainee an assessment of their own academic prospects: based on your current record, are you part of the 10% of people who land jobs right now? If not, what would help you get there, or is it more of an issue with your aptitude/temperament? Career Services can't do this: they don't know you from Adam and aren't career academics anyway. You can certainly ask for this--and I did (with varying degrees of effectiveness), but I really feel that if you're (claiming to be training) someone, you owe them honest and regular feedback on how that training is going.

hycaria 9y ago

That's higher than I thought, but I guess that's US numbers. Are they starting it way later (and if so what are they doing in between) ? Or is it simply a long time spent in PhD ?

jogundas 9y ago
Europe Physics adds up as follows: finish school at 18 + 4 BSc + 2 MSc + 4 PhD = 28

chestervonwinch 9y ago

> I'm also not sure why you would expect a supervisor to be able to give good career advice when some of them have only ever experienced academia themselves. Nonetheless, a good supervisor should understand and take into account what the student is ultimately trying to obtain out of the PhD. If the student is aimed toward academia, then producing influential papers is priority. If the student is aimed toward industry, then the advisor can guide the student towards a less theoretical problem and encourage the student to produce results that showcase their ability to tackle and solve a problem that is both research-level and practical for industry. Of course a poor advisor can disregard the students goals and use the student for whatever purpose that advances the advisor's standing in the field.

mattkrause 9y ago

That's not really what I meant. While it would be nice to get more support finding non-academic jobs, you are right that 1) other resources exist and 2) they don't know much about it anyway. However, a professor should be able to give a trainee an assessment of their own academic prospects: based on your current record, are you part of the 10% of people who land jobs right now? If not, what would help you get there, or is it more of an issue with your aptitude/temperament? Career Services can't do this: they don't know you from Adam and aren't career academics anyway. You can certainly ask for this--and I did (with varying degrees of effectiveness), but I really feel that if you're (claiming to be training) someone, you owe them honest and regular feedback on how that training is going.