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Why? Let's start with: 1. More students than advisors, so a built-in pyramid scheme unless academia expands exponentially forever. 2. Fully backloaded reward
by pishpash 9y ago
Why? Let's start with:
1. More students than advisors, so a built-in pyramid scheme unless academia expands exponentially forever.
2. Fully backloaded reward system, so a built-in lock-in until the end, and the evaluation/reward isn't under your control.
3. For some, spend years doing work but only a small piece is relevant to the reward.
4. For some, zero actual training for the eventual academic job, if they get it.
5. It's a job where you do all the work and take all the risk, but are paid like shit and treated like a favor is done to "train you".
In other words, the whole thing is set up to destroy the self worth of a normal person and take away their agency and independent identity. Without coping strategies, I would expect them to develop mental issues.
- haidut 9y agoHow is this different from the GENERAL employment reality in every late-stage capitalist society? What you just said is applicable to pretty much any job/occupation in any industry, unless a person is at the top of the food chain (CEO, tenured faculty, etc).
- pishpash 9y agoThe difference is, postgraduates in academia are near the top of the food chain and provide significant value to the economy, as seen by their market rates outside academia. They are usually the cream of the crop every step of the way, and on paper they are each independently training to be at the top of the food chain once they finish. This results in a severe cognitive dissonance and isolation that don't happen in your "other job/occupation in any industry". The same is seen with medical residents, where depression is frequent. Your regular wage-slave may also feel terrible but they have already accepted their fate.