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We graduate an order of magnitude more PhDs than anyone has a real use for. Even ignoring arts and humanities PhDs which are obvious cases, in fields like biol
by laingc 6y ago
We graduate an order of magnitude more PhDs than anyone has a real use for.
Even ignoring arts and humanities PhDs which are obvious cases, in fields like biology a newly minted average PhD has roughly zero people competing for them. They’ll be lucky to find a job even close to their field. You have biology PhDs working as Clinical Research Associates, for heaven’s sake.
- chrisseaton 6y agoI don't understand - you can do thousands of jobs with a PhD. You can be a high-school teacher in your subject for example.- I don't think we have a shortage of teachers! Or you can work in industry. Not everyone does a PhD in order to get onto a tenure track at a college, which is what I think you meant.
- laingc 6y agoAs someone with a PhD who works in industry, that’s certainly not what I meant. There is a massive, massive oversupply of PhDs. We can argue about the magnitude of the oversupply, but the reasonable range of discussion is between “huge” and “gigantic”.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> There is a massive, massive oversupply of PhDs. There clearly isn't - since there's such huge competition to hire them. If there was a massive oversupply they'd be unemployed.
- laingc 6y agoThere is almost no competition to hire them, as far as I can see. Maybe top-flight CS PhDs from Stanford, I’d believe that. But your average biology or chemistry PhD? Every single one of them that I know struggled mightily in the job market.