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Why can't job security (or even compensation) be marginally improved? No one is expecting FAANG-level salaries with lifetime tenure. On the other hand, it's no
by mattkrause 6y ago
Why can't job security (or even compensation) be marginally improved? No one is expecting FAANG-level salaries with lifetime tenure.
On the other hand, it's not hard to see how 1-year contracts at $50k/year chase people out of research. Heck, you can't even stay at this level for many years--a ton of postdoc funding has time-since-PhD limitations. It's either up or out.
Funding some staff scientists at (say) ~75k/year with 4-6 years between renewals might enable more and better science. There's even evidence this improves trainee outcomes too....
- 908B64B197 6y agoI wonder how Xerox PARC and Bell Labs operated. How did they get so many innovators in one place?
- notfromhere 6y agoThey had monopoly markets that printed cash. They had huge science labs because they were hiring to keep talent from forming competitors, and kept them busy with research. The science was more byproduct than ultimate goal
- ethbr0 6y agoHmm. Like some sort of giant company, that's a de-facto monopoly with a core product that prints cash and requires very little R&D innovation... If only we had those today.
- notfromhere 6y agoThe key difference was that the supply of quality researchers was so small that you and a handful of other monopolies could hire them all and keep them away from your competitors.