2 ms·

A lot of them leave. A lot of them stay because they think the effort will be worth it when they have a better position. It's also important to note that peopl

A lot of them leave. A lot of them stay because they think the effort will be worth it when they have a better position. It's also important to note that people who want stay in academia tend to do it because they love research. It doesn't pay more, it's harder, it's more unstable... So a lot of them will enter knowing already they're going to be facing a lot of difficulty and stress.

aaronblohowiak 6y ago
There are more industry roles than academic roles for people with phds but there are FAR FAR FAR fewer research roles in industry than there are in academia and in some fields academic postdocs (or in some cases there are industry post docs) are required for even industry research positions! You can always off-ramp from research but very very hard to get back into if you do. Which is all to say the PI grant writing postdoc + grad student “exploitation” complex is reaffirmed from within and without. Like many self-reinforcing systems, change is... hard.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  > there are FAR FAR FAR fewer research roles in industry than there are in academia I'm not sure this is true. How many PhDs does Google alone employ in research roles? Many hundreds I'd guess. That's many many many university faculties. And that's just Google. Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, etc etc out into the long tail. We're both just guessing but I'd reckon there are far more research roles in industry than academia.
  - dmurray 6y ago
    I don't understand why this is downvoted. Sure it's short on evidence, but it seems a plausible argument made in good faith. If "Google research" doesn't sit right with you because showing people more ads shouldn't count as research, think Pfizer, or ABB, or Lockheed Martin.
  - aaronblohowiak 6y ago
    Sorry, I should have put a disclaimer that my area of understanding here is of physical science, not math or comp sci

aaronblohowiak 6y ago

There are more industry roles than academic roles for people with phds but there are FAR FAR FAR fewer research roles in industry than there are in academia and in some fields academic postdocs (or in some cases there are industry post docs) are required for even industry research positions! You can always off-ramp from research but very very hard to get back into if you do. Which is all to say the PI grant writing postdoc + grad student “exploitation” complex is reaffirmed from within and without. Like many self-reinforcing systems, change is... hard.

chrisseaton 6y ago
> there are FAR FAR FAR fewer research roles in industry than there are in academia I'm not sure this is true. How many PhDs does Google alone employ in research roles? Many hundreds I'd guess. That's many many many university faculties. And that's just Google. Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, etc etc out into the long tail. We're both just guessing but I'd reckon there are far more research roles in industry than academia.
- dmurray 6y ago
  I don't understand why this is downvoted. Sure it's short on evidence, but it seems a plausible argument made in good faith. If "Google research" doesn't sit right with you because showing people more ads shouldn't count as research, think Pfizer, or ABB, or Lockheed Martin.
- aaronblohowiak 6y ago
  Sorry, I should have put a disclaimer that my area of understanding here is of physical science, not math or comp sci