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That describes how things work at American universities. The worst part is not even the pay but the idea that people doing PhD are students instead of professio
by jltsiren 5y ago
That describes how things work at American universities. The worst part is not even the pay but the idea that people doing PhD are students instead of professionals. (Some places even talk about postdoctoral students.)
Your experience can be very different in countries that see junior researchers as professionals. You get a solid middle-class salary, and while you earn less than your friends who went to the industry, your life is not qualitatively different from them. Some travel extensively during their PhD, while others have kids and buy a home.
The opportunity cost for doing a PhD is much lower in the latter system.
- PeterisP 5y agoI traveled much more during my PhD than in an industry job before it, simply because the funding for conferences (if I had publishable research) in far-away places was more accessible than vacation money+vacation time during the industry job. Like, a conference isn't a vacation, but I did visit a bunch of beautiful places (e.g. Japan and Iceland) that I likely would not have seen otherwise.