4 ms·

Another issue (at least here) is that most positions are limited to 3-4 years and permanent positions in academia are quite rare and hard to get.

N1H1L 5y ago
This is why I am so pissed off at academic hypocrisy currently. Labs were shut down for months. For what? To protect whom? The senior faculty who did their Ph.D. in the early eighties and refuses to transition to emeritus status? Junior researchers were absolutely shortchanged in the pandemic shutdown, and nobody is bothered about it. For all the talk about keeping people safe, why were younger scientists denied access to experimental facilities, and yet almost no funding agencies extended grant contracts? Almost zero institutions extended their timed postdoc contracts too. And to add insult to the injury, most academic institutions had hiring freezes in 2020, effectively kiboshing careers of young scientists caught in this trap. Honestly, I am disgusted with university faculty right now - all fancy talk, no action.
- valarauko 5y ago
  An example of the hypocrisy: a prominent university in the Boston area that announced that they will suspend on campus childcare from January. Labs are still open, and the population of lab workers most likely to have benefited from on campus childcare were postdocs. Now they have to find at home childcare at their own expense. Postdocs also tend to be overwhelmingly foreign nationals who want to avoid rocking the boat.
- throwawaygh 5y ago
  Higher ed is an industry in crisis. Get out and be happy that you realized this before it was too late to leave that hell hole of a sector. The grass is greener. I promise.
- atrettel 5y ago
  Some hiring freezes have actually continued even to today. I applied to one postdoctoral fellowship in the Bay Area in March 2020, and the organization still sends me a monthly update that they have suspended all hiring due to the pandemic and will resume hiring once the pandemic is over (as ill-defined as that may be). That's almost two years at this point. That is a lifetime for young scientists. I agree that decisions like these do effectively end the scientific careers of many young scientists, or at least push them out of science as a career choice. It's sad but true.
  - N1H1L 5y ago
    Thing is - we don't really know at this point whether this wilful destruction of the scientific careers of a cohort were avoidable or not. And zero scientific administrators will face zero consequences for this. Whatever it is, the reverse will actually be trotted out, scientists saved lives and pat themselves on their backs.

N1H1L 5y ago

This is why I am so pissed off at academic hypocrisy currently. Labs were shut down for months. For what? To protect whom? The senior faculty who did their Ph.D. in the early eighties and refuses to transition to emeritus status? Junior researchers were absolutely shortchanged in the pandemic shutdown, and nobody is bothered about it. For all the talk about keeping people safe, why were younger scientists denied access to experimental facilities, and yet almost no funding agencies extended grant contracts? Almost zero institutions extended their timed postdoc contracts too. And to add insult to the injury, most academic institutions had hiring freezes in 2020, effectively kiboshing careers of young scientists caught in this trap. Honestly, I am disgusted with university faculty right now - all fancy talk, no action.

valarauko 5y ago
An example of the hypocrisy: a prominent university in the Boston area that announced that they will suspend on campus childcare from January. Labs are still open, and the population of lab workers most likely to have benefited from on campus childcare were postdocs. Now they have to find at home childcare at their own expense. Postdocs also tend to be overwhelmingly foreign nationals who want to avoid rocking the boat.
throwawaygh 5y ago
Higher ed is an industry in crisis. Get out and be happy that you realized this before it was too late to leave that hell hole of a sector. The grass is greener. I promise.
atrettel 5y ago
Some hiring freezes have actually continued even to today. I applied to one postdoctoral fellowship in the Bay Area in March 2020, and the organization still sends me a monthly update that they have suspended all hiring due to the pandemic and will resume hiring once the pandemic is over (as ill-defined as that may be). That's almost two years at this point. That is a lifetime for young scientists. I agree that decisions like these do effectively end the scientific careers of many young scientists, or at least push them out of science as a career choice. It's sad but true.
- N1H1L 5y ago
  Thing is - we don't really know at this point whether this wilful destruction of the scientific careers of a cohort were avoidable or not. And zero scientific administrators will face zero consequences for this. Whatever it is, the reverse will actually be trotted out, scientists saved lives and pat themselves on their backs.