2 ms·

I still don’t really get it sorry - why isn’t being a postdoctoral research assistant a valid career by itself? I know people who don’t want to teach or lead a

I still don’t really get it sorry - why isn’t being a postdoctoral research assistant a valid career by itself? I know people who don’t want to teach or lead a group or work in industry so they do postdoctoral RA work. That’s their career. Why’s that not seen as a valid thing to do in the US? People are saying ‘because you might not get tenure.’ Ok but not everyone wants that career.

N1H1L 5y ago
Because it's time limited. National lab postdocs are valid only upto 5 years from PhD. Many grants won't fund you if you are X years since PhD. That's why the position of Research Assistant Professors exist - the way around the postdoc time limit loophole. However, RAPs are significantly more expensive than postdocs, which is why faculty are more eager to phase out senior postdocs and hire fresh blood rather than convert them to RAPs.