I haven't seen a single competetive job posting from a research institution in 10 years of software development, despite having the desire and acumen to seek th

I haven't seen a single competetive job posting from a research institution in 10 years of software development, despite having the desire and acumen to seek them out. I don't expect that to change. If I care enough about a thorny research problem, I'll start my own company, do my own research, and maybe hire some academics as bargain-barrel contributors to do grunt analytics work... the last thing I'll do is join a research mill as a cost-center tech hire. "Most RSEs have a PhD"... talk about selecting aggressively for people with no experience building functional software. Hiring only PhDs to write research software smacks of hiring only white males who can drink and play golf to function as business executives. You're selecting for ability to posture, not deliver value.