3 ms·

In my PhD program I don't see that at all, in fact our program recently paid for students to attend a multiple day seminar about how to get jobs outside academi

In my PhD program I don't see that at all, in fact our program recently paid for students to attend a multiple day seminar about how to get jobs outside academia. I'm not sure where you get that impression from

vinnie-io 3y ago
have you considered you might already be brainwashed
ke88y 3y ago
> in fact our program recently paid for students to attend a multiple day seminar about how to get jobs outside academia. Consider that preparing you for jobs outside of university should be the goal of your education, not relegated to a two-day seminar. And also consider how relatively fucked it is that such a seminar is actually quite necessary due to the fact that the vast majority of your faculty haven't spent more than a trivial amount of time in industry. (Things that don't count as non-trivial industry experience include: the gap year between undergrad and grad school, the one year industry Post-Doc, sporatic consulting, the "spinoff" that never got past a seed round in which the university endowment or SBIR was the lead "investor", or especially the "several internships at top companies" lol.)
- kevviiinn 3y ago
  The goal of a PhD education is to learn how to do research, first and foremost. That is the entire point of a PhD If you want to do anything else just get a masters
  - ke88y 3y ago
    > The goal of a PhD education is to learn how to do research, first and foremost. This is vague to the point of meaninglessness. To wit, consider the following questions: 1. What is "Research"? (In PhD school the de facto answer is "whatever things get published in top conferences") 2. What does it mean to "learn how to do Research"? (I argue the most important skill is knowing which questions to ask, but that's not something that PhD students or even Professors every get to actually do -- your funding agency's friendly managers/directors will clearly articulate the set of questions you are permitted to ask during Proposer's Day workshops.) All of that to say: learning how to do "Research" is the goal that students are told they're supposed to have. The actual goal of a PhD program is to generate income from overhead on grants. This has a nice side benefit of occasionally producing valuable licensing revenue streams. That anyone learns anything is a happy coincidence.

vinnie-io 3y ago

have you considered you might already be brainwashed

ke88y 3y ago

> in fact our program recently paid for students to attend a multiple day seminar about how to get jobs outside academia. Consider that preparing you for jobs outside of university should be the goal of your education, not relegated to a two-day seminar. And also consider how relatively fucked it is that such a seminar is actually quite necessary due to the fact that the vast majority of your faculty haven't spent more than a trivial amount of time in industry. (Things that don't count as non-trivial industry experience include: the gap year between undergrad and grad school, the one year industry Post-Doc, sporatic consulting, the "spinoff" that never got past a seed round in which the university endowment or SBIR was the lead "investor", or especially the "several internships at top companies" lol.)

kevviiinn 3y ago
The goal of a PhD education is to learn how to do research, first and foremost. That is the entire point of a PhD If you want to do anything else just get a masters
- ke88y 3y ago
  > The goal of a PhD education is to learn how to do research, first and foremost. This is vague to the point of meaninglessness. To wit, consider the following questions: 1. What is "Research"? (In PhD school the de facto answer is "whatever things get published in top conferences") 2. What does it mean to "learn how to do Research"? (I argue the most important skill is knowing which questions to ask, but that's not something that PhD students or even Professors every get to actually do -- your funding agency's friendly managers/directors will clearly articulate the set of questions you are permitted to ask during Proposer's Day workshops.) All of that to say: learning how to do "Research" is the goal that students are told they're supposed to have. The actual goal of a PhD program is to generate income from overhead on grants. This has a nice side benefit of occasionally producing valuable licensing revenue streams. That anyone learns anything is a happy coincidence.