This just sounds like academia needs drastic reforms. In Engineering we have 22 year olds directing technicians to do that kind of menial work. The fact that

This just sounds like academia needs drastic reforms. In Engineering we have 22 year olds directing technicians to do that kind of menial work. The fact that the work is so unvaluable yet years were dedicated to it, seems like a failing somewhere. Not everything needs immediate economic value, but to see supposedly smart people not make 6 figures means: >They arent that smart, smart engineers get picked up by irrelevant industries simply for being smart >Someone is directing the smart people poorly. Of course its both, the leadership of academia has failed us. Those who stick with Academia into PhDs and beyond are essentially second class performers who couldn't make it in Industry.