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With the exception of poor pay, I experienced all of those things while working as a software dev for a major company. And with the exception of irrelevant pape

With the exception of poor pay, I experienced all of those things while working as a software dev for a major company. And with the exception of irrelevant papers, a friend of mine went through all of those at a startup she joined after her PhD. I am doing a postdoc now - the pay sucks (still good compared to non-tech salaries) but I like what I do, I can choose my own tools, and I'm not longer contractually obligated to put my name in papers I don't like. The instability of the postdoc life sucks if and when you want to have a family, but it can also be very rewarding.

rednafi 2y ago
> With the exception of poor pay, I experienced all of those things while working as a software dev for a major company. Same here. I've worked at grindy startups that made me want to leave the profession altogether—everything from gaslighting by small shop CEOs to firing threats, and even firing a colleague just to show "who's in charge." But switching companies is always an option, as is switching domains. I did that multiple times without much trouble. > The instability of the postdoc life sucks if and when you want to have a family. I thought stability was one of the reasons people choose academia. By stability, I mean a supervisor or program that guarantees a steady influx of cash for a certain period of time. Yeah, but it comes down to what gives you fulfillment. For me, I need challenging work with a reward in pay that matches the effort and academia doesn't seem to fit that curve.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  Is short term stability, really stability? I think it's pretty rare to get post-doc contracts longer than 3 years, renewal after that is unlikely especially for a long period of time. You can't really be a post-doc long term and it can easily have you bouncing across the country/countries following funding. It's more stable than freelancing perhaps or maybe a startup. There's stability in academia as tenured professor but outside that, there really isn't.
  - eli_gottlieb 2y ago
    I've seen a lot of industry outfits fail to survive 18 months with everyone doing the job they were hired for.

rednafi 2y ago

> With the exception of poor pay, I experienced all of those things while working as a software dev for a major company. Same here. I've worked at grindy startups that made me want to leave the profession altogether—everything from gaslighting by small shop CEOs to firing threats, and even firing a colleague just to show "who's in charge." But switching companies is always an option, as is switching domains. I did that multiple times without much trouble. > The instability of the postdoc life sucks if and when you want to have a family. I thought stability was one of the reasons people choose academia. By stability, I mean a supervisor or program that guarantees a steady influx of cash for a certain period of time. Yeah, but it comes down to what gives you fulfillment. For me, I need challenging work with a reward in pay that matches the effort and academia doesn't seem to fit that curve.

goosedragons 2y ago
Is short term stability, really stability? I think it's pretty rare to get post-doc contracts longer than 3 years, renewal after that is unlikely especially for a long period of time. You can't really be a post-doc long term and it can easily have you bouncing across the country/countries following funding. It's more stable than freelancing perhaps or maybe a startup. There's stability in academia as tenured professor but outside that, there really isn't.
- eli_gottlieb 2y ago
  I've seen a lot of industry outfits fail to survive 18 months with everyone doing the job they were hired for.