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I did my Ph. D. between 1998 and 2003. I did not regret doing that but after one year as a post doc I left the academic world for one simple reason: I realized
by jillesvangurp 1y ago
I did my Ph. D. between 1998 and 2003. I did not regret doing that but after one year as a post doc I left the academic world for one simple reason:
I realized the career paths were limited to two options I did not like: option 1) try to shoot for a tenure position somewhere via a long series of post doc positions. Expect to be mostly busy managing postdocs and researchers and lobbying for funding by the time you get there. Tenured professors delegate all the fun bits (i.e. research). 2) Become a lecturer. That's what happens to all the post docs that don't make it all the way.
It sounds harsh and it's unfair to the great teachers I had in university. But that roughly is the pecking order at many universities. If you're not cut out for securing lots of funding, you get to do the chore of teaching. Those are the two main things universities need to get done. The pesky business of actually doing the research is something that gets delegated to young phd students and post docs. Tenure positions are for those with a proven track record of securing funding. Typically via getting others to do great research.
That's the reason I left. Because I liked the research part, didn't mind the teaching part but absolutely hated the dreary university politics and the endless stupid infighting for power, funding, etc.
So I moved into industry, worked at an industrial research center for a bit (Nokia Research) and then found my way into startups. Building startups is a lot like doing research. You are solving fascinating problems that haven't been solved before. It requires the same sort of skills, you are running experiments, theorizing solutions, learning about new problems to solve, etc. You don't get to write a lot of papers and articles. Which isn't something I miss that much. While doing my Ph. D. the pressure to publish was so high it barely left any time for the actual research. With a startup it's the other way around.
- laurencerowe 1y agoI’ve never done a PhD (though have worked as a software developer in a research lab) but I feel I’ve had the most freedom to push the state of the art in the tech I work on in open source while funding myself through consulting. My fear of going the startup route is that it ends up more like being a PI and having to chase funding and so much of the success lies less in the tech and more in the execution of how you sell it. So go for funding and get the money to hire a team to do the fun stuff or do the fun stuff yourself on the side…
- bemmu 1y agoSorry for possibly an ignorant question as I don't know much about research. Do you think if you manage to have an exit from a startup, you might be able to return to research (at a university) but then be your own funder, so that you could then research whatever you want?
- jillesvangurp 1y agoI'd probably just continue working on projects I care about. I don't see a need to do that in a university context. At this point I've spent way more time as a software developer and founder than as a researcher. I'm not sure I'd want to get back into publishing necessarily. Publishing really is just a means to an end. A marketing tool. If you have something exciting to report, fine. But most published work is more or less the opposite. For every ground breaking article in Nature there are hundreds of thousands of workshop and conference reports, journal articles, etc. I got used to and addicted to more rapid cycles.
- cozzyd 1y agoThere are other paths, though they are somewhat more narrow and precarious. I'm research faculty at a University, for example. I am dependent on getting enough grants to pay my (increasingly expensive, though not by silicon valley standards) salary, which is a bit scary, especially in the current funding enivironment, but I don't teach (though I do work with students doing research) and spent most of my time doing research. (Yes, I have to apply for and manage grants too, but that doesn't take THAT much time, as much as it is annoying). There are also national labs in various disciplines in many countries (e.g. in Germany you have DESY and various MPI's, in the NL there is ASTRON and NIKHEF and probably others I don't know about because I only know about my narrow field...).