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Another problem in many research settings is compensation. Labs/centers often cannot compete with industry on pay. They then assume that experienced professiona
by nmrm 12y ago
Another problem in many research settings is compensation. Labs/centers often cannot compete with industry on pay. They then assume that experienced professionals are willing to take a substantial pay cut to "do science".
In reality, the opposite is true. You are asking someone to forego like-minded software people at Large Software Corp. and instead work with peers who largely view software as plebian and inferior to their science (see the last 2 paragraphs of the article!).
These under-paying research labs end up with bad engineers, or young engineers who now have zero mentorship opportunities (just as bad as a bad engineer).
The take-away is that scientific labs should expect to pay slightly more than the going rate for mid-career software engineers.
- Fomite 12y ago> The take-away is that scientific labs should expect to pay slightly more than the going rate for mid-career software engineers. Whether or not they should do this (I've been in a number of labs where a skilled software engineer is highly valued, as are many other lab technical staff members), this isn't going to happen. "Slightly more than the going rate" is pretty grant-breaking.