4 ms·

> For academe, there is no reward, save the "academic points." I disagree. First of all, there is a rather high place in the societal ladder. A university prof

> For academe, there is no reward, save the "academic points." I disagree. First of all, there is a rather high place in the societal ladder. A university professor is still somebody who induces awe, plus the job has this "uncorrupted by money" vibe which you cannot get as a manager/entrepreneur. Furthermore, you have an extremely high position in the local society, i.e. at the university. But I think the real reward is not vain or materialistic -- the reward is doing something you adore, and something you find a lot of meaning in. Both teaching and research are extremely fulfilling for me (as a PhD student). Personally, I can think of other jobs in compsci/programming that would be fulfilling, but they are likely as unavailable as the university position.

noobermin 12y ago
I say in the second sentence in that paragraph that it is unless you become a tenured professor that you have nothing but your pride. I recall a study once that indentified a university, tenured professor as the lowest stress to pay ratio job in existence. Of course, few in the academy can reach tenure-ship given the over-supply, so you most likely will toil as a post-doc for a long time in academia. And no, the jobs you are thinking of are certainly not just as unavailable. For fuck's sake man, the number of university positions in the US for my field, physics, is in the single thousands...universities themselves have 3000 jobs in total[0]. That's total number...and this is with 1700 PhD's awarded per year[1]. It looks a little better for you in compsci [2],[3], so may be you have a right to be more optimistic than me. Perhaps an important thing here is the area of study. Physics, IMO, is pretty bleak, especially for theorists. [0] http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes192012.htm http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes192012.htm [1] http://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/statistics/rosters/physrost134.pdf http://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/statistics/rosters/ph... [2] http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_611300.htm#15-0000 http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_611300.htm#15-0000 [3] http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/crndocs/2013-Taulbee-Survey.pdf http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/crndocs/2013-Taul...
- NotOscarWilde 12y ago
  > And no, the jobs you are thinking of are certainly not just as unavailable. It really depends on what you can see yourself doing. My closest compsci friends are all employed by either big companies working on their backend or by "young hip" companies doing web solutions for the local tobacco companies and the like. Anything that I would like to do would have to (subjectively) help humanity as much as research/teaching; and getting jobs like these either requires a whole lot of dedication (leaving your family behind, moving to Asia/Africa) or a lot of connections (governmental public good jobs are rare for compsci people).

noobermin 12y ago

I say in the second sentence in that paragraph that it is unless you become a tenured professor that you have nothing but your pride. I recall a study once that indentified a university, tenured professor as the lowest stress to pay ratio job in existence. Of course, few in the academy can reach tenure-ship given the over-supply, so you most likely will toil as a post-doc for a long time in academia. And no, the jobs you are thinking of are certainly not just as unavailable. For fuck's sake man, the number of university positions in the US for my field, physics, is in the single thousands...universities themselves have 3000 jobs in total[0]. That's total number...and this is with 1700 PhD's awarded per year[1]. It looks a little better for you in compsci [2],[3], so may be you have a right to be more optimistic than me. Perhaps an important thing here is the area of study. Physics, IMO, is pretty bleak, especially for theorists. [0] http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes192012.htm http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes192012.htm [1] http://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/statistics/rosters/physrost134.pdf http://www.aip.org/sites/default/files/statistics/rosters/ph... [2] http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_611300.htm#15-0000 http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/naics4_611300.htm#15-0000 [3] http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/crndocs/2013-Taulbee-Survey.pdf http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/crndocs/2013-Taul...

NotOscarWilde 12y ago
> And no, the jobs you are thinking of are certainly not just as unavailable. It really depends on what you can see yourself doing. My closest compsci friends are all employed by either big companies working on their backend or by "young hip" companies doing web solutions for the local tobacco companies and the like. Anything that I would like to do would have to (subjectively) help humanity as much as research/teaching; and getting jobs like these either requires a whole lot of dedication (leaving your family behind, moving to Asia/Africa) or a lot of connections (governmental public good jobs are rare for compsci people).