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Nice. I'm looking around the NREC web site. At the top, it is "research professors," with similar abusive quasi-academic positions. Maybe this will give some i
by cpkscpks 11y ago
Nice.
I'm looking around the NREC web site. At the top, it is "research professors," with similar abusive quasi-academic positions. Maybe this will give some incentive to move from short-term grant-funded or teaching-funded positions to workable long-term faculty positions.
The pattern of decades of post docs is not workable. People want families. There is a biological clock (women, but also men if they marry similar age).
The NERC response is a little bit arrogant. Jeff's quote on Uber coming to them -- well, Uber hired short-term university employees into long-term positions. They did with those positions exactly what universities claim those positions are for (training ground for stable work). Jeff should be applauding them.
- fixermark 11y agoI'm not convinced Uber hires anyone into a long-term position. This project can be expected to stick around for awhile, but only in the sense that it's complicated enough to justify long time investment; once the machines are reliable enough (or Uber loses interest or funding in this avenue of R&D), expect these researchers to be out on the pavement. It'd be wise for them to consider this, if anything, a side-move (but a side-move with a 3x salary bonus, so definitely take that money and bank it!).
- cpkscpks 11y agoI agree with the sentiment about Uber, but there is a substantial difference. Uber will close them down when it stops to make business sense. A research professor is expected to be out on the street once grant funding runs out. Most postdocs are expressly 2-year appointments. Grad students get paid dirt, and have a ~7 year limit (depending on school) with random students kicked out at random points (qualifying exams, etc.). Neither is stable, but of the two, almost any industry, even including Uber, is much, much more stable.