In article <1F47BF44A1 at bio.tamu.edu>, JFRUGOLI at BIO.TAMU.EDU writes:
|>|> SO TRUE!!! A department head here was recently talking about the job situation with his
|> grad students and post-docs. When asked if he thought the job market was exceedingly
|> tight he said "There will always be jobs for good people." The implication: just do
|> your job well and everything will turn out OK. This is sticking your head in the
|> sand!!! And worse still, for the majority of PhDs nowadays who don't get that academic
|> position they want, it implies the fault is theirs-they weren't good enough. Especially
|> upsetting is the fact that often a sucessful job search is as much timing and luck as
|> quality of applicant: School A wants someone working in the system you do because no one
|> a School A does, but they don't want a geneticist because they have too many. School B
|> wants a genticist, but not in your system, because several people in the dept already
|> work in that system, and on, and on... To imply that those who don't get the academic
|> slots they wanted are "bad" or just of lower quality is bad science IMHO-it's ignoring
|> the data!
|>|> Enough ranting for a Sunday night.
|> Julia Frugoli
|> Dartmouth College
|>
Well, I think that for people who decide to leave for industry, it seems to be
true that "There will always be jobs for good people." -- but in that context good
means a lot more than good grades. From what I have seen in the last time, "good"
means good grades, being outspoken, being able to sell yourself, and having
accumulated some skills you will need in your next job. It does not have to be
all of this, but a certain number.
My impression is, however, that to succeed in academe, it takes all of the above
PLUS luck and good connections (by luck I mean being in the right place at the
right time - something we can control only to a certain extent). The consequence
I draw from this is that I will not try to stay in academe at all cost. I have
not given up the idea completely, but I now think of it just as another alternative
to all jobs that are out there.
In response to Susan Forsburg - yes, I have thought about looking for positions
dealing in science policy issues in the EC or Germany, but I have not searched for
real information yet - a bit too early (well, I know it's never too early, but
until the end of this year, some other things are more important). EC positions
are actually very much sought after - REALLY good pay (to make up for having to
live in "exile", in such "awful" places like Brussels or Strasbourg). So rumour
goes that you only manage to get that sort of thing if you know someone who
knows someone... but I will still try.
And if a certain 6% chance works out, I will anyway have a break of one more
year, because then I will do a post-doc in a really nice group I would love
to work in in Paris.
Sabine
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