In article
<Pine.A41.3.95b.970817122935.173388B-100000 at homer34.u.washington.edu>, "S.
Boomer" <sarai at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> When I talk to undergrad's about what science training/PhDs are
> about, I like to use the analogy of rafting the Grand Canyon. I like to
> say - well, if you want to guide yourself down the Grand, you have to put
> yourself on a waitlist that, at present, is ten years long. I know it
> sounds really great to say - wow, I am going to raft the Grand Canyon...
> but what does ten years really mean? Upwards of 30% of all people, by the
> end of that ten year period, bail... they are ten years older - they have
> spouses or children; they haven't been rafting in awhile; they lost that
> desire. They are different people.
> That's what this whole process is like to me - you wait ten years
> for the chance to go down the river. You wait ten years for what you
> think you want to happen to even begin.
>> Sarah
Well, to me it's more the case that after you are on the waiting list for
10 years, they dam the Grand Canyon! Academic life is not what you have
probably been led to believe. Once you get an academic job, it is like
juggling bricks. As soon as you can handle the first one, they toss you
another, with no end in sight. You may think that you will get lots of
time to do research and be able to guide your own project, to be a
wonderful Independent Scientist. In fact, unless you are at a med school
or in other rare situations, you will have to do a lot of teaching, which
makes being a teaching assistant seem like a vacation. Furthermore, you
will have to participate in numerous administrative ventures, probably
starting with being on the seminar committee, but rapidly escalating.
This is called "service" and it is evaluated (for tenure) at several
levels -- to the department, the college, the university, the profession,
and the community. If you want to get any research accomplished, you have
to have other people collect most of the data, and thus you become a
personnel manager (bet you didn't get any training in that!). On top of
all of that, you will also have to sweat over getting your work published
and funded. This leaves precious little time for the activities that
formed the core of your PhD research, and that are most likely the reasons
that you want a career as a scientist.
If it weren't for the long-term job uncertainty, post-doctoral time would
be a golden age, a time when you get to focus on the great love of your
life and have few distractions. The only time you will have that ability
to concentrate again will be when you take sabbatic leave (if you are
fortunate enough to get a job at a place where such leave is offered).
In response to a few other posts that I saw today: In my field, long
postdocs have been the expectation since the early 80's. As far as I can
see, many academic salaries are lower than "average": I don't know where
universities get their "average" figures but I wonder if they add 3 months
to 9-month salaries and pretend that the faculty get paid for 12 months.
Feeling jaded and the semester has not even begun,
Chris
