Dr. Paula J. Schlax (pjschlax at JHUVMS.HCF.JHU.EDU) wrote:
: In some ways I am sorry I made my original posting, I am actually pretty
: damned depressed reading all of these postings.
:: (I keep reading though!)
Me to; Although one should temper the depression by remembering
that not everyone posts. Having a research-track career is
not impossible, just difficult.
: It seems as if most posts are suggesting that we need to either
: -reexamine our personal goals and probably bail out of our chosen
: direction (because we aren't in the top 5%)
We've been bandying about "top x%" numbers, and I wanted to re-
iterate Linden's statement that serendipity (i.e. luck), and "who
you know" play very large factors in getting a tenure track position
as well. Serendipity includes just being in the right place when
they're looking for someone like you, being in the right field,
subfield, being at the right line when the experiments were
"handed out", doing the experiment that just happened to work.
Who you know includes the schools you've attended, the labs
you've worked in, the person who was impressed by you at the meeting . . .
There's an implication that those who get jobs are necessarily
in the top %, and those who don't aren't, but the equation is
more complicated than that.
I also have a somewhat amusing, but mostly frightening factoid:
Does anyone else think that about 5% of women believe they're
in the top 5%, but that about 60% of men do?
--
Bharathi Jagadeesh/bjag at ln.nimh.nih.gov
Lab of Neuropsychology, NIMH
Building 49, Room 1b80
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
(312) 496-5625 x270
