Sacrifices of The Academic Life...
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 10:14AM As I approach 30 I've begun to think about things that previously didn't bother me. You know, stuff like: What do I want to do with my life? Where do I want to live? Do I ever plan to start a family? I can only imagine that such mental meanderings are typical at this point.
However, I have begun to spend more time thinking about one issue in particular: The large number of sacrifices that one has to make in order to attempt to pursue a career in academia. Two recently published articles, one in The Economist (The Disposable Academic) and a more recent opinion editorial in Science Careers (Falling Off the Ladder), really hit home. The supply of Ph.D.s in most fields vastly exceeds the extremely limited demand, and yet the number of Ph.D.s graduating seems to be perpetually increasing. Thus, competition for a very small pool of 'dream' jobs is extremely fierce, leading to work loads that routinely blow the minds of people outside of the field: You work from 9-7 on weekdays, continue working evenings, and routinely put in full days on weekends?
The defense of such an arrangement is always the same: It doesn't 'feel' like work if you love what you do! For a long time I was able to take comfort in this very mantra (and I must admit that it's still somewhat comforting nowadays as well), but I've really begun to think about whether it's healthy. I love science of course, but surely being economically destitute, and having absolutely no certainty about future job prospects - even to the point of having no good idea when I'll even be able to apply for prospective jobs - does not contribute to life satisfaction and mental well-being.
If I am on a career path towards academia, at least I can say that I'm doing pretty well. I've got a decent number of publications, a fairly robust set of skills, and an idea for a 'niche' that I can carve out for myself in terms of research projects. I guess that as the pressure builds and the duties grow, these types of thoughts eventually must bubble to the surface. There are career options other than those of a lab P.I. (Principle Investigator) - I wonder if many people go through a Ph.D. knowing that they'd rather do something different than academia? Or does everyone want to be a P.I. at first?
Reader Comments (3)
I have conversations about these issues often with my current PhD advisor. In fact, we both read the article in The Economist and talked about it, and he told me about the article in Science.
From those conversations, and others, it seems like maybe 1/2 of current PhD students are doing their PhDs primarily as the academic job path - they wish to become faculty at a university or university-like-institution, and so are most attentive (or should be most attentive) to the kinds of things university hiring committees look for - publication record first, plus teaching experience and some other things (I talk about these topics with my advisor frequently, too). The other half are mostly people aiming for a particular job outside of academia in which the PhD will be a significant benefit, and taylor their efforts accordingly - a stellar publication record is less important if you're going for a job where publications in peer-reviewed journals are not major job duties. Those jobs are split between private industry and government agencies, primarily, though of course their are some more difficult to categorize jobs out there such as with non-profit organizations, or academic-but-not-tenure-track positions like laboratory coordinator for the teaching labs within an academic department.
One thing about the article in The Economist that I caught was a tendency in these discussions to generalize across all PhDs and academic subjects, then pick the most extreme examples in all of academia to illustrate a point. The Economist at least paid token dues to the tremendous variation in career outcomes between academic disciplines; people seem to love to joke about the dismal career utility of a PhD in, say, Icelandic Literature, but there was one comment in that article about how all the it's-not-worth-it doom-and-gloom of the article did NOT apply to the majority of Science and Engineering PhDs - there is still a strong lifetime-finances reward to a PhD in Chemistry, or Molecular Biology, or Electrical Engineering, for those doctorate-acheivers who leave academia.
Also, you're doing very well, at least from the perspective of mine. This is a great topic for discussion, too.
Awesome comments man. Yeah, it's certainly not all doom-and-gloom, and I did actually think about the relative merits of Ph.D.s across a variety of disciplines. One of the major factors leading to my pondering of these issues has less to do with academia, and more to do with life in general: Being back in the 'dating scene' has made me realize that most people (i.e., those without Ph.D.s) expect a 30 year old to be in a far better economic position than I am. Outside of academia and some high-education, requiring jobs, very few people actually seem to care at all about the mere fact of holding a Ph.D. I don't have a car and I spend a significant amount of my disposable income (~40%) on paying student debt. While I have finally paid off one of my student loan obligations, these facts aren't going to change too much in the near future. Couple this to the postdoctoral work-load (people told me I was a workaholic during my Ph.D. and I put in significantly more time here) and it's difficult to reach what I'd consider a comfortable steady-state equilibrium for life. Ungh. Get back to work!!!
This is certainly a topic worth thinking about and no doubt most of us in the PhD stream do consider. I have little to add from what you and Brummell have stated. I do however have the perspective as a "mature" grad student (no giggles) - and the acuity of the urgency to do something with one's life grows exponentially with each year following 30. So in this sense, you are doing well, and you are on track. Moreover, though I understand deeply the sense of desperation that can arise from wanting to have a real life, you are (in my opinion) well situated to start an academic career. As echoed by Brummell, you have a very good (dare I say excellent?) publication record and list of other academic achievements. You have ideas for your own research program and you are willing to sacrifice things many of us won't.
I think you're well on your way - don't stress!
I on the other hand....will be going to college to try to get some "skillz".
How's that for retrograde?