Why am I still in academia?

[Melalvai]

My boss informed us yesterday morning that he has accepted a position at the University of North Dakota. He offered me a raise to go with him.

I don't have anything against North Dakota. But I really don't want to move for yet another postdoc position. I always thought when we moved, it'd be for a tenure track faculty position. I don't think moving would benefit my husband and daughter.

I have a fellowship which covers 80% of my salary. If I can find someone, or find a way, to pay for my rats and the other 20% of my salary, we don't have to move. That is our first choice.

I am aware that I should be happy that at least I have a job offer--with a substantial raise--to fall back on. I should be grateful for that, but I don't feel particularly happy about the situation. It is all too typical. Even with my own funding a postdoc job is so ephemeral.

[Triskeliongirl]

Go speak with your department chair. Normally when faculty leave, a chair will do the best they can to accomodate his stuff, and if you have a fellowship you should be quite attractive. Also, go personally and speak with prospective advisors in commuting distance with research that appeals to you. Think about labs where even if you must change projects, things are related enough that they may fit into a job seminar. Again, don't underestimate how attractive you are with your own fellowship.

[Pax]

I have a friend going through the same thing right now, he's tired of being at the whim of his professor's research/job changes/etc.. He started his job search for a tenure track faculty position with his own lab (what he's been working towards his whole academic career) and has found the process so disheartening that he's moving away from academia into a private sector job. He works on brain chemistry stuff and the private sector will offer him a job that interests him ( AND pays him well) without him having to write all the grants to pay his salary.

[jobob]

I was in that situation oh, a gazillion years ago.

I ended up going into industry. But industry is no more secure than academia - in many respects, far less secure. But at least the pay & benefits are usually far better.

[alpinerabbit]

I decided beforehand to head for industry right away after my ph.d.

because lingering on in "the midfield", the limbo between grad school and tenure, makes it ever more difficult to get that foot inside the door of industry. It was difficult enough to find the job I really wanted (I have the entry-level position now, after 2 other jobs and 4-5 years); true, it is no more secure. My whole group got axed right after I resigned (*phew*) from my last job. You have to always have a sideways option.

I've seen people with 1,2,3 post docs, even with assistant professorships, nature papers and all ending up in a dead end. I did not want to go there.

[Geonz]

My brother also grew weary of the perpetual job limbo as a research biologist (PhD in biophysics/physiology) - and did not want to be in academia - so he went back and got a law degree and now does intellectual property work for a major pharmaceutical. Had a lot to do with having 3 kids.

[Melalvai]

I thought I'd put out an update on this situation.

My proposed new mentor can take me but doesn't have money for my rats. My current mentor said he would continue the rat project if I went with him to ND but will not pay for it if it is done here, even though he'd get a paper out of it. I got a more positive answer from the dept chair: on Thursday they will "tell me their plan". That doesn't sound like a "no" to me, though it is not quite a "yes" yet.

My salary funding (80% from my postdoc fellowship, needs 20% from the proposed mentor) hit a new, unexpected snag. I thought the biggest hurdle would be to get my current mentor to sign off on it, and I alerted the folks at the funding agency to his possible resistance. My new mentor found out though that he is expected to commit to 2 years, and until he knows the outcome of some pending grants he can not do that. I am scheduled to meet with him Friday morning and I hope to find out when he'll know about those grants.

One other possibility is that my own pending grant (a K99, for the NIH lingo-savvy) will come through...I find out about that ~May 19.

I'm pretty unhappy not only that my current mentor turned me down flat about the collaboration, but was completely unhelpful. He can't understand why I don't want to uproot my family to accompany him to ND, and is very angry about it. I'm heartbroken at his unreasonableness because I got along with him so well for the last 2 years, and all of this was completely unexpected.

Someone else commented that it's starting to sound like there's a hidden war going on and I was caught in the crossfire. Yeah, that's exactly what it feels like.

[Savra]

I'm in my first year of a PhD program for social work and quickly getting the impression that social work academia and life sciences academia are somewhat different. Of course, I may just be naive in this but I get the impression a lot of social work graduates go right on to associate professor positions once they finish their dissertations.

[mimitabby]

If this life is so bad why do both of my sons want to be PhD's???
(one in music, the other in math)

[Blueberry]

Shoot - I'm thinking of leaving a law career to get a PhD. Hmmm.....

[Aquila]

Before you leave a career to get a phud, make sure you look at a couple statistics for your field:

% of students who enter programs who actually finish
average time to degree

And this is the big one:

% of phds who get tenure track jobs within 3 years of finishing their phud. (In the sciences, it may be a bit longer, since many people in the sciences do post-docs.)

In my field, English, last I checked, it looked like this:

70% actually finish their degree
average time to degree is 8.4 years

And only 70% of people who finish get tenure track jobs within 3 years.

What's worse, some 1/3rd of people who get tenure TRACK jobs don't get tenure.

In some field, there's lots of work outside academia. In others, pretty much none.

(I'd love to convince Microsoft or Google that they need a resident Shakespeare person, but so far, no luck!)

Academics looks GREAT from the outside, but a bit less great from the inside. If you're lucky enough to be one of those who gets a decent job (as I am), you can really love your job. (It's still hard work, but if you love it, it's good work, too.)

[Bad JuJu]

If this life is so bad why do both of my sons want to be PhD's???
(one in music, the other in math)

As Aquila's post demonstrates, a lot has to do with the field and what career opportunities it offers. But there's also the question of what you want to do with that degree (teaching, research, etc.)

My field is English, too. I'm ABD and probably always will be because, at the tender age of 55, my priorities have changed since I did my grad coursework (and, this is my second career). At some schools, there are still some full-time instructor positions that don't carry the research/publication requirements that come with tenure-track jobs. That's what I've got. These jobs can be less than stable, but I've got a little more stability than some, since I'm directing the freshman writing program--and nobody else on my campus wants to do that.

Aquila is right about another thing--it can be hard, hard work, but not a semester goes by when I don't realize that I LOVE THIS JOB.

[Beane]

anyone currently in grad school who needs moral support -or- anyone considering grad school and wants a realistic idea of what it's like should read phd comics:
www.phdcomics.com

...and now i'm going to procrastinate working on a fellowship application by reading bike snob and TE posts :-)

[Melalvai]

I kind of hate to keep bumping this thread up and whining about my pathetic situation but...well, if you get tired of it you can do what I do and ignore that thread. I want this space to vent and bemoan my fate, or get encouragement, or some such nonsense.

Yesterday I thought I was choosing between two jobs. I'd found someone who said he could pay the 20% of my salary that is not covered by my fellowship, and who was willing to take me into his lab. Or, I could go to North Dakota with my boss.

This morning I had a meeting with Prospective Mentor who said "Oops, I was wrong, I don't have the money to cover you. Sorry. If I get this grant at the end of May I can do it. Talk to other people, see if you can find someone else."

Freaking out, even though I knew it was hopeless, I talked to the folks he suggested. They confirmed what I knew: no one has that kind of grant money at loose ends.

Then this evening I learned that my Current Boss actually offered the North Dakota job to someone else. I put aside my anger for how he has treated me over the past two weeks, and whatever induced him to offer my job to someone else, and showed up in his office and said "You are still my mentor, and I just found out this morning that the other guy doesn't have money, and now I just found out you offered my job to someone else. What am I supposed to do now???"

His answer: maybe something will work out. It's not entirely hopeless--I can always take a substantial pay cut so that the fellowship will cover my entire salary. Sure, I'll be making less than some graduate students. My salary will be lower than it ever has been in my graduate career. But I'll have a paycheck. Of sorts.

I said "Maybe I should look for a teaching job" and he said "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

I don't care about the career, or research, any more. I'd love a teaching job. For one thing, it would bring a paycheck. I suppose if it comes to it, I'll take the pay cut and keep the fellowship, for a little while. In the meantime I'll be chasing those "mere" teaching jobs with all my might.

[kat_h]

Don't feel bad about venting here. I've been following this thread and want to keep hearing the updates. I'd really like it better if there was good news, but I'm sure you would too.

Do you read PHDcomics.com? Sometimes it's nice to know you're not alone. http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/arch...p?comicid=1012

I really hope this works out for you soon. I'm a solid believer in the idea that when everything seems to go wrong it means there's another opportunity waiting to be found. Hopefully that opportunity shows up soon for you.