Chris Rowan is a geologist specialising in the dark arts of paleomagnetism, and getting people to pay him to travel to exotic destinations for fieldwork. Having drilled up New Zealand during his PhD, and South Africa in his first post-doc, he now works at the University of Edinburgh.
Anne Jefferson has a love of all things water-related and blends hydrology, geomorphology, geology, and climate change in her work. She has a Ph.D. from Oregon State University and is now an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.Like many academic bloggers, and young academic bloggers in particular, I am prone to the occasional rant about some of the less desirable qualities of a university-bound career. My purpose in doing so is partly to blow off some steam, partly to get my own thoughts straight on these issues (writing it down always helps me to do that), and partly to fish for other peoples' perspectives on them, with a thought to maybe somehow amassing a will and a way to make things better.
However, it does seem that it has the unfortunate side effect of painting an entirely bleak picture of the academy for people even lower down the pecking order, which can't help but depress them. For example:
I get more and more pre-emptively bitter about trying to make it in academia...and i'm not even done w/ PhD yet. Ugh.
So, in the interests of balance, I think I should make it clear that from my perspective, whilst things may not be perfect, a lot of the time they're pretty darn good. Through my research, I've not only got to spent time in some of the most beautiful places in the UK, but some of the most beautiful places on Earth - New Zealand, Spain, and now Southern Africa. And these were, and are, not just brief visits, but chances to get a real feeling for what these places, and the people who live there, are like.
I spend my days studying and thinking and talking about how our planet works, and how it got here. Answering the important geological questions requires tools from every part of the scientific toolbox - sometimes physics and maths, sometimes chemistry, sometimes biology, and often several of them at once. It's a rare week when I don't learn something new, and the buzz you get from fitting together all the different pieces these tools give you into a coherent picture is like solving the most fiendish Su Doku ever, only better. I spend my days looking at stuff which I think is irredeemably cool; when I'm writing my geological posts I have to continually stop myself peppering my prose with so many 'cools' that I sound like an Mac evangelist on speed.
So yes, the salary kind of sucks, but that's the deal, the price you pay for the freedom to study things that interest you as a scientist; it's true that you're limited to what you can get grant money for, but you're never a total slave to the bottom line. Yes, there's not much job security, but it hasn't escaped my notice that the Real World opted out of 'jobs for life' some time ago. And yes, the glut of incredibly smart and talented people competing against me means that in the long run it may not be possible for me to remain in academia. Anyone considering this path has to realise this - denial will only store up trouble and disillusionment for later - and honestly ask if that's a risk they're prepared to take. For me, it was, because there are real positives too, and that shouldn't be denied either.
After all, life is never going to be perfect; all that you can hope for is that the good bits ultimately outweigh the bad bits. Whatever I end up doing, I shall look back on the last few years as being an occasionally stressful, intermittently frustrating, but also an amazingly exciting and rewarding period of my life, in which I've seen and done things that I never dreamed that I'd see and do. Possible future disappointment will not dim that fact, and pragmatism about that future is not preventing me from enjoying myself right now.
Comments
I hope that this career stays with the fun outweighing the negatives for you; that's the idea, and the reason academia is worth pursuing at all. I know for me, things flipped around....
Posted by: Rob Knop | July 21, 2007 9:11 AM
Thanks for this post. I'm an undergrad, starting the process of researching grad schools and such, and I have to say that sometimes being successful in academia (and enjoying it) seems to be very out of reach and the "behind the scenes view" through a lot of blogs can be kind of scary. Thanks for the encouraging perspective, I know none of it is easy but I guess that is part of what makes it rewarding!
Posted by: Anne-Marie | July 21, 2007 11:46 AM
The greatest drawback to the Postdoc system is that you first have to be a Doc.
The greatest drawback to the Doc system is that you then have to be a postdoc.
Almost always. There are people who quantum tunnel from Doc straight to professor, and, even more rarely, from undergrad to professor. Anyone have amusing examples to tell?
Is it still true that the average length of Postdoc employment for scientists in Japan is roughly 10 years?
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | July 21, 2007 2:09 PM
Good on you! That's why we read you, because you're footloose and fancy-free. I got married at 28, and first of 3 kids at 30. Of course, I settled into a job of horrendous psychological torture because of the really good pension! Now, I'm on a tear!
Posted by: Harold Asmis | July 21, 2007 3:29 PM
The question I ask is: "Is it possible to go from pre-Doc to Post-doc while skipping the intervening state?" My answer has been "Yes" because that is the career path I followed. Yes, there is life after the doctorate, even if you don't get one.
In my case, the career was teaching in the California Community College system, which is actually where I started out as a student. Now I find myself in my own version of the state of Post-doc, post employment (retired), post-tenured (ditto), post-married (widower), post-family (grown-up ?) and Postmodern- that is, with a profound skepticism of the written word (especially the printed word, digitalized or otherwise). And teetering on the brink of blogdom.
From my experience I can assure you that there is much to learn about your science when you are working on the frontier. But there are two frontiers: the external frontier, where you are struggling with your own preconceptions while you are dealing with the knowable unknown, and an internal frontier, where you are struggling with the preconceptions of those who don't know, but could, if they would just do the work! This last group includes not just your students, but your fellow instructors not just across the campus (read English teachers) but down the hall (read Physics and Chemistry instructors).
George D Turner
Posted by: George D Turner | July 22, 2007 8:29 PM
This is entirely off-topic, but I just wanted to say thanks for the addition to your blogroll, Chris. I definitely to brush up on my geology, and your blog is definitely one of the better resources I've come across. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Laelaps | July 22, 2007 11:19 PM