{"id":735,"date":"2013-07-25T01:08:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-25T01:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/?p=735"},"modified":"2013-07-25T01:31:23","modified_gmt":"2013-07-25T01:31:23","slug":"shame-or-should-that-be-postdocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/2013\/07\/25\/shame-or-should-that-be-postdocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Shame. Or should that be ‘Postdocalypse’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not IUPS-related tonight – but something that should concern the people there – should concern *us*. Especially the people WITH senior positions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientific research has a lot going for it as a job.<\/p>\n

There’s the big money, for a start.<\/p>\n

[Actually, that was a joke, as my scientific readers will have spotted. The money is pretty lousy compared to other higher-end ‘graduate professional jobs’, at least if you factor in the years spent getting your PhD, aka your ‘Union Card’, and some postdoctoral experience. I don’t know what a PhD with quantitative\/ mathematical\/ computer skills makes going into finance, but I strongly suspect it is rather more than a postdoc gets. And I don’t know what a moderately successful lawyer with twenty-plus years experience makes, but I suspect it is a whole lot more than I earn after 25 years as a lecturer.]<\/p>\n

But\u2026 the money is a living wage.<\/p>\n

I live on it, so I should know.<\/p>\n

And there is lots of other stuff to put in the plus column. You get to do something interesting and challenging. And, hopefully, something ultimately useful. You get a varied job. You get to solve problems. You get a lot of freedom to set your own timetable and what you are going to do. You get to travel. And you get paid to read, and think. I mean, how many jobs are there where they pay you to READ?<\/p>\n

So all of those are positives.<\/p>\n

And: for many – probably most – people in scientific research, there is much, much more to it. For most scientists, the ones who get or want tenured or permanent jobs, science is a vocation<\/em>. For one example of how I know that, try the story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, and increasingly so these days, a career in scientific research is an awfully hard road.<\/p>\n

That is especially true for those in the trying-to-transition-to-a-permanent-job phase of a scientific career.<\/p>\n

For an example, you should read this post<\/a> by my Twitter mate ‘DrBillyo<\/a>‘, aka Dr Bill Wilkinson. It says it far more eloquently than I could.<\/p>\n

I think there are real systemic problems with a profession that does this to its most highly-skilled junior members. That takes people’s dedication, and years of training, and just lets it all go because they weren’t quite lucky enough.<\/p>\n

Other people have said this on Occam’s Typewriter. I’ve said it before<\/a>.<\/p>\n

People have said it elsewhere<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is time, in my opinion, that the Great and Good of science did something about it. At the moment, far too many of those in positions of power simply look a bit glum and wring their hands. The response when the problem is discussed often sounds a bit like the guys in The Sopranos<\/em> when they learn that one of their fellow wiseguys has been ‘whacked’ (killed)<\/p>\n

“Fuggeddaboutit. Whaddya gonna do? This, it’s the business we’re in.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Well – it shouldn’t be.<\/p>\n

Not like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not IUPS-related tonight – but something that should concern the people there – should concern *us*. Especially the people WITH senior positions. Scientific research has a lot going for it as a job. There’s the big money, for a start. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,9,1,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-policy","category-the-life-scientific","category-uncategorized","category-universities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/notranting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}