To PhD students; you are not smarter than those that didn’t get a job in academia

by phdscam

Often PhD students are disillusioned about their own abilities and ignore the writing on the wall until it is too late. Yes, you are not that special, and you are not smarter than those endless numbers of postdocs and PhD holders that didn’t get a permanent job in academia. Yet you cling to hope until you are hopeless.

The harsh reality of today’s academia is that demand outnumbers supply by 10 to 1. For example, only 1 faculty position is created per 10 new PhD students in the US according to recent statistics. Add to that the new drive of universities to hire “junk”, sorry I mean adjunct positions; all temporary with little job security.

It is a very weird world where the brightest of the students are slaving for 4 to 8 years to advance the career of their supervisor who is by the way well cushioned, and really would use more slaves. In return your name appears on  few publications, but your worth to industry is not so much. A poor life choice is not well regarded, and many industries want well skilled people, not PhDs that are well trained at being critics.

To blatantly say it; If you think you can do better than the other students and PhDs who regretted it then by all means go ahead but you have no one to blame but yourself. Hope doesn’t change the bleak job prospects.