PhDs of Veeky Forums, what do you think of your situation?
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
>What are your perspectives for the future?
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
How lucky I am that I already have the psychiatric disorders and can't make it as a PhD
I don't like it because the atmosphere here in rиssia is absolutely horrid. People know jack shit, everything is about money and publications, and everything is pertaining to politics nowadays. I hate politics.
I only like the courses which I teach in my spare time for students who come in their spare time. Unfortunately, nobody is fucking interested in quantum field theory in this cesspool so I think I will show myself out pretty soon.
The state of academia (at least in math/physics) is horrifying, I cannot stand scientific journals and everything that they represent today. Look, and I haven't even started talking about the salary!
Wasted several years of my life, basically, while creating 0 useful social links. Around 90% of what I learnt since 2008 was pure self-education, so the institutional commitment is pretty weak for me.
In summer I was offered a job as a statistician/analyst for some financial company which would pay 2.5x my current wage and I could do it from home. Haha! Fuck this.
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
Yes. I'm making $50k/year + benefits so I'm not worried.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
Yes. I hate grading but the teaching itself is enjoyable.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
Academia or industry. Probably quantum computing if the latter.
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
There's not enough intellectual freedom. It may be just me but there are a ton of things I want to do but only one of them is something that my supervisor wants, and during our meetings I always feel repressed since they'd only want to hear what they want to hear, not all what I have to say. This develops into a situation where I have a better relationship with the math faculties than physics faculties which I'm supposedly in, and I also attend more math colloquia than those in physics. Problem is I don't really have the option of transferring unless I'm willing to risk losing a fraction of the 20k of my income, which I need for mortgage payments.
I don't have PhD yet but my mum used to be a biology post-doc and absolutely hated it (her field was in infectious diseases iirc) and kept on telling me that if I went down the same road I would basically be ruining my life and that medicine was the only good thing to study in higher education that was vaguely science related.
I didn't listen to her and did molecular biology/genetics and haven't spoken to her in some years, I can start to see where she was coming from whenever I see how fucked up the lives of many PhD students and post-docs are with my own eyes (not to mention the incredibly shit pay and funding for them here in the UK).
In my present position I don't think I have a choice to not pursue a doctorate, especially in a biological field where employment outside of academia is highly unlikely. I hope things turn out alright put my prospects aren't looking good atm.
>I would basically be ruining my life and that medicine was the only good thing to study in higher education that was vaguely science related.
That's odd, I'm studying engineering and I wish I'd gone with biology instead. The field is so interesting and has so much room for work, especially microbiology and genetics. It's pretty much the only field in which you have the potential to cure some fucked up disease and make an impact on the world.
>>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
i like research, i love being alone in an empty lab with a protocol to follow, it's just zen and peaceful for me. I dont become stressed due to really good introspection practices, as well as drinking/smoking weed at night. money isnt bad, i can even save 50-100 bucks a paycheck
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
yes since im a first year, it's not bad at all, i try and make it my goal to empower the kids to realize "just google that" can be a crazy solution. It does get draining sometimes.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
industry after PhD, or join a startup (friend of mine will for sure start one), or even maybe academia route
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
uhh the process of getting grants seems to be a bitch, and based on just how well you can word a problem in a way that makes it seem like it has societal value.
im biophysics
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
Doing research is why I decided to pursue a doctorate in the first place. Working on answer to difficult questions is very fulfilling, especially when each day you must come up with a clever solution to a new problem. There is very little stress and money is livable. As a 24 yo doctoral candidate, I am living in an upscale apartment, driving a BMW, and going out drinking every week. Shit is chill, yo.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
That was only in the first two years. First year was mandatory since you don't officially have an advisor until after you pass the qualifying exam. Second year is dependent on whether or not your advisor has money to throw your way- typically they have you TA again just to save you money for later. I enjoyed teaching because I got the discussion sections; I was able to give a mini-lecture and grade homeworks, which was orders of magnitude better than those who had to teach labs (grading labs, going to lab training, fuck that).
>What are your perspectives for the future?
Post-doc at a national lab I have shoe-horned myself into. Maybe later leave academia for private sector.
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
I have no suggestions. Life can be stressful in the beginning years, but it certainly isn't the worst thing in the world.
>As a 24 yo doctoral candidate, I am living in an upscale apartment, driving a BMW, and going out drinking every week. Shit is chill, yo.
What the fuck? How do you afford that?
Since we don't get paid much, like $25k/yr before tax, the best answer I can give you is proper management of money.
>25k/yr
>upscale apartment
>BMW
>goes out drinking every week
Your family's rich isn't it?
He's lying. Here masters students are able to make upwards of 27k and PhD's usually 10k more than that. If masters students can't afford even a tiny bit of that here there's no way he'd be able to, even if he were telling the truth about being a PhD student.
You can pick up an early 2000's bmw 325i on craigslist for 2-4k
Not who you were responding too btw
Technically I don't have PhD yet but will very soon
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
Research is so fucking comfy. I don't ever want to go back to non-research jobs. The best part is that you are always working on the cutting edge and that there aren't that many short-term deadlines. It's not that stressful unless you procrastinate a lot and let the work pile up
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
No, but I wouldn't mind doing it
>What are your perspectives for the future?
About to graduate and then got a job in a govt lab
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
more money i suppose? i see many potentially great phd students get scared off with only masters because they want to make money right away
>biophysics
Convince me this is not meme tier
How can memes be real if our eyes aren’t real?
bls.gov
>there aren't that many short-term deadlines
>It's not that stressful unless you procrastinate
where the fuck do you guys work?
>You're likely to spend a lot of time looking at a computer
Boo fucking hoo. You know what staying all your day in a single room looking at a computer sounds like? My childhood. My teenage years. My adult years. Literally all my life. Academia was an actual upgrade because now I am getting paid to stay in my room and look at my computer.
Seriously, what kind of pussyfied normies are applying to grad school nowadays?
>27k and PhD's usually 10k more than that
That's still mcdolans money user
And seeing how universities ONLY hire adjuncts these days you're gonna stay at that income for a long time
I fucking hate teaching, why can't we have fucking didactics or teachers or whatever teaching undergrads instead of people who want to do research. I can see the point in teaching courses almost on the edge of the field, but almost all material in the course I have to TA is from the 90s, top early 2000s, why the fuck do they waste my time which I could spent on research or publishing or whatever makes bureaucrats cream themselves, just higher somebody who actually likes to teach.
Be careful of what you are asking for. If universities did that, you'd get a huge pay cut. And now only the top 1% of researchers could earn enough to sustain their life. Now instead of teaching and researching you'd have to get a job at Subway part time.
>As a 24 yo doctoral candidate
>Life can be stressful in the beginning years, but it certainly isn't the worst thing in the world.
go huff your own gas
>research
Decent. I could use more time off since working on weapons for the Airforce is fucking stressfull. Everything is mega slow and annoying.
>money
about 98k a year before tax.
>teach
No and thank god
>perspectives
Doesn't matter too much when you have a decent degree and work ethic. I am absolutely looking to get into a private industry for da bank and free time.
>what would you change from academic world.
There doesn't seem to be much tolerance anymore for outside ideas. We need to see all viewpoints and analyze why we hold the values we have. Without such a basic process, people end up as foundationless and lacking creativoty. Intelligence is much more about creativity than it is about memorization.
And maybe change student loans so they could be erased with bankruptcy so they prices of college would go down.
AFRL?
>I am absolutely looking to get into a private industry for da bank and free time.
I thought private industry generally requires more hours than govt jobs? what's your plan to make the big bucks?
>afrl
Close.
Depends on what you get into. Im in nuclear and physics fields so there are a number of private companies that would hire me.
There are some serious strict limits on how little or how much i can work in a week/month. It's super annoying to deal with because many projects end up not being touched for too long or mostly conplete and then shelved.
So you plan to get a job with a contractor? (as opposed to starting your own business or SBIR or becoming a consultant?)
Do you really want to work your ass off though? I'd rather do my 40 hours and go home.
Any advice for someone starting a research job with a DOD lab soon? I'm guessing you are in San Diego, Colorado Springs, or ABQ
First year master's student here, still considering whether I should keep going and go for the PhD or not. I'm essentially a bacteriologist-in-training, and I like working in the lab a lot. But I'm trying to weigh my options here.
Not sure if I wanna go to industry or do something else.
I got a PhD in math, work as a datascientist and I got 110k starting. Now I'm up to 125k a year and I'm due for a 10k bump in January. I also manage two people I delegate work too. Research is private industry is 10x better because you don't have to deal with nearly as much beauracracy, you work almost full time on your research problem. You also feel pretty smug watching academics get shit on benchmarks you've crushed in your well funded workplace years ago. The only problem is you've signed an NDA so you can't talk to anyone about it, though sometimes you write patents which is OK.
Honestly prepair yourself to get reamed by regulations and paperwork. I didnt expect the amount of writing and reading of contracts id have to be doing.
It's less about the hours of work and more about how hard it is. Some of the projects and teams im on are just insane so i end up having to work a fair bit off the clock at my home just debugging my programs. Not very fun.
How hard is the struggle to get a good job after you've done your PhD in pure, non-applicable maths?
tell me more about your workplace please
Tech Startup, pretty small about 30 people. What else do you want to know?
extremely hard
Define good job. Seriously though, its entirely dependent on the person. If money is what you're after, do something else. If you do pure math, be prepared to live a simple lifestyle and not end up in your field afterwards.
I'm a grad student and I'm a simple enough man that this pay is sufficient for me. I don't need more money. I'm also happy enough that I at least get to do this stuff for 5 years. I know enough stats and programming to save myself from flipping burgers afterwards.
Postdoc here.
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
When I'm actually doing research, it's great. I hate writing papers though. Also, I have a joint appointment at two institutes and they both expect things from me. So it can be hard to juggle these responsibilities. Money is fine.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
I like teaching but don't teach classes. Not part of the job.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
I'm competitive for tenure-track positions at some decent universities, but they're not in the best locations for me. Lots of grad students and postdocs in my field go the private industry/data science route, and I plan to after this year. There are some projects I want to wrap up before leaving though.
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
More grant opportunities. As someone who's been on the inside, there's a lot of good science that doesn't get funded, and it often is just the particular group of people that reviewed your proposal. It really is a crapshoot.
Most of the complaints here seems to be around the funding process.
What would be more important for science and for scientists (answer can be different for each):
To change the funding methods (new comitees, special funds for "crazy" new ideas) or to change the politics within academia (ie tackling tribalism between departments or a new researcher-supervisor relationship)?
Fucking pussies, I've been depressed since undergrad.
On one hand, I haven't encountered any big issues with the process itself. But being a proposal reviewer is a relatively new perspective for me, so my opinion might change in the next year. There's just a lot of high quality science that can't get funded on a limited budget.
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
Yes. I make 32k per year which is plenty for me. Research is stressful 90% of the time, but in the 10% when something worked makes it all worth.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
No, unless I want to. But I don't.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
Publish 2~3 papers to get my Ph.D, then apply jobs in industry and post-doc level and compare.
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
- Free access to papers for public
- Open source code and data for all published work
- Focus on quality research. Emphasis on rigor and correctness. Clearly writing, reproducible results, no cutting corners and minimize politics.
to people with physics PhD and is in physics research, is it a bad idea to get into physics research? is it true that you're essentially jobless with a physics PhD and won't be able to find a job positions (both academic and industry wise)?
t. physics undergrade
Question for PhD students: When did you decide to go the PhD route? I enjoy math alot, but I still would much rather go out and party or play videos or watch anime. Do I need to basically do math in my free time? On the occasion I look up some interesting concepts that I can understand at my level, but not super often.
I want to pursue a PhD in maths, but I am not sure if I am dedicated enough for it.
...
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
Life is good.
I get to work when I want, doing whatever I want.
Money is shit, but it's enough to get by.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
Nah, and I'd quit if they tried to force me.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
Staying the fuck away from academia.
I've been told PhDs get paid big bux in industry.
Why would anybody want to work at a university?
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
Less elitism.
I remember I was told by my supervisor to review a paper for him.
I told him it was a decent paper, but not earth shattering.
He told me that I should reject the paper then, since the conference is prestigious.
Something about rejecting very valid work just because it's not revolutionary bugs the shit out of me.
If it were up to me all venues would be judged equally
Do an honors year.
If your country's schools are like mine you'll get a research project that you get to work on half the time.
It'll give you a taste of PhD life.
FALSE AS FUCK NIGGA, depends on your area of study I guess, but anything nuclear or optics has huge career opportunities in industry.
I don't understand all the doom and gloom I always see about PhDs. It's been pleasurable for me and for everyone else I talk to in my program.
Pretty fucking easy.
I have some questions for you, because my PhD was pretty awful.
How's work organized in your lab? Do you have a voice in it?
How many hours do you work per week? Do you have to work on weekends? How are your deadlines? Have you ever worked for free in your group?
When you started, did you get a useful thesis plan? When you had a problem, did you get useful help from your co-workers?
What's the longest you have been working on a paper? How long did it take to you until you got your first useful results?
Okay, I see now that you're in a lab science and I can't really speak to how that might differ from a math program. I quite wonder how the enjoyment level differs between lab and more theoretical fields.
this guy knows what's up
>Do you like working in research?
Yes, I do. I'm currently a postdoc, so stress is minimal compared to my PhD. Money will always be an issue considering my student debt.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
No, I no longer teach. I don't mind teaching.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
I work with invasive species and have a strong background in quantitative ecology/statistics/programming in R. There will always be research money funneled towards invasives and people with my skill set.
>What would you change from the academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
I would make sure graduate students get paid better. It sucks to be poor for extended periods (thinking PhD here) AND completely over-stressed.
>Do you like working in research? How's the stress/money problems?
Yes, I enjoy it. This work really is my "passion". I don't quite have the stress due to money: I live in a relatively affordable area, in the Midwestern United States. This was a factor in choosing a PhD program. I'm not saving for retirement, but I can get by.
>Do you have to teach and do you like it?
No, not required by my program. No plans.
>What are your perspectives for the future?
Don't want a career in academia. Don't even expect a career in industry. Do everything I want to do in science in grad school, move on with my life.
>What would you change from academic world? How would an ideal academia be?
This is idealistic, but I would appreciate a better relationship between academics and PhDs who have left academia. I think that would increase resources and improve possibilities for PhD students who aren't going into academia.
Every day I feel my sanity slipping.
I doing my work in general.
However I abosolutely positively hate the modern industry of academic science. It's a massive dick swinging contest that perverts the purity of the scientific method at every opportunity.
If you don't play the game of egos, you cannot make it as a scientist. Someone somewhere is always cutting corners to get ahead and the only people who are allowed to call bullshit are the big cheeses... and how do you become the big cheese? Your own mix of underhanded stinking shit disguised as science, dressed in formal language and lots of (barely read) citations.
In China this is even worse. There is a huge incentive just to push out a large number of papers regardless of quality. Truly the Chinese are fucking garbage people, as they have been for the past several decades. What a shit culture. Fuck China the most.