Depressing view of Academia
So I officially started going through available post-doc positions this week, now that I'm back from my vacation. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do when I finish my PhD next year (assuming I do...), and of course, I came back to the academia vs. industry question.
In weighing the evidence, a friend pointed me to this article on the problems facing new scientists in academia. Somehow, it does a nice job of dissuading me from thinking about going down that route - although I'm not completely convinced industry is the way to go yet either.
Read for yourself: Real Lives and White Lies in the Funding of Scientific Research
In weighing the evidence, a friend pointed me to this article on the problems facing new scientists in academia. Somehow, it does a nice job of dissuading me from thinking about going down that route - although I'm not completely convinced industry is the way to go yet either.
Read for yourself: Real Lives and White Lies in the Funding of Scientific Research
Labels: future, Grad School, job applications, Postdocs
7 Comments:
Yes, that article makes for some very depressive reading. Note, though, that you can still do a post-doc even if you don't think you'll continue in academia. I've noticed many life science companies (especially big pharmas) consider it a big plus if you've done say 3 years of post-doc.
At least you can choose between Academia and Corporate... I live in Italy, we had no choice other than Academia (or migrate somewhere in the so called civil world).
That is an interesting perspective.
Although, just for the record, there aren't as many choices here as you may think. If I'm lucky, I might find something academic (eg, post-doc) in Vancouver, but the only other places (I am currently aware of) in Canada doing this work is in Toronto - at 3354km, that's about the same as the distance between Moscow and Madrid.
Industrially, I'm not aware of any work being done in next-gen sequencing within 1000km of Vancouver. (I'd have to immigrate to California, in the U.S.) Of course, I've started my search in the academic space so I may have missed something.
I just happen to be lucky to be in one of two cities in Canada, a country the size of Europe) that do this type of work - if I were any where else, moving wouldn't even be a question.
Anthony
Did you skip Alberta, or was it meant to be!
Yikes... I wasn't aware that Alberta had next gen sequencing going on. They're not on the unofficial sequencing map:
http://tinyurl.com/orm8cr
Who is Alberta has a second-gen sequencer?
Not sure about who or where.. but dont need to have in-house sequencers for NGS!
But I think there were groups in Edmonton / Calgary with NGS going on at not-so-small scall
That's a good point - I just assumed that groups doing the fundamental bioinformatics of second generation sequencing will be synonymous with those that have their own sequencing. Clearly that doesn't have to be the case.
I stand corrected. Thanks!
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