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

Howto on applying for jobs.

This post is way off topic for my usual blogging subjects, but it's something I've wanted to do for a long time. Ever since my time at the start-up company, where I read several thousand resumes, I've had the urge to write out a Howto document for job applicants. It comes out of the frustration of reading hundreds of terribly done resumes, and tens of badly written cover letters. After a while, you figure out what you don't want to see, which eventually turns into what you do want to see.

Of course, it's only in first draft mode - I haven't done much editing on it, but I figure it can only get better from here. My warning is that it's already 24 pages long without illustrations. Hopefully those will show up in later editions. Comnents and criticisms accepted. (-;

JobHowTo.pdf