🤡 We've all been played for fools. 🤡

Comments

• LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net ⁨59⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

  When I was in college I got a science-related scholarship and as part of it they literally made us all chant together that we would go on to get a pHd.

  Thankfully that was obvious enough cult behavior for me to tap out and take my career in a different direction.

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• logicbomb@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I’ve said it before, but one reason I didn’t pursue a PhD is that there appeared to be an element of hazing in the entire thing.

  Several of the PhD students I knew were languishing for years trying to get their thesis together, in what can only be described as poverty.

  Meanwhile, half of the professors were miserable, and if they made good money, it was because they were very focused on how to make money. The happiest postgrad I knew was a senior lecturer who had given up on becoming a professor.

  The best you can hope for is that your personal area of interest happens to have a lot of funding.

  Yet these people almost universally seemed to think, “Well, that’s just how it is. The nice thing is that if you can get an academic position, it sucks less than being a PhD student.”

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  • Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I have a PhD because I thought I wanted to go into research. And while I loved research, that didn’t come close to cancelling out how much I loathed all the non-research shit you need to do for funding and keeping a job.

    Then I went from academia into corporate R&D, and realized I basically started to hate doing chemistry in general. Mostly because it reminded me of all the stuff I hated.

    Im now super happy as a safety consultant, and my PhD sometimes helps in convincing people that I do in fact know more than them. It also covers an ugly spot in the wallpaper, a purpose it fulfills much more frequently.

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  • Warl0k3@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yeah, I got my current teaching position by essentially volunteer professoring while doing some grad work. Super exploitative on paper, though that wasn’t the intention of anyone involved (tiny college hated by the conservatives so they kinda had to wing it every time legislative fuckery happened). But it’s rough, I don’t make enough to pay my (incredibly cheap) mortgage so I’m in the awkward position of having been financially unemployed for a year while still working full time. Not to sound too whiny but man, the culture of “Guess I’ll starve because I just love my students so much” is absurdly toxic. And that’s coming from someone firmly part of that culture.

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• JizzmasterD@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  It’s a tough dilemma. Takes a PHD to understand the tenure track.

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• shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This is why I dropped the dream of being a French professor. By the end of my first year I realized there were only 2 or 3 on my campus and I’d have to work with them for many years and still not score a job.

  Funny story about my first professor: When I would speak French in class the girls would all giggle. WTF?! One night I got invited to an all-girl study group at the dorm next door.

  “OK, why do you all giggle when I speak French?”

  They got real quiet, looked around at each other. Finally one girl pipes up.

  “We’re sorry, it’s just that your accent is so much better than the professor’s, it’s embarrassing for him.”

  And that’s the man I would have had to work with for years. :( (BTW, he spoke 5 other languages and his grammar and vocabulary were unmatched. He just couldn’t speak worth a shit.)

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• spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I find it hard to believe that someone who entered a PhD program wasn’t given a heads up immediately about the competition for professor positions.

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• oyfrog@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I felt that in the bone. Postdoc life is one foot getting ready to move and the other foot dreading every decision that led to the thought “A PhD is a good idea”

  It was a good idea, but holy shit is it all sorts of miserable.

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• sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Me fr

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