Academia as a career option - Revision history

Vipul: /* Job satisfaction */

2014-10-11T15:34:28Z

Job satisfaction

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	==Job satisfaction==		==Job satisfaction==

	[{further\|[[Culture of academia]]}}		{{further\|[[Culture of academia]]}}

	There are many different reasons people enter academia, but the most striking ones are deep interest in a particular subject, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for intellectual stimulation. In terms of providing these, academia is a mixed bag. It is arguably preferable to other ''professions'' in these terms, but may not be as good as choosing to do a high-paying day job and seeking intellectual stimulation in one's free time.		There are many different reasons people enter academia, but the most striking ones are deep interest in a particular subject, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for intellectual stimulation. In terms of providing these, academia is a mixed bag. It is arguably preferable to other ''professions'' in these terms, but may not be as good as choosing to do a high-paying day job and seeking intellectual stimulation in one's free time.

Vipul: /* Job satisfaction */

2014-10-11T15:34:16Z

Job satisfaction

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	==Job satisfaction==		==Job satisfaction==

			[{further\|[[Culture of academia]]}}

	There are many different reasons people enter academia, but the most striking ones are deep interest in a particular subject, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for intellectual stimulation. In terms of providing these, academia is a mixed bag. It is arguably preferable to other ''professions'' in these terms, but may not be as good as choosing to do a high-paying day job and seeking intellectual stimulation in one's free time.		There are many different reasons people enter academia, but the most striking ones are deep interest in a particular subject, intellectual curiosity, and a desire for intellectual stimulation. In terms of providing these, academia is a mixed bag. It is arguably preferable to other ''professions'' in these terms, but may not be as good as choosing to do a high-paying day job and seeking intellectual stimulation in one's free time.

Riceissa: typo

2014-10-10T19:39:08Z

typo

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	{{career option\|academia}}		{{career option\|academia}}

	A number of people who have a high level of intellectual curiosity and like intellectual stimulation are attracted to [[academia]] as a career option. On this page, we list a number of ~~consideration~~ for and against academia as a career option (see our general page on [[career selection]]).		A number of people who have a high level of intellectual curiosity and like intellectual stimulation are attracted to [[academia]] as a career option. On this page, we list a number of considerations for and against academia as a career option (see our general page on [[career selection]]).

	This article is written primarily based on the structure of academia in the United States. The situation differs somewhat in other countries. Specifically, the procedures related to tenure and funding are somewhat different in other countries. However, many of the general points apply.		This article is written primarily based on the structure of academia in the United States. The situation differs somewhat in other countries. Specifically, the procedures related to tenure and funding are somewhat different in other countries. However, many of the general points apply.

Vipul: /* Career preparation cost */

2014-05-19T17:55:21Z

Career preparation cost

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	Academic research involves extending the frontiers of human knowledge. Being prepared for this therefore requires fairly thorough mastery of a body of human knowledge to the level of the frontier. That requires several years of learning.		Academic research involves extending the frontiers of human knowledge. Being prepared for this therefore requires fairly thorough mastery of a body of human knowledge to the level of the frontier. That requires several years of learning.

	The measure of the time taken to prepare for academia depends on whether we include graduate school in the "preparation" time. Undergraduate studies, where one is learning and neither contributing nor earning, lasts 3-4 years. Graduate studies lasts 4-8 years in most disciplines. This time is spent learning, contributing a small amount of original research, and usually earning enough to meet one's short-run expenses but not enough to save for the future or repay student loans. Details may vary based the subject and the university.		The measure of the time taken to prepare for academia depends on whether we include graduate school in the "preparation" time. Undergraduate studies, where one is learning and neither contributing nor earning, lasts 3-4 years. Graduate studies lasts 4-8 years in most disciplines. This time is spent learning, contributing a small amount of original research, and usually earning enough to meet one's short-run expenses but not enough to save for the future or repay student loans. Details may vary based on the subject and the university.

	* Directly taking a job outside academia after undergraduate studies typically means greater immediate earning than going to graduate school. The main cost of academia is therefore the substantial delay before one starts earning enough to save significantly or support a family.		* Directly taking a job outside academia after undergraduate studies typically means greater immediate earning than going to graduate school. The main cost of academia is therefore the substantial delay before one starts earning enough to save significantly or support a family.

Vipul: /* Social value of work */

2014-03-10T17:30:29Z

Social value of work

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	{{further\|[[social value of academia]]}}		{{further\|[[social value of academia]]}}

	Our general conclusion is that academia passes the social value test only in one of these two cases:		===Research===

			Our general conclusion is that research academia passes the social value test only in one of these two cases:

	* You are really good at it, so that you can change the paradigm of thinking.		* You are really good at it, so that you can change the paradigm of thinking.
	* The discipline you are picking has high social value, so that every minor contribution there counts for a lot. Some disciplines that might pass the second test are AI-related disciplines (particularly machine learning) and biomedical research.		* The discipline you are picking has high social value, so that every minor contribution there counts for a lot. Some disciplines that might pass the second test are AI-related disciplines (particularly machine learning) and biomedical research.

	~~In particular:~~		===Teaching===

	* Many research disciplines either lack sufficient epistemic standard to ~~provide useful conclusions (this problem plagues some disciplines in the humanities and social sciences)~~, ~~or is too far removed from the real world to provide useful insight despite high epistemic standards (this problem plagues mathematics~~ and ~~arguably large parts of physics).~~		Low student interest, curriculum rigidity, low relevance of curriculum content to students' later lives, and other factors conspire to make the social value of teaching low in general.
	* Teaching is one of the sources of steady value creation in academia. However, there are reasons to ~~believe that~~ the social value ~~created through~~ teaching (relative to pay) is not high, and is lower than the value created through counterfactual professions. The value difference increases with age: a graduate student teaching calculus may create value only slightly below a comparable entry-level private sector job, but a professor teaching real analysis probably creates value substantially lower than a person of comparable skill and seniority could generate in ~~the private sector. Teaching, therefore, does not rescue the social value of academia~~.

Vipul: /* Key takeaways */

2014-03-10T17:26:54Z

Key takeaways

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	\| [[Job location options]] -- What options for location will you have, and how much flexibility will you have in selecting the location? \|\| The intense competitiveness of academic applications, combined with the geographic spread of places, makes it very difficult to predict where you'll end up working. In fact, it might be hard to even predict the sort of place you might end up living in (university in a vibrant city versus isolated university town).<br>Further, academic careers involve frequent moves.<br>All these can make life difficult for your spouse and also for raising children.		\| [[Job location options]] -- What options for location will you have, and how much flexibility will you have in selecting the location? \|\| The intense competitiveness of academic applications, combined with the geographic spread of places, makes it very difficult to predict where you'll end up working. In fact, it might be hard to even predict the sort of place you might end up living in (university in a vibrant city versus isolated university town).<br>Further, academic careers involve frequent moves.<br>All these can make life difficult for your spouse and also for raising children.
	\|-		\|-
	\| [[Job satisfaction]] -- How much will you enjoy your work? \|\| Academia is a good venue for intellectual curiosity. The main drawbacks are ~~the~~ ''publish or perish'', high specialization, and the likelihood of not being at a top place all conspire to make it hard to rely on academia as a fertile environment for intellectual exploration.<br>It might still be better than the majority of other job options.		\| [[Job satisfaction]] -- How much will you enjoy your work? \|\| Academia is a good venue for intellectual curiosity. The main drawbacks are that ''publish or perish'', high specialization, and the likelihood of not being at a top place all conspire to make it hard to rely on academia as a fertile environment for intellectual exploration.<br>It might still be better than the majority of other job options.
	\|-		\|-
	\| [[Earnings]] -- How much money will you earn, after adjusting for things like cost of schooling, taxes, and retirement benefits? \|\| Earnings in academia are low relative to skill levels. Moreover, the delayed start to earning makes the lifetime earnings even lower. Frequent moves can be costly.<br>Unlike medical or law school, there is no or minimal graduate school tuition. However, if you have to repay tuition for undergraduate school, you'd have to wait till you finish graduate school before you can start repaying it, and the debt could be significant.		\| [[Earnings]] -- How much money will you earn, after adjusting for things like cost of schooling, taxes, and retirement benefits? \|\| Earnings in academia are low relative to skill levels. Moreover, the delayed start to earning makes the lifetime earnings even lower. Frequent moves can be costly.<br>Unlike medical or law school, there is no or minimal graduate school tuition. However, if you have to repay tuition for undergraduate school, you'd have to wait till you finish graduate school before you can start repaying it, and the debt could be significant.

Vipul: /* Job satisfaction */

2014-03-03T05:21:52Z

Job satisfaction

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	* The ''publish or perish'' incentive system in academia means that people are often focused more on delivering publishables than intellectual exploration. Even if you personally resist this, people around you may not, and therefore you may not find much of a peer group for intellectual exploration.		* The ''publish or perish'' incentive system in academia means that people are often focused more on delivering publishables than intellectual exploration. Even if you personally resist this, people around you may not, and therefore you may not find much of a peer group for intellectual exploration.
	* There is a huge degree of specialization ''within'' academia, making it difficult to communicate insights to colleagues outside your specialty.		* There is a huge degree of specialization ''within'' academia, making it difficult to communicate insights to colleagues outside your specialty.
	* Given the difficulty of getting into top places, the group of colleagues one has at a typical place may not be all that smart or intellectually curious.		* For any given university, the undergraduate student body is less strongly selected than the graduate student body, which in turn is less strongly selected than the faculty. If you like teaching mainly because you expect students who are similar in ability and curiosity as you are, you're likely to be disappointed.
	* For any given university, the undergraduate student body is less strongly selected than the graduate student body, which in turn is less strongly selected than the faculty. ~~Therefore, your~~ students are likely to ~~seem frustratingly slow to you, and teaching them may not~~ be ~~as pleasant an experience as teaching a younger version of yourself~~.

	==Earnings==		==Earnings==

Vipul at 05:18, 3 March 2014

2014-03-03T05:18:20Z

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	[http://qz.com/174811/enroll-in-a-phd-program-but-leave-academia-as-soon-as-you-graduate/ This article] offers some useful information on the subject, and advises people to quit academia after the Ph.D. unless they are sufficiently interested and are able to land a post-doctoral job.		[http://qz.com/174811/enroll-in-a-phd-program-but-leave-academia-as-soon-as-you-graduate/ This article] offers some useful information on the subject, and advises people to quit academia after the Ph.D. unless they are sufficiently interested and are able to land a post-doctoral job.

			==Job location options==

			===The convention of moving to a different place at each academic stage===

			In general, academic departments discriminate against people who have finished the previous stage of their academic life in the same place:

			* Graduate schools generally discriminate ''against'' undergraduates from the same university in admissions. The idea is to encourage these people to move elsewhere and obtain students from other universities, to facilitate greater circulation. Effectively, this means that people are required to relocate after their undergraduate studies.
			* Departments generally discriminate ''against'' hiring Ph.D.'s from the department for post-doctoral fellowships.
			* There is generally less explicit discrimination against hiring post-doctoral fellows to continue for tenure track positions. But the number of people who get to that stage is small in any case. It is still generally the case that a significant fraction of people relocate after completing their post-doctoral fellowship in order to start a tenure track job.

			===The huge geographic spread of academic universities and the lack of certainty of where one might get admission or a job offer===

			There are not too many top universities in any particularly geographic location. The top universities are geographically spread. Some of them are in isolated university towns. Even in cities, there are usually not more than 2 or 3 top universities. For instance, the Bay Area, a center of intellectual innovation, has only two top universities (Stanford and Berkeley) which are quite a distance from one another.

			Even people who are highly academically talented and accomplished can rarely guarantee getting admission or a job offer at a ''specific'' university. So, they can rarely make future plans around where they'll be.

			Some ways this can be a challenge:

			* If you have a spouse or cohabiting partner, then the frequent move can be difficult. If the spouse works in academia, then at every move, you both need to find jobs at the same or nearby universities. If you're working in different departments, then the departments may not coordinate hiring. If the spouse works in a profession where jobs are only available in big cities, then you need to restrict your job search to universities in or near big cities. For more, see the [[Wikipedia:Two-body problem (career)\|two-body problem page on Wikipedia]].
			* If you have children, frequent moves can be difficult for the children. Anticipating this, you may delay childbearing until it is much later. This could particularly be an issue if you're interested in having a large number of children.

	==Job satisfaction==		==Job satisfaction==

Vipul at 04:43, 3 March 2014

2014-03-03T04:43:12Z

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	==Job security==		==Job security==

			===The pyramid scheme of academia===

	The structure of academia has been called a ''pyramid scheme''. The following general points are worth noting:		The structure of academia has been called a ''pyramid scheme''. The following general points are worth noting:
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	The flip side of these is that the faculty peer group may not be sufficiently attractive to make staying in academia worthwhile. However, if you simply want to stay in academia and are not too concerned about pay or the immediate peer environment, this option is worth considering.		The flip side of these is that the faculty peer group may not be sufficiently attractive to make staying in academia worthwhile. However, if you simply want to stay in academia and are not too concerned about pay or the immediate peer environment, this option is worth considering.

			==Exit flexibility==

	==Entry versus exit asymmetry==		===Entry versus exit asymmetry===

	In general, it is easy to leave academia for industry, but hard to join academia from industry. Some cases are discussed below.		In general, it is easy to leave academia for industry, but hard to join academia from industry. Some cases are discussed below.

Vipul at 04:34, 3 March 2014

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 * On the other hand, with the exception of medicine, most of these degrees are short and people can start earning huge sums of money almost immediately upon graduation.
 * The huge uncertainty of staying in academia (see the [[#Job security|job security section]]) makes the career preparation costs even worse than they would otherwise appear.
 ==Entry versus exit asymmetry==
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 [http://qz.com/174811/enroll-in-a-phd-program-but-leave-academia-as-soon-as-you-graduate/ This article] offers some useful information on the subject, and advises people to quit academia after the Ph.D. unless they are sufficiently interested and are able to land a post-doctoral job.
 ==Job satisfaction==