[noedig]

This captures exactly the reason I am thinking about leaving academia. I got into research because I like doing research, but you can't have a career in research anymore. After completing a PhD, the only way to have a career is to spend all your time writing grant proposals, attending workshops, organizing meetings, cultivating useless collaborations, and promoting yourself. There is no time left for research, and teaching becomes a burden to avoid at all cost. You have to get PhD students and postdocs to do all the work, and take as much credit for their ideas and efforts as you can. Academia has become a dead-end job for people who want to do research.

[sporkenfang]

I myself am worried about this. I have worked my ass off to get into the PhD program where I'm at, but in the end, what does a PhD in CS get me (outside academia) that an MS CS will not?

[spiritplumber]

I think it makes the other people in the room feel less awkward.

I'm often the only person in the room without a PhD when I go see a customer. They usually want me to either fix something 10 minutes ago, prototype something next week, or invent something next month. I do.

There are websites around that list me as having a PhD in my specialty (I just have a four year degree). Most recently, one aerospace organization flat out refused to correct their page because it looks less professional if I'm not listed with a degree I don't have.

As far as advisors taking credit instead of their students... ten years ago I saved the life of an asshole and the conscience of a friend when said friend came to recruit me to be a spotter while he attempted to kill his advisor after he'd published something my friend wrote, under the advisor's name. I talked my friend into merely destroying the prof's car.

I realize that I talk about violence a lot in my posts. It happens, it is part of life, it must be dealt with even in techie or academic circles.

De-escalation sometimes requires causing a small amount of damage in order to prevent much greater damage. It's like felling a few trees to build a firebreak.

I don't give a damn about the advisor, other than he's a human being and has the right to live his wretched life out, but I do know that my friend would've been haunted by his conscience all his life if he actually hurt someone... and haunted by his pride just as long if he didn't exact some form of revenge, because this is what our culture demanded.

[sporkenfang]

Interesting, thanks!

I don't want to kill my advisor (he's a pretty good guy, honest, and generally not a douchebag... in all honesty I have in the past and would in the future have a beer with him ).

It just seems like everyone is a cog everywhere -- in academia, the real world, whatever -- and there is no escape.

That's what really sickens me. There's no room for original ideas unless you found a startup, and then, what, you sell your company to IBM/Google/Microsoft/whoever in a year or two and it's the same damn song and dance.

A PhD isn't a requirement to be a cog -- it doesn't even seem to make you a big cog that drives a lot of other gears and functionality in the clock, going by those I know with one. It seems (from the inside) like a lot of extra effort and stress. So, the letter hit close to home.

[infinite8s]

Fist-bumps when you interview at Google.

[sporkenfang]

:p thanks for that, I definitely needed the laugh. This shit has me wrapped around the axle, and it shouldn't be this important.

[infinite8s]

Well, it is important. 3 or 4 years of opportunity cost (especially when you are young) can really add up.

[hiddencost]

Get some internships, see what happens. I dropped out of grad school because an internship turned into a job offer.

[sporkenfang]

Well, I already have two offers... which is mainly why I'm considering not finishing the doctorate and leaving with the MS.

[IndianAstronaut]

> You have to get PhD students and postdocs to do all the work, and take as much credit for their ideas and efforts as you can.

This has been going on for quite a while.

http://www.astronomycast.com/2015/04/ep-372-the-millikan-oil...