Poor Postdoc

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since September 14, 2005

If you were to log in, you'd be able to get more information on your fellow community member.

September 14, 2005, on Career Guide for Engineers and Computer Scientists:
Like others before me, I take offense to the idea that there are only two types of people in this world: A. Shallow materialists who get their MBA through copying some stupid nerds homework solutions and hence finds plenty of time to network with his frat brothers. Upon graduation this person gets a job in his uncle's broker firm and makes $150k a year. In his 60s he has a brief spell of regret that he didn't get a PhD in science, which he found kind of cool in highschool, but his Porsche and young mistress manage to console him. B. True scientist with nothing but the best of humanity in mind goes straight through grad school after getting his science BS. Since he puts in 70h work weeks at 30k/yr in his postdocs, he manages to land an assistant professorship after only 4 years. Recognizing that he will need to bring in the funding, he decides grant proposals must take the place of family in order to get tenure. He is a little baffled that there is a lack of correlation between Saving hu...