Labguru sent a newsletter today, containing
an overview of career possibilities for science PhDs. I had no idea the numbers changed so dramatically over the last forty years:
“in 1973, 55 percent of PhD recipients had tenure-track positions within six
years of earning their PhDs. In 2006, merely 15 percent of recent graduates found themselves in this
position.”
Whether the cause of this is employer driven '
academic inflation' or research driven reliance on 'graduate student and postdoc labor for publications and output', as Labguru suggests, is a matter for another day of finger pointing. For now, Labguru's intended audience seems strange to me:
If you are reading this while
you’re on your second, third or even fourth postdoc, you’re not alone, and are
far from the minority.
I don't think I know
anyone that's on a fourth postdoc. If there are readers on their fourth postdoc, please tell me your story, regardless of whether it's good or bad!
