Young scientists are convinced they are headed for bigger and better things and that the work they do is very valuable - either intellectually or personally or both. They do not see themselves as of the same class as janitors, they are just temporarily overworked for the cause and things will get better later when they are in charge or in some senior role. They are “paying their dues”.
Then 90% of them realize there is no such job waiting for them and they slowly shed their belief system. But it can take decades.
thats pretty much it, alot of them thinking finishing a phd, and they get jobs handed to them, they arnt, unless you come from a prestigious university and a wealthy background which opens alot of doors automatically, eg connections. additionally alot of them believe the jobs are in academia, they arnt either because its too comepetitive, and most of them are writing grants anyways as a PI, or doing some low quality paper as a post doc(and not hire dyet). thats why im hearing on other platforms that phds are defecting from thier fields for another
Yes and structurally universities “train” far more PhDs than they have professor positions so it is literally impossible for the vast majority of academic track PhDs to get a professor position. The economics drive this: PhD students are just underpaid lab workers, basically. Like the 5 interns hoping to get the one full time position, it’s not an accident, the situation is gamed because the employer gets more labor for less money.
Young scientists are convinced they are headed for bigger and better things and that the work they do is very valuable - either intellectually or personally or both. They do not see themselves as of the same class as janitors, they are just temporarily overworked for the cause and things will get better later when they are in charge or in some senior role. They are “paying their dues”.
Then 90% of them realize there is no such job waiting for them and they slowly shed their belief system. But it can take decades.
thats pretty much it, alot of them thinking finishing a phd, and they get jobs handed to them, they arnt, unless you come from a prestigious university and a wealthy background which opens alot of doors automatically, eg connections. additionally alot of them believe the jobs are in academia, they arnt either because its too comepetitive, and most of them are writing grants anyways as a PI, or doing some low quality paper as a post doc(and not hire dyet). thats why im hearing on other platforms that phds are defecting from thier fields for another
Yes and structurally universities “train” far more PhDs than they have professor positions so it is literally impossible for the vast majority of academic track PhDs to get a professor position. The economics drive this: PhD students are just underpaid lab workers, basically. Like the 5 interns hoping to get the one full time position, it’s not an accident, the situation is gamed because the employer gets more labor for less money.