Like many academic bloggers, and young academic bloggers in particular, I am prone to the occasional rant about some of the less desirable qualities of a university-bound career. My purpose in doing so is partly to blow off some steam, partly to get my own thoughts straight on these issues (writing it down always helps me to do that), and partly to fish for other peoples’ perspectives on them, with a thought to maybe somehow amassing a will and a way to make things better.
However, it does seem that it has the unfortunate side effect of painting an entirely bleak picture of the academy for people even lower down the pecking order, which can’t help but depress them. For example:
I get more and more pre-emptively bitter about trying to make it in academia…and i’m not even done w/ PhD yet. Ugh.
So, in the interests of balance, I think I should make it clear that from my perspective, whilst things may not be perfect, a lot of the time they’re pretty darn good. Through my research, I’ve not only got to spent time in some of the most beautiful places in the UK, but some of the most beautiful places on Earth – New Zealand, Spain, and now Southern Africa. And these were, and are, not just brief visits, but chances to get a real feeling for what these places, and the people who live there, are like.
I spend my days studying and thinking and talking about how our planet works, and how it got here. Answering the important geological questions requires tools from every part of the scientific toolbox – sometimes physics and maths, sometimes chemistry, sometimes biology, and often several of them at once. It’s a rare week when I don’t learn something new, and the buzz you get from fitting together all the different pieces these tools give you into a coherent picture is like solving the most fiendish Su Doku ever, only better. I spend my days looking at stuff which I think is irredeemably cool; when I’m writing my geological posts I have to continually stop myself peppering my prose with so many ‘cools’ that I sound like an Mac evangelist on speed.
So yes, the salary kind of sucks, but that’s the deal, the price you pay for the freedom to study things that interest you as a scientist; it’s true that you’re limited to what you can get grant money for, but you’re never a total slave to the bottom line. Yes, there’s not much job security, but it hasn’t escaped my notice that the Real World opted out of ‘jobs for life’ some time ago. And yes, the glut of incredibly smart and talented people competing against me means that in the long run it may not be possible for me to remain in academia. Anyone considering this path has to realise this – denial will only store up trouble and disillusionment for later – and honestly ask if that’s a risk they’re prepared to take. For me, it was, because there are real positives too, and that shouldn’t be denied either.
After all, life is never going to be perfect; all that you can hope for is that the good bits ultimately outweigh the bad bits. Whatever I end up doing, I shall look back on the last few years as being an occasionally stressful, intermittently frustrating, but also an amazingly exciting and rewarding period of my life, in which I’ve seen and done things that I never dreamed that I’d see and do. Possible future disappointment will not dim that fact, and pragmatism about that future is not preventing me from enjoying myself right now.
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