Three Reasons not to Work in IT Research in Academia*
*These reasons describe my common observations. If you do not agree with them, please express yourself by leaving a comment!
- You would usually get paid more in the private sector, or work less in the public sector.
- Your colleagues usually possess a subset of properties from {old, geek, male}.
- Your work will usually not make any impact on the world outside the academic community.
Of course there are many positive exceptions and if you know some of them, tell me that I just got pessimistic! :)
Labels: academics
# posted by romka,
Saturday, April 10, 2010
18:26
I will be lengthy this time too:
1. Partly true. In some research labs you might get paid more, but yes, statistically you are paid less then average coder.
Counter args:
a) In the private sector you are pretty anonymous, while research promotes your name. You will want this name if you think that you are a researcher in your heart, you invent instead of implementing the ideas as you would do in the industry.
b) What regards the amount of work, it really differs from company to company, from position to position. Just like research depends on your supervisor.
Personally, from the perspective of the employer (e.g. in private business), I would not let you work little :) I will want you to appear at work in the first half an hour of a working day, check in with your card, and I will make sure I am not paying you for nothing. You will check out with your card at the end of the working day and normally it will be too late to go to climb.
2. a) Must say, that old usually means experienced. Try to work in a young company and you will cry to come back to your geeks. Colleagues are for effective collaboration (not for being interesting, sexually attractive or not boring - this sounds more like friends could be)
b) wouldn't be geek=professional? Or did you mean nerds which lack social skills?
c) male - this sounds like 'why didn't somebody tell me before I chose computer science, that there will be no chicks there at all?'. Too late too late :)
3. The wish to change the world has always seemed naive to me. There are several aspects. If I will now try to be funny, I would say that the only place where heroes have survived is Hollywood. Seriously, we were being lied about that work is something you change the world through. The elders of our society are members of a mass conspiracy which is implanting the stories acout great astronauts or extremely cool bus drivers. Maybe one reason is to make you enjoy your childhood less and wish to grow up. The other could be to integrate you into the workers society from early age so you could not get an idea of not working. They provide you with education and health services. But it is very conspiracy kind of theory. I like best to look at it from the philosophical perspective. You should not be able to change the world, because you are a part of it. Let us say the world can be described by a mathematical model. The model also describes you, as a part of it. In my humble opinion, where humbliness is based on not having a degree in philosophy or logics, even if you think you changed something, you were a part of the changing world, and it was natural for the world to change, meaning your actions were nothing of an extraordinary, and it was included in the description of the world. So you cannot change the world.
Addition to the point 3.: I.e. not only you should not be able to change the world through the research, but any kind of work or action.
That is why it is also important to consider the conspiracies of the elders, as it is completely the opposite what they are saying.
Do whatever you do the best possible, then you are fine.
To Guoda: You would be a very nasty employer. About changing the world, I am really enjoying creating things and improving myself through studies and exercises. Naturally, I would prefer that the results of my work are appreciated by the others (this is what I meant with impact). I find appreciation is a way of sharing which is an important component of happiness, as noted by this guy.
To Anonymous: Thanks for the advice! But I am still to determine what do I do the best possible. It takes too long. Do you have any clue for me?