Academic Advice

When I started my Masters I remember being floored at the first few academic meetings I went to where people in my group seemed to be speaking a different language.  I couldn’t even follow the conversation, let alone contribute.  No one ever told me how to get up to speed, but I couldn’t believe all the […]

Some Ph.Ds. graduate and start their first tenure track position.  Others do exceptionally well and line up a tenure-track position before they’ve actually defended.  Some give up on academia and get a job in industry (or as a post-ac or alt-ac – I’m lumping these all in as non-academic careers).  Others end up in a purgatory […]

Years ago I used to blog on a personal finance blog called Money Smarts as Mr. Cheap.  One of the posts there that I was particularly proud of was called “Ideas Are Cheap“.  I’ve long felt that this is an important concept that many people have a misunderstanding of.  This post is my attempt to articulate this idea […]

Back when I was in graduate school we used to talk about academic incest.  The idea behind this was that you would be less competitive on the job market if you did all of your degrees at the same institution.  This is different from academic inbreeding, which refers to institutions hiring their own students as […]

Quite often when students have to apply for a position requiring a letter of recommendation they don’t know how to proceed.  I was very uncomfortable asking professors for what felt like a favor.  My viewpoint, which is shared by most faculty members, is that providing letters of recommendation is part of our job and if […]

I was out to brunch over the weekend and had an interesting discussion with a friend about why many faculty members are unhappy.  We bounced around a number of ideas, each of which I suspect is part of the problem, but I think we might have hit on the core of it:  many Ph.D. candidates […]

I’ve written before that wanting to become a professor is the only worthwhile reason for getting a Ph.D.  While I believe this, it *DOESN’T* mean that once you’ve got a Ph.D. being a professor is the only thing you can ever do.  It isn’t a great route into other careers, but Ph.D. training develops a number of […]

A postdoctoral researcher, also known as a postdoctoral scholar or postdoc, is someone who has a Ph.D., then goes to work for someone else – typically an established professor.  The pay is modest, considering the credentials of most postdocs.  When I worked at MIT, I was paid $55k / year as a postdoc.   Many […]

I previously posted the details about applying for an assistant professor position.  This post focuses on specific advice for your application materials. Probably as you approach the end of your PhD studies, it will be natural to start thinking about finding a position.  Although it varies from year to year, even at the best of times […]

I’ve warned my graduating bachelor and terminal masters students that for those who are entering the workforce for the first time, their first job hunt will be the hardest.  This isn’t much comfort when you’re in the middle of it, but I tell them to keep in mind that it should never be this hard […]