Worst Jobs in Science

[central scrutinizer]

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,484153,00.html

[omshanti]

1. post-doc is on the list...

great. Just what I was looking forward to.

[Dudley_DUright]

2. Yes, a post doc

is nothing but legalized slavery. Fortunately I avoided having to do this since I was extremely lucky to snag a teaching job fresh out of grad school.

On another note, a few days ago I got jumped on for joking that fusion energy is the energy of the future ... and always will be. Lo and behold, fusion researcher made the list and I quote:

18. FUSION RESEARCHER

"Future generations will need fusion. No other energy source compares with this," says 85-year-old Lawrence Livermore National Lab physicist Richard Post. Yet fusion is meaningless as a power source until the reaction of combining atomic nuclei produces more energy than scientists put in to get it going. Post has devoted 50 years of his life to achieving this critical point, called breakeven, and it's still up to 20 years away—"and always will be," joke many scientists. Post and his colleagues compare themselves wistfully to the stoneworkers of medieval cathedrals: "They had a certain faith that they were making something crucial for future generations," Post says—a faith that allowed them to grunt and sweat toward a fruition that would come only long after they were gone.

[pmbryant]

5. Their description of post-doc was pretty accurate

(emphasis added)

The academy line is that, overall, the postdoc is a beneficial "winnowing-out time": The fittest scientists are selected, while the rest flee to lesser callings (like … picking randomly here … science journalism). But, to extend the Darwinian metaphor, overwhelming anecdotal evidence suggests that the postdoc limbo selects not for intellectual fitness to be a scientist but for sheer endurance to put up with 80-hour weeks of, say, sticking electrodes in rat brains and getting bitten. People with interests in family, art or recreation are the most likely to bail. As well-rounded minds, they're also potentially the best scientists.

I didn't have to stick electrodes in rat brains or anything quite as bad as that, but the 80-hour week comment is not at all off the mark.

And the reason I "bailed" was indeed entirely based on my interest in family and "recreation" (aka "free time").

To be a scientist these days, at least in the field I was in, seems to require that it be your entire life's passion. There is no room for anything else. Certainly not while you are working your way up the ladder (which is a lengthy process), and that is a shame.

--Peter

[Dudley_DUright]

6. I agree Peter

Graduate school almost literally drove me nuts, because I have so many interests outside of science. I barely made it out with my sanity intact (and some would dispute this assertion :crazy: ).

[pmbryant]

7. Well..

I was referring to post-doctoral work, technically. It made grad school seem like a vacation.

:-)

--Peter

[baby_bear]

11. I think grad school -- at least for female scientists - is worse

At least a post doc has 1) salary and 2) a doctorate and 3) a few rights.

A female grad student gets to put up with 1) poverty and 2) groping and 3) washing all the labware on Friday nights while the guys are out drinking beer.

s_m

[pmbryant]

12. That is horrible

:-(

I understand where you are coming from, though. I was fortunate enough to go to grad school at a place where we were fairly well treated (by grad student standards), so the lack of rights wasn't as consequential as it is in other places.

--Peter

[omshanti]

8. heaven help me, then!

I'm in the final year of my dissertation (It better be my final year or I am going to jump off a cliff).
This isn't exactly encouraging news about the post-docs :(

[pmbryant]

9. Good luck, omshanti!

:hi:

--Peter

[confusionisnext]

10. 80 hr/week is an exaggeration

Try 60. 80 is for those who join labs that "only" publish in Science. suckas!

Rather than holding a doctorate only to get bachelor's wages as a postdoc, I decided to go to law school instead. One suggestion though: finish the thesis before going to law school, or you're in for the worst semester of your life. Trust me, I'm suffering as we speak ....

[sleipnir]

3. I love it...Note! Especially the icon for political quagmire!!! HA!!!

[GinaMaria]

4. My old roommate

did pap. virus research, while earning her doc. She had to go to the hospital and collect foreskins from circs for culture medium. there are worse science jobs out there, but that one struck me as a little weird. Any job killing animals would be tough too.

[Torgo]

13. My old roommate cleaned monkey cages at a bio lab.

He was working on his Pharm. D. at the time.

I still laugh thinking about him going to work hung over after a night out partying! He claimed that it was probably the worst job he ever had except for a stint he worked at a Philly hospital administering medicinal enemas!

Now those jobs were bad!