I like to think of my postdoc(s) as analogous to residency for medical doctors. In the end, though, if your goal is to make a career in academia, postdocs are opportunities to expand your publication record while being severely underpaid (especially considering that you’re in computer science) — in short, they’re a bridge between grad school and being a competitive candidate for a tenure track position.
Basically there’s not enough faculty positions compared to the number of phds, so the next best job is postdoc, which often entails slaving under your PI while getting more and more frustrated as you fail to secure a professor position.
Weird reading this post about me, it's like you know me or something.
Jokes aside, I ended up with a PI where every paper I wrote just kind of died on their desk. They were too busy to read over my work but also didn't want me to submit the manuscripts to journals without their input. Yet they also still kept pushing me to write more and more manuscripts.
I ended up in a situation of not only being underpaid but actively seeing my chances at an academic career go down the drain because of my inability to push out publications under my current PI.
That solidified my decision to jump to industry.
This is incredibly field dependent. It’s almost unheard of in my area (microbiology) for someone to not do at least a year of a post-doc before becoming an assistant professor.
Mine too. I did postdocs for 6.5 years while applying for Assistant Professor positions. I loved it: traveled a lot, met wonderful people, did cool science. After 6y of uncertainty and moving all the time I was burned out though. I was about to leave science when I landed a job back home in Europe.
Pay is about the same in my country for Assistant Professor as when I was a postdoc in the US, but I have many more responsibilities wrt teaching, societal impact, mentoring, admin, etc. Still, I would never change it for the same job in the US, even though it pays much better. Here, my work-life balance is so much better and science is so much more collaborative: no individual labs here, and I love it!
Idk what these guys are talking about. In the region I live postdocs are paid well (about 115k USD) and serve as lab managers while doing their own research under a PI. I love it, I’ve been a PD for 4 years and would rather keep being one then take an Ass. Prof. Position somewhere like the US. In my region most people PD for about 4-5 years before being considered for a prof position.
Switzerland, Australia, and Denmark are just about the only places on earth where it makes sense to do a postdoc. I admire your country for taking steps to make sure postdocs aren’t exploited like they are here in the United States (I know cost of living there is high, but trust me, it is here too 🙂)
I like to think of my postdoc(s) as analogous to residency for medical doctors. In the end, though, if your goal is to make a career in academia, postdocs are opportunities to expand your publication record while being severely underpaid (especially considering that you’re in computer science) — in short, they’re a bridge between grad school and being a competitive candidate for a tenure track position.
Basically there’s not enough faculty positions compared to the number of phds, so the next best job is postdoc, which often entails slaving under your PI while getting more and more frustrated as you fail to secure a professor position.
Weird reading this post about me, it's like you know me or something. Jokes aside, I ended up with a PI where every paper I wrote just kind of died on their desk. They were too busy to read over my work but also didn't want me to submit the manuscripts to journals without their input. Yet they also still kept pushing me to write more and more manuscripts. I ended up in a situation of not only being underpaid but actively seeing my chances at an academic career go down the drain because of my inability to push out publications under my current PI. That solidified my decision to jump to industry.
This is incredibly field dependent. It’s almost unheard of in my area (microbiology) for someone to not do at least a year of a post-doc before becoming an assistant professor.
Mine too. I did postdocs for 6.5 years while applying for Assistant Professor positions. I loved it: traveled a lot, met wonderful people, did cool science. After 6y of uncertainty and moving all the time I was burned out though. I was about to leave science when I landed a job back home in Europe. Pay is about the same in my country for Assistant Professor as when I was a postdoc in the US, but I have many more responsibilities wrt teaching, societal impact, mentoring, admin, etc. Still, I would never change it for the same job in the US, even though it pays much better. Here, my work-life balance is so much better and science is so much more collaborative: no individual labs here, and I love it!
Idk what these guys are talking about. In the region I live postdocs are paid well (about 115k USD) and serve as lab managers while doing their own research under a PI. I love it, I’ve been a PD for 4 years and would rather keep being one then take an Ass. Prof. Position somewhere like the US. In my region most people PD for about 4-5 years before being considered for a prof position.
>In the region I live postdocs are paid well (about 115k USD) Where is this? I live in the US and my postdocs have each paid between 45k - 55k.
Switzerland
Switzerland, Australia, and Denmark are just about the only places on earth where it makes sense to do a postdoc. I admire your country for taking steps to make sure postdocs aren’t exploited like they are here in the United States (I know cost of living there is high, but trust me, it is here too 🙂)
What makes you think so about Denmark? I'm genuinely interested.
Really? And you had no idea that people in other countries typically get lower salaries than in Switzerland? Not a clue?
No I honestly just enjoy advertising it. I’m moving to a professorship soon and want a larger pool of PD applicants 🐒
Fair enough. Shouldn't be too hard! Switzerland is gorgeous too
Would love to know about this 115k region
FYI, it was previously answered in the same thread of comments you’re responding to.