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A longish thread on the challenge of getting jobs in academia from my University Vice Chancellor and President perspective. Let me first start with a story, my own story.
In 1995 I started a 3-year postdoc at Mt Stromlo to measure how fast the Universe’s expansion rate was slowing down, but I knew the project would probably take more than 3 years. But I was excited about the project, and I did it anyways.
The pay sucked (AUD $37k or about 65% of my US postdoc), but it was a great environment, and I was lucky, because my wife - with her newly minted Economics PhD, was paid far more than me, and we could live comfortably.
2 years later, in early 1997, the only job which would allow me to continue my research at Stromlo opened up - a 5 year postdoc… While I was competitive, I finished 4th, and I had a problem - there was no way I was going to make my wife, who had a great high-paying job, move.
So while I wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of leaving research, I started plotting my future out of academia, but soldiered on with my research to measure the fate of the Universe which was getting exciting!
Over the next 3 months, all 3 people in front of me turned down the job for which I had applied, and so I got my 5 year postdoc extension. The new job started on 1 Jan 1998, and we finalised our calculations that showed the Universe was accelerating on the 8th of January 1998.
While the accelerating Universe has been very very good to me, it is not the basis of my happiness. If I hadn’t got the job, hadn’t been credited with the discovery of the accelerating Universe, my life choices meant I was still going to be happy.
If I had had to leave academia on 1 Jan 1998 would I regret my academic journey?- No way! I loved my PhD and loved my research during my postdocs. They really were some of the happiest most fulfilling times of my life. Leaving academia would not have changed that.
For those of you who are worried about getting a permanent job in academia - don’t. Enjoy your time doing research, but know that your training will have expanded your employment options & capacity. I don’t believe those who stay in academia are happier than those who don’t.
There is some luck to getting a permanent academic job, but being scientifically creative is the most important thing - and that comes easiest by having a balanced life, not working yourself to death, & not being worried sick about the future.
But University leaders should make sure that EMCRs have a great environment to do research, and are supported, not exploited. We owe it to EMCRs to make decisions about tenure earlier in people’s careers, and allow more researchers to come and go from outside academia.
