“I have known more people whose lives have been ruined by getting a Ph.D. in physics than by drugs”

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“I have known more people whose lives have been ruined by getting a Ph.D. in physics than by drugs”

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | Science |

The journeyman career path of a scientist:

As examples, consider two of the leading candidates for a recent Assistant Professorship in my department. One was 37, ten years out of graduate school (he didn’t get the job). The leading candidate, whom everyone thinks is brilliant, was 35, seven years out of graduate school. Only then was he offered his first permanent job (that’s not tenure, just the possibility of it six years later, and a step off the treadmill of looking for a new job every two years). The latest example is a 39 year old candidate for another Assistant Professorship; he has published 35 papers. In contrast, a doctor typically enters private practice at 29, a lawyer at 25 and makes partner at 31, and a computer scientist with a Ph.D. has a very good job at 27 (computer science and engineering are the few fields in which industrial demand makes it sensible to get a Ph.D.). Anyone with the intelligence, ambition and willingness to work hard to succeed in science can also succeed in any of these other professions.

Typical postdoctoral salaries begin at $27,000 annually in the biological sciences and about $35,000 in the physical sciences (graduate student stipends are less than half these figures). Can you support a family on that income? It suffices for a young couple in a small apartment, though I know of one physicist whose wife left him because she was tired of repeatedly moving with little prospect of settling down. When you are in your thirties you will need more: a house in a good school district and all the other necessities of ordinary middle class life. Science is a profession, not a religious vocation, and does not justify an oath of poverty or celibacy.

If you are in a position of leadership in science then you should try to persuade the funding agencies to train fewer Ph.D.s. The glut of scientists is entirely the consequence of funding policies (almost all graduate education is paid for by federal grants). The funding agencies are bemoaning the scarcity of young people interested in science when they themselves caused this scarcity by destroying science as a career. They could reverse this situation by matching the number trained to the demand, but they refuse to do so, or even to discuss the problem seriously (for many years the NSF propagated a dishonest prediction of a coming shortage of scientists, and most funding agencies still act as if this were true). The result is that the best young people, who should go into science, sensibly refuse to do so, and the graduate schools are filled with weak American students and with foreigners lured by the American student visa.

4 Comments to “I have known more people whose lives have been ruined by getting a Ph.D. in physics than by drugs”

Jon Claerbout
June 9, 2009

A PhD in Physics should qualify one for a reasonable, if not excellent, industrial job. It’s not the PhD in Physics that ruins lives, but the belief that one must be an academic. You can’t expect to work on your PhD thesis the rest of your life.

Les Jones
June 9, 2009

Probably true. A friend of mine with a physics PhD went straight into the microprocessor industry and did pretty well.

Placebo
June 9, 2009

Yeah, I got a PhD in Engineering/Physiology and hung around academics for 6 years looking for “permanent work”. I left a few years ago and have been much happier and better paid. I should have done it sooner.

theirritablearchitect
June 11, 2009

Hell, my bachelor’s degree was 167 hours, minimum, and it only landed me a job paying about 17K out of school, a dozen years ago. Quite honestly, my career path has shown me that hard work and knowing your craft and doing a good job don’t mean much when it comes to making a good salary. I know I still don’t make nearly what I know I’m worth.
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