Not that kind of Doctor....

Nature Magazine recently published a special section examining one of the current crises facing the scientific community: the over-abundance of doctorate holding researchers. I think this is one of the more involved surveys of the issues available, although one can find little bits here and there in the literature and online. There is some dissent on the scale of the probleme, there are other people saying that physical scientists are more or less at the same level of demand as they always have been (http://cenblog.org/). There are some pretty profound arguments that research scientists are doing fine and well.


My experience lands somewhere between golden tickets and the poorhouse. I did get a Ph.D. in a physical science, and ultimately landed a job there. But, I did have to mostly abandon the field where I did my dissertation research and move to a location that has little to offer beyond its simple being. Most of my colleagues have not had the same success either, so I have a nagging feeling of being lucky. The forces that be certainly seemed to be against me in my job search.

My current opinion of the degree distills to a profound determination that it is over-rated. People who deeply love the material, will not be deterred. However, I think someone should make a decent attempt to try. From my own experience, I had no clue that it was going to be hard to land work until I was nearly done. I harbor a theory that a large number of them are their simply because they were in school to start with, and the graduate office was the path of least resistance.

Those seeking job stability and a degree of independence should consider other routes first. A smart, driven individual will likely encounter opportunities to establish their goals, and greater freedom working outside the acadame. This view is represented by the vast number of people who appear to successfully live their lives without a higher degree.