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Is a Postdoc Worth it?
Jim_Austin writes "In a very funny column, Adam Ruben reviews the disadvantages and, well, the disadvantages of doing a postdoc, noting that 'The term "postdoc" refers both to the position and to the person who occupies it. (In this sense, it's much like the term "bar mitzvah.") So you can be a postdoc, but you can also do a postdoc.'"
The people going the post-doc route either hoped to become faculty at a University somewhere, or were foreign nationals who needed a green card, and the universities were the only ones willing to do the paperwork. Then again, sometimes the Universities would string the post-doc along and only put in a half-hearted effort on the green card.
The postdoc situation is a symptom of there beeing too little resources invested in science compared to the number of people who want to do science.
No, it's a symptom of far too many people wanting a comfy job in an ivory tower where they never really have to achieve much.
So you are proud of having a career where the primary goal is collection of feces?