The Plight of the Lowly Postdoc

[purplecat]

I read stuff like this and wonder if my situation is just highly discipline dependent, or I'm somehow oblivious to all the pressure. It's unlikely to be department dependent since I've worked as a postdoc in three high-ranking CS departments now.

The comments on the article suggest that it describes a situation that is particularly acute in lab-based science but I tend to be suspicious of comments below the line (not here, obviously, where you are all lovely, intelligent and rational people (fingers crossed that that is not a "summon troll" spell)).

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Agreeing too; while there is pressure there I don't think the author (or the Guardian editor) is articulating quite what the problem is or where the pressure they feel comes from.

[purplecat]

It's also important to be aware that most careers involve a certain amount of pressure, though they vary in how it manifests. It can become a problem when it is eating unreasonably into someone's private life - which I believe is the case with tenure track in the US, and certainly was the case for junior doctors over here - but I certainly don't feel it is the case on for any postdoc post I've held.