Today he Skyped me, panicked. His PI's funding fell through and the post-docs will be the first to go. Now he's in a rush to find a position. And hiring in a rush is not exactly something academia is known for. So now he'll have to either find an academic post soon or be stuck in another 2 year project as a post-doc....or go industry. On top of this, as a post-doc he doesn't make enough to have put aside enough money to save for a long job-drought during an academic search.
I've enjoyed my time in industry for the most part and being able to be comfortable in my position not dependent on whether some guy/girl in the office upstairs can write a successful grant is pretty nice. My job is at the mercy of the competition and the board, but I know my products are superior and the free market has seemed to agree so I'm not worried. But more importantly, if I get laid off there's a very nice severance package (8 weeks of salary) and I've saved up a bunch because I'm overpaid. So I can deal with a break in employment. Plus, if I had gone year-after-year looking for a faculty job, I would be confident knowing that if I didn't find it I'd still have my job to fall back on. A post-doc isn't a really great fallback plan.
Thinking of my friend's situation reminds me of how lucky I am. When I was job hunting I constantly thought about how much different my hunt would be if I had a heavy hitting school on my CV for a post-doc. In hindsight I don't think it mattered much, but the stress was there before. Though the stress of worrying about pulling in a paycheck would be more than I could handle. I'd imagine his position could be in the minority, but I have no clue, and I don't wish that on anyone. I feel like Keanu in dodging that bullet.
Unfortunately, your friend's position is not uncommon. In fact, it is more common that it should be.
ReplyDeleteSadly, even 8 weeks isn't even enough time to find a faculty job
ReplyDeleteI only took up a post-doc position because I knew the Big Ass National Lab that I am working for is not going to run out of money and my contract was for two years at a time. I would not take a position that only offer 1 year contract.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this happens a lot ( happened to my friend who had to move 3 times for postdocing to Euro and back and then again). Anyway, if he is certain that he wants to get into academia he will have to find another postdoc position. Sad but true.