小时候，我就决定这辈子不当老师。原因很简单：一个班上50个学生，参差不齐，没法教。 拿到博士学位后，一心只想搞科研。每次还没申请到教职，就开始双脚发软（因为怕上讲台）。后来，有过代课的机会，也在夏（威夷）大（学）教过2-3个学期的本科生。渐渐地，觉得教书也可以，但是不自由，病得半死也得 上讲台。 慢慢地，进入“四十而不惑”。开始“有感而发”，这一发，就成了老师。今天，一位年轻的新朋友对我说： “ I think you are well qualified as a career coach.” I guess I am happy to help, but I know I should not impose my views on anyone, including my own son. Hey, I am 50+.
Career Profiles The Paddle and the Pipette By Erin Wayman August 03, 2012 “Our sport is analytical. You have to look at the water and look at the course and figure out the best way to do something.” — James Wade This past June at an Olympic qualifying run, James Wade just missed earning a spot on the U.S. team in slalom kayaking. Similar to downhill skiers, slalom kayakers navigate through a series of gates scattered over a course—of whitewater rapids. In Wade’s final race, he nicked one of those gates; the 2-second penalty cost him a trip to London. But his performance was good enough to make Wade the team alternate, prepared to travel to the United Kingdom at a moment’s notice if there was an injury. Now, after a year and a half of intense training, Wade plans to turn his attention to his life’s other major goal: earning a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta. “I’m a nerd and an athlete,” Wade, 27, said in a QA published on the U.S. National Canoe/Kayak Team Web site . He has the resume to prove it. On the athletic side, he’s been a member of the U.S. national kayaking team five times and was the U.S. National Champion in 2009. He’s ranked 21st in international competition. On the nerd side, Wade earned the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award in Georgia Tech's College of Engineering in 2010. Earlier this year, as a second-year graduate student there, he received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Wade makes his achievements seem “effortless,” says Barbara Boyan, a biomedical engineer, the associate dean for research at Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, and one of Wade's Ph.D. advisers. “He’s quite an impressive young man.” Good mentors Wade is quick to credit his family, coaches, and professors for what he has achieved. “I’ve been able to reach an elite level in sports and a relatively elite level in academics,” he says. “And a huge reason for that is the people around me. I’ve had some incredible mentors.” Wade’s earliest mentor was his father, an avid kayaker. A native of Boise, the young Wade didn’t take up his father’s pastime in earnest until he was 14. “Eventually I gave it a legitimate shot and fell in love with it,” says the younger Wade. Characteristically, he threw himself into kayaking completely, attending a school for competitive kayaking during his freshman year of high school. The students and their teachers traveled the world, from Costa Rica to Australia, in search of warm weather and suitable water. After that, Wade split his time between Boise, where he lived and went to school, and Asheville, North Carolina, where he trained. In Asheville, he trained every day for at least 3 hours and spent another 3 hours commuting to and from his practice club. That didn’t leave much time for schoolwork, but he had a natural aptitude, especially for math and science. He also had understanding teachers. “If I wasn’t always doing my homework, they didn’t mind too much as long as I was still getting good grades on the tests,” he says. CREDIT: Jennifer Tyner, Georgia Tech James Wade When the time came to choose a college, Wade emphasized the opportunity to keep up his training regimen. He chose Georgia Tech because it was the best engineering school near a national kayaking training club. He declared a mechanical engineering major, sampled courses from a variety of fields, and landed in developmental economics. "As a result, I got interested in mathematical modeling,” he says. Wade eventually majored in industrial engineering, focusing on the optimization of complex networks. For his senior design project, he worked with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest food-aid agency. After spending 2 weeks at WFP headquarters in Rome, Wade and project teammates built a mathematical model of WFP’s supply chain, including all of the places where the organization buys and sends food, and its various transportation methods. They investigated how and where to use storage depots to minimize disruptions in the supply chain. WFP is testing a pilot program in East Africa based partly on their work. Nearing graduation in 2010—because of the kayaking, it took Wade 6 years to finish his undergraduate degree—he wasn’t sure what to do next. He wanted to pursue a graduate degree or perhaps go to medical school, but he also wanted to train for the 2012 Olympics. Georgia Tech “gave me a deal I couldn’t refuse,” he says. They let him to study whenever he wanted to and offered a fellowship that would allow him to train for the Olympics. Soon he made contact with Boyan, who shares a lab with Zvi Schwartz , a dentist and engineer. One aspect of their work studies how cell signaling pathways, such as those that initiate cell growth or death, are affected by the nanostructures and microstructures of implant materials such as titanium. The lab has lots of data on how individual pathways work, but no one was looking at the pathways as an interacting system. Boyan says she got excited when she learned about Wade’s background in network research. “I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to take our background in cell biology and material science and put it together with someone who understands how information flows through networks,” she says. During his first semester of graduate school, Wade was a regular student. He spent the second semester training in Australia while enrolled in one 6-hour course. Staff members filmed lectures and sent them to him, and professors gave take-home exams. Still, it “became clear that being a full-time graduate student and … at the same time trying to be an athlete wasn’t really possible,” Wade says. So he took last year off from school to train full-time. Living and training like a professional athlete, he noticed a huge jump in his performance. But on balance, Wade believes his science is good for his athletic performance. “Our sport is analytical,” he says. “You have to look at the water and look at the course and figure out the best way to do something.” Competitors aren’t allowed to practice on a course once the gates are set up, so the only way to prepare is to practice the race in your mind. Science training helps with that, he says. Wade is now ready to dedicate himself to his studies, for a while at least. For his dissertation research, which he'll begin this fall, he will try to untangle the network of proteins that controls how mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into bone, muscle, and other tissue. If he can build a successful model of this system, researchers may eventually be able to control and direct these stem cells as they wish. Wade is considering a career in academia, but before he makes that decision he has another one to make: whether to train for the next Olympics. “To stop now is a difficult thing to swallow,” he says. But he doesn’t want to delay his career any further. “I’m the type of person that might get involved in something and it dominates me,” he says. “It’s very possible that I’ll get involved in my research, and I just won’t care about kayaking anymore.” Erin Wayman is a writer in Washington, D.C. From science http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2012_08_03/caredit.a1200086
Fornew readers and those who request to be “ 好友 good friends” please read my 公告 栏 first. Over thepast five years, I have written various blog articles about academic careerbased on my own 51 years of experience both in the US and in China. These aresign posts on the academic highway. However, I realized that linking these signposts together in a coherent sequence could provide a complete road map frombeginning graduate student to final retirement. I do this here for the benefitof scholars, young, midlife, and oldalike. 1. In the graduate school . Here you are dealing with questions of applying foradmission, finding the right advisor/mentor, on how to do research, learning tobe an independent researcher. Following are the relevant blog articles. Applying to US Universities for Admission For Students studying abroad - Western Customsto Know (II) For Students going abroad to study - WesternCustoms You Need to Know On Research and Ph.D Education #5 - Sabbaticaland Supervision How to Do Research #3 More on how to do research? How to do research 科研自导 (2) How to Supervise Yourself ( 怎么自导博士论文 ) Youthful confusion, and loss offaith and incentives. See also QA with students articles under #4 below 2. Postdoctoral positions . You need to venture out from your comfort zone to theoutside scholarly world after your Ph.D to absorb new ideas and culture. Thisis the how-to article 怎样才能到国外做博士后 -Chinese translation of mypostdoc article How to be a visiting scholar in the US 3. The Academic Ladder and Tenure . You start with the first academicposition of assistant professor (or lecturer in China). Tenure decisions aremade at associate or full professor level. What are the important considerationin getting your lifetime job? How did I get my lifetime job- 我是如何获得我的终身职业的 一个美国教授的生活（二）（中英对照） On Tenure and Tenure Track Life of an Academic in the US 4. Your Professional Obligations and Building Your World-wideReputation . What arethe things you do for the next 30-40 years after you achieved tenure? What ismeant to be world class? On Attending Conferences On Finding A Professional Home How to do consulting? How to get a paper published - 关于论文发表（原文及译文） How to make comments in meetings 在会议上發言（原文及译文 ) My personal opinion aboutco-authorship On Research and Education (#12) – Frustrationand Epiphany On Research and Education (#11) Changing ResearchDirection and Field of Endeavor On ideas, writing, and presentation Question and Answer Sessionswith Tsinghua Students (II) Question and Answer Sessions with Tsinghua Students As well asarticles in #3 5. The End Game and Active Retirement . How to wind up your career and remainengaged On the End Stage of Life - 少年人的天堂 , 中年人的战场 , 老年人的坟墓（中英对照） 1959-2009 Half Century of Research and Education and the 48th IEEEConference on Decision and Control 50+ years of control research at Harvardin 5+ minutes
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-can-8217-t-have-it-all/9020/ ps. Will Women Ever Have It All? My guess is NO. I have been meaning to write an opinion like this, though I never had this author's high power position or two kids (especially a difficult one like her old son), still I realized how hard it was to be a mother and a scientist at the same time (after my son went to college). I am reluctant to say that I would prefer to be a stay-home mom, if I had to relive my life; but I would definitely give it a serious consideration.
Five years ago, I was excited to finally have a chance to do ecosystem modeling, not knowing what I was getting into. The next four years were nothing short of a roller-coaster's ride. (In real life, I got on a small r-c's ride once, more than 20 years ago, and I was all pale when the suffering was over.) Half-way through, when the project started to show a tiny light at the far-end of the tunnel, a smart boss told me that: "It looks like you have made yourself an expert on OMZs (oxygen minimum zones). You should take advantage of this." I didn't like to take advantage of anything (or do I?), so I went on about my business. Sitting together at the same painful meeting (for all), a not-so-smart boss asked me: "What is the difference of what you do and what a programmer does?" I lost my respect for him ever since he asked me that question. Stupid, if you can't tell the difference, you should quit being my boss. Both did quit on me after that meeting. Now, the project is ending (after two-year extension) and the grant is running out. Boss #1 said: "I am glad you are finishing this paper." No, this is NOT a paper; it's a bible on OMZ, damn it. Then, he went on to point out the obvious: no papers for the last N years (I know that), and no proposals submitted for the last M years (I did that on purpose). I thanked him for his hard work. Anyone knows me half-well knew I was quitting research for good. I had enough of it! In particular, though I am not against "global warming," I had no intention to work on it. What I want to know is how the carbon guys do what they do... I was curious. Do they get the right carbon budgets IF they cannot get decent OMZs? Well, as I was waiting for the Venus to cross the Sun (on June 5th, 2012), a smart young fellow approached me. He told me that he is interested in ecosystem under warming climate, but he knows little about ecosystem modeling. I asked him if he needs money (=funding), and he said not right away (because he has some fellowship and NSF grant). I thought I could use some tax-payers' money after having worked so hard for the last five years. So, we decided to team up. He is so confident that we would get funded, but I am not so sure (knowing the success rate is about 20%). Nevertheless, I like his attitude and openness (no, he is not a Chinese). So, I asked myself when I woke up before 6 am on a Saturday: is it him, or is it something inside of me that refuses to quit (research)? ps. I wrote this Blog for myself, but also for a young man who is not sure what he wants to do after getting his Ph.D. My advice to him: Stay where you are, until you know what you truly want (not what others want you to do). Best wishes to you, mate, and to Pedro! pps. Young researchers should NOT do what I have done. It's too risk (with no new pubs and no new grants). I did it because I am getting old and I had Plan E.
本来发在 http://biowsnv.com/ 上，那里人气太差，所以转发这里。是我们几个朋友的讨论。 Tri : 刚读了王晓东的一个访谈，谈到科研不应该只作为谋生手段，不应该只以文章为目的。 http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/Biology/31592263.html 应该focus到重要的工作上，有用的工作上。个人感觉我们现阶段，既要考虑到文章的发表，也要考虑到自己career的可持续发展，争取投身到对社会发 展和人类健康有益的工作当中去。We don’t have to change the textbook, but we need to do something useful.王晓东的两个博后老板很牛逼，我一开始还以为是两口子，原来是两个男的，很有基情。一点资料，供大家参考。 http://www.jbc.org/content/281/31/e25.full?maxtoshow=HITS=5hits=5RESULTFORMAT=searchid=1FIRSTINDEX=0sortspec=PUBDATE_SORTDATE+descresourcetype=HWCIT 。 Cellcreator : 我也刚看了一点，我很喜欢他的科研要解决实际问题的观点。^_^ Tri : That’s the whole point we are doing science, however, the decipherment of basic mechanism which seems to be useless in the short term is also extremely important~ Bug: 我觉得还是两方面都要抓吧：重大的、实用的科研固然重要，但是跟疾病健康之类相关的实用性科研即使困难，一旦有成果其效应就摆在面前，甚至还有经济效应， 总体还是比较attractive的。（国内现在医学界的科研水平和科研体系都很够呛，不像米国的医学院有很多做各方面研究的系。如果这方面能够跟上，我 觉得疾病健康方面的实用性研究并不是问题。）相反，很多基础性的研究，包括一些descriptive的东东，尽管通常是实用性研究的基础，但往往工作量 大又没有直接的实用成效，如果不看发文章、引用次数之类的数据，如何激励科学家去研究这方面的东东？我觉得王晓东并没有说到点子上。如果科研是一片海洋， 那么那些热点，不管是发文章还是解决实际问题的，都是抛得高高看得见的风口浪尖，但真正推动浪潮的却 是底下看不见的洋流。我认为关键问题不是解不解决实际问题，也不是看不看发论文，而是如何利用评价体系引导学术界的价值观去注重真正有推动力的“洋流”， 而不是只是看上去很美的“浪花”。王晓东的提议看上去或许可以解决一时的问题，但最终还是换汤不换药，真要拿他的方法去治本，我看够呛 Andrew : I love the metaphor of ocean, bubble flow. Yet I’m not clear what do you mean by ‘Guiding the deep flow’ and which problem you are talking about… Bug : 嗯，我的意思是王晓东只看到说目前的科研没有关注去解决实际的问题。但我觉得真正的问题是国内的学术界习惯于跟随“热点”，也就是那些表面的 “bubble”或者“wave”，不管这些热点是好发论文的方向还是和实际疾病健康方面实用相关的方向。王晓东提倡做“解决问题”的科研，但在我看来按 他的方式那样做也不过是把热点换了一下而已，还是一样在追随表面的“bubble”。我认为治本的方法还是引导科研去关注真正能够推动科研进步的 “deep flow”，这些deep flow不一定很fancy，也不一定能够立竿见影地解决某个实际问题，甚至不一定能够上CNS，但却能够填补我们的知识中重要的gap，为实用性的研究 提供重要的基础。 打个我自己的方向内的比方，在zebrafish developmental neuroscience业内有一大牛，其早期的一项重要工作就是标记并总结了了斑马鱼脊髓中主要的中间神经元的种类、特点及其在早期运动行为中的作用。那些文章非常的descriptive，发表的杂志也不很牛。但是可以说现在每个研究斑马鱼脊髓神经回路的实验室都部分地以他的工作为基础，而斑马鱼的脊髓神经回路，由于其简单性及与哺乳动物脊髓神经回路的相似性，一直是研究人类运动的脊髓调控机制的重要模型。所以这个大牛的这项工作虽然没有直接的实用性，也谈不上有多创新，但却填补了一个重要的gap并为很多研究提供了基础。这就是我认为的有真正推动性的“deep flow”式的研究的一个例子，不过并不局限于这一类。只是很多（不过不是全部）这种重要的研究由于上不了很牛的杂志，又没有立竿见影的实用性，往往工作量还很大，国内基本上是没有的。我觉得如果有一天国内学术界能够重视起这类研究，那么才标志着国内的科研开始真正向世界一流水平靠拢。 CellCreator : 我想以后把中国海洋动物资源做个调查，哪怕是最基础最descriptive的那种，但肯定能找出一大堆潜在的有研究价值的和经济价值的东东。然后再捡几个慢慢做。。。^_^ Tri : 你这属于挖大坑，瞄准大海了~
How to be successful? The attitude of being successful Two Buddhist proverbs: When the student is ready the teacher appears. You become what you think about. Getting yourself discovered. Show interest in your research.
中国的研究生的生涯里似乎缺少了一件重要东西：论文委员会。在美国的很多学校里，每个PhD学生在博士资格考试时设立一个考试委员会，如果资格考通过，这个委员会就变成该生的论文委员会，大约每半年跟学生开一次会，直到答辩。论文委员会就像一只忧心忡忡的老母鸡，不让昏头昏脑的小鸡跑得太出界。 论文委员会在中国研究生生活里的缺失在我看来是件很糟糕的事，希望校长们和教授委员会们将之提上议事日程。没有论文委员会对学生的长期定时看护，导师对学生的责任显然就更重大了。我认为博导的责任大致在三方面： 1，至少每半年跟每个学生会面一次，专门讨论该生的学业进展。在总结学生半年来的研究成果时，明确地、毫不含糊地指出好的、不好的、差劲的表现。跟学生一起制定一个双方都能接受的下一个半年的目标。会议要有书面记录。 2，参加每周的实验室例会。每周常规的实验室例会至关重要。要求学生在会前做好家庭作业，会上简明扼要地讲解自己的实验目的、结果、对结果的解释。要求学生不光对自己的项目，也要对实验室其他成员的项目给予充分的关怀，积极参与讨论。 3，慷慨地奖励学生。学生的智力贡献要通过科研论文作者排名或专利申请人排名得到恰当的肯定。要让学生亲自到国内国际学术会议去报告他们自己的科研发现。在学生迈入事业的下一个位置时尽力帮助，至少要写一封合情合理的推荐信。 A recent commentary in Nature prompted me to write a small piece in my blog on The ScienceNet.cn to reflect on my thoughts on the responsibility of a graduate student in ensuring timely advances of his or her career. In that piece I asked the students to 1) proactively arrange meetings with the boss; 2) write good quality reports with a note attached in the front to remind the boss the key issues in the report, and 3) raise questions but at the same time come up with solutions from the student’s perspective. Someone then says: Hey, what about the responsibilities of the advisers? Now the following are what I had the good fortune to observe when I was a student myself: 1) Be a responsible adviser Dedicate one meeting with each of the students at least once every six months. Give assessment on the student’s accomplishment thus far. Point out in unambiguous terms the good, the not so good, and the bad. Clearly outline the goals for the next six months. Make sure someone is taking notes during the meeting. 2) Make every effort to attend the weekly lab meetings The importance of a regular weekly lab meeting cannot be over-emphasized. Make sure that the students did their homework before coming to the meeting. Notebooks must be handy. Ask the students to speak succinctly on their own project, stating the purpose of the experiments, the findings, and the interpretations. Ask them to pay attention not only to their own projects but of the others, and actively take part in the discussion. 3) Reward the students for their hard work Reward the students generously. Make sure their intellectual contributions are recognized by proper authorship in scholarly publications as well as in patent applications. Have them personally present their discoveries at national and international conferences. Help the students as they advance to the next stop in their career. Write a candid recommendation letter when asked. Come to think about it, there is something missing in the Chinese systems of graduate studies. Every PhD student in the United States has a “Dissertation Committee” from the very beginning that meets with him or her every six months or so until dissertation defense. The committee behaves like a good old hen to make sure the often confused youngster not to go astray. The absence of a dissertation committee in the life of a Chinese graduate student is quite unfortunate in my opinion. The role of an adviser becomes all the more important under these circumstances.
Dont Become a Scientist! Jonathan I. Katz Pr of essor of Physics Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. @wuphys.wustl.edu 千万别成为科学家！ 约拿单 I. 卡茨，物理学教授，华盛顿大学 Are you thinking of becoming a scientist? Do you want to uncover the mysteries of nature, perform experiments or carry out calculations to learn how the world works? Forget it! Science is fun and exciting. The thrill of discovery is unique. If you are smart, ambitious and hard working you should major in science as an undergraduate. But that is as far as you should take it. After graduation, you will have to deal with the real world. That means that you should not even consider going to graduate school in science. Do something else instead: medical school, law school, computers or engineering, or something else which appeals to you. 你在打算成为科学家吗？你想揭开自然的奥秘、用做实验或计算的方式来研究整个世界是怎么运作的？把这个想法忘了吧！ 的确，科学很有趣，也很刺激。由发现而产生的强烈快感是独一无二的。如果你很聪明、有野心，并且也很刻苦努力的话，你的确应该在读本科的时候选择科学。但这就够了，到此为止。本科毕业之后，你将必须面对这个真实的世界。这意味着，你不应该哪怕是考虑去读科学方面的研究生。做点其他的行当吧：医学、法律、计算机、工程，或者其他随便什么你能想到的。 Why am I (a tenured professor of physics) trying to discourage you from following a career path which was successful for me? Because times have changed (I received my Ph.D. in 1973, and tenure in 1976). American science no longer offers a reasonable career path. If you go to graduate school in science it is in the expectation of spending your working life doing scientific research, using your ingenuity and curiosity to solve important and interesting problems. You will almost certainly be disappointed, probably when it is too late to choose another career. American universities train roughly twice as many Ph.D.s as there are jobs for them. When something, or someone, is a glut on the market, the price drops. In the case of Ph.D. scientists, the reduction in price takes the form of many years spent in holding pattern postdoctoral jobs. Permanent jobs dont pay much less than they used to, but instead of obtaining a real job two years after the Ph.D. (as was typical 25 years ago) most young scientists spend five, ten, or more years as postdocs. They have no prospect of permanent employment and often must obtain a new postdoctoral position and move every two years. For many more details consult the Young Scientists Network or read the account in the May, 2001 issue of the Washington Monthly. 为什么我，一个有终身职位的物理学教授，一个在科学事业上很成功的人，要来试图打击你们将科学作为毕生事业的勇气和信心呢？因为世道变了。我1973年拿到我的博士学位，1976年就拿到了终身教职。美国的科学界现在已经不能提供一条合理的事业生涯的途径了。如果你去读科学的研究生，你大概一定会期望着用你毕生的工作精力去做科学研究，用你的智慧和好奇心去解决那些重要而又有趣的问题。实话讲，你基本上一定会失望，而失望的时候，你大概已经错过了选择其他任何职业的机会。 美国的大学制造了两倍于其工作职位数量的博士。当随便一个什么东西，或一种人，满大街随便捡的时候，他就不值钱了。对于博士科学家来说，掉价的形式是他们不得不用许多年做一期又一期的博士后，等待着一个工作机会的到来。永久职位不会比以往给的薪水少多少，但25年前一个博士毕业后大约2年后就能找到一个真正的工作，而现在绝大多数的年轻科学家都得当5年，10年，甚至更久的博士后。他们没什么拿到永久职位的盼头，常常必须每两年找一个新的博士后工作，然后搬家。欲知更多详情，请咨询青年科学家协会或读一读华盛顿大学月报2001年5月的文章。 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 didnt 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 (thats 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 ?,000 annually in the biological sciences and about ?,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. 就拿我们系里最牛的两个准备竞争一个讲师职位的人来作例子。一个家伙37岁，博士毕业已经10年了，一直没找到工作。另一个最牛的家伙，35岁，人人都认为他很聪明，博士毕业7年了才找到一个永久工作（其实不是永久教职，只是6年后有希望获得永久教职而已，不过这已经让他稍稍远离那种每两年就要找新博士后工作搬家的驴拉磨死循环了）。还有一个例子，一个39岁的家伙，想竞聘另一个讲师职位。他发了35篇文章。与之形成鲜明对比的是，一个典型的医生29岁就进入了实习阶段，一个典型的律师25岁就开始实习，31岁正式进事务所，一个计算机博士科学家在27岁时已经能得到很好的工作了。计算机科学和工程科学是工业界需要人才的仅有的两个领域，因此这两个行当还是值得去读个博士出来的。任何一个人，如果他有智慧和野心，能刻苦工作，如果他能在科学上成功的话，他也能在其他任何行当上成功。 典型的博士后薪水是每年27000美元（生物科学）或35000美元（物理科学）。博士生的奖学金比这个一半还少。用这么点收入你能支持一个家庭吗？嗯，够年轻的小两口住一个很小的房子。不过我认识一个物理学家，他的妻子把他踹了，因为她是在厌倦了跟他不停地搬家却一点定居的希望都看不到。当你三十多岁的时候你就会需要更多的东西：一个大房子，附近有好的学校，以及其他中产阶级生活所必需的设施。科学是一个职业，而不是一个宗教的呼召，也不是一个贫穷或独身的判决或者宣誓。 Of course, you dont go into science to get rich. So you choose not to go to medical or law school, even though a doctor or lawyer typically earns two to three times as much as a scientist (one lucky enough to have a good senior-level job). I made that choice too. I became a scientist in order to have the freedom to work on problems which interest me. But you probably wont get that freedom. As a postdoc you will work on someone elses ideas, and may be treated as a technician rather than as an independent collaborator. Eventually, you will probably be squeezed out of science entirely. You can get a fine job as a computer programmer, but why not do this at 22, rather than putting up with a decade of misery in the scientific job market first? The longer you spend in science the harder you will find it to leave, and the less attr active you will be to prospective employers in other fields. Perhaps you are so talented that you can beat the postdoc trap; some university (there are hardly any industrial jobs in the physical sciences) will be so impressed with you that you will be hired into a tenure track position two years out of graduate school. Maybe. But the general cheapening of scientific labor means that even the most talented stay on the postdoctoral treadmill for a very long time; consider the job candidates described above. And many who appear to be very talented, with grades and recommendations to match, later find that the competition of research is more difficult, or at least different, and that they must struggle with the rest. 显然，你走科学道路并不能使你发财你没有选择去读医学或法律，而一个医生或律师典型的收入是科学家的2-3倍（这还得是那些运气忒好的正教授科学家们）。我也做了这个选择。我成为一个科学家是为了有自由来解决那些让我感兴趣的问题。但你可能并不能得到这种自由。作为一个博士后，你只能按照别人的想法来工作，可能被当成一个技术员来使唤，而不是作为一个单独的科学家来合作。最终，你可能被彻底排挤出科学界。你可以得到一份很好的工作，比如计算机程序员，但为什么不在你22岁的时候做这份好工作，而要在科学界的人才市场上面悲悲惨惨地混上10年先？你再科学上面花的时间越多，你会发现你越难离开，而且你对其他行当的雇主而言变得越来越没有吸引力。 也许你脑瓜足够灵光，以至于你能跳出博士后的陷阱。有些大学会被你打动而在你博士毕业2年后给你一个可能的永久职位。这是可能的。但是科学劳动力市场的整体掉价意味着最灵光的脑瓜也得被拴在博士后磨盘上当驴转上很长时间。想想上面举过的例子吧。许多看上去非常有才而且有傲人的成绩和推荐信的人，后来发现研究上的竞争比其他一切的奋斗都要困难。 Suppose you do eventually obtain a permanent job, perhaps a tenured professorship. The struggle for a job is now replaced by a struggle for grant support, and again there is a glut of scientists. Now you spend your time writing proposals rather than doing research. Worse, because your proposals are judged by your competitors you cannot follow your curiosity, but must spend your effort and talents on anticipating and deflecting criticism rather than on solving the important scientific problems. Theyre not the same thing: you cannot put your past successes in a proposal, because they are finished work, and your new ideas, however original and clever, are still unproven. It is proverbial that original ideas are the kiss of death for a proposal; because they have not yet been proved to work (after all, that is what you are proposing to do) they can be, and will be, rated poorly. Having achieved the promised land, you find that it is not what you wanted after all. What can be done? The first thing for any young person (which means anyone who does not have a permanent job in science) to do is to pursue another career. This will spare you the misery of disappointed expectations. Young Americans have generally woken up to the bad prospects and absence of a reasonable middle class career path in science and are deserting it. If you havent yet, then join them. Leave graduate school to people from India and China, for whom the prospects at home are even worse. I have known more people whose lives have been ruined by getting a Ph.D. in physics than by drugs. 假设你最终拿到了一个永久教职，一个终身教授职位。现在你不必为每两年一次的工作而奋斗，取而代之的是为研究经费而斗争。你会又一次地发现，这个世界上的科学家有一大箩筐，而你自己又不值钱了。现在你焚膏继晷地写研究计划，而不是去做研究。更糟糕的是，因为你的研究计划会被你的同行竞争者来审阅，你就不能按照你自己所好奇的东西来写。你得把你的努力和聪明才智浪费在怎么咬文嚼字地让那帮混蛋不要挑刺上，而不是去解决重要的科学问题。这是两个截然不同的事情：你不能把你过去的成功写进研究计划，因为那些是已经完成的工作；而那些原创性的天才想法还没有被证明。一句谚语说，原创性的想法是研究计划中的死神之吻（乍看有益但实则会导致毁灭的行为），因为这些想法根本就没有被证明可行（废话，被证明可行了你还写个屁的研究计划），因此它们会被认为是垃圾。因此，当你费劲千辛万苦终于到达了那应许之地的教授职位上，你会发现这根本就不是你原来想要的。 那么，你能做什么？对任何年轻人（即任何还没有取得科学界的永久职位的人）来说，首要任务是去找一份其他的工作，这讲是你避免失望的痛苦。美国年轻的一代已经觉醒，看到了科学界黯淡的发展前景以及无法拥有一个合理的中产阶级生活，因此他们已经不愿意做科学家。如果你还没有觉醒的话，赶紧加入他们的行列。把博士班留给印度人和 中国 人吧他们的家乡情况更糟。在我所认识的人中， 人生 被读物理博士所毁的人数比被毒品所毁的人还要多。 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. 如果你身居高位，能够领导科学界，那么你应该尝试着去劝说那些发放研究经费的部门少招些博士生。大街上论吨撮的科学家完全就是他们的资助政策的后果几乎所有的博士生都是由联邦基金支持的）。那些基金会总在抱怨很少有年轻人对科学感兴趣，而造成这种结果的原因正是他们毁了科学作为事业。他们本可以扭转这种局面，只要他们少招些博士生，让博士生的人数与教职的人数大致相当就可以了，但他们不干，甚至他们根本不屑于严肃地讨论这件事（许多年来，NSF到处宣扬他们虚假的预测，说科学家短缺，而多数基金会好像真以为是这么回事）。结果就是，最好的年轻人，本该去做科学家的，对此唯恐避之不及；而博士班里是一帮弱弱的美国学生，还有一帮被美国学生签证所吸引来的外国人。 function forumhottag_callback(data){ tags = data; } parsetag();
王应宽 转载 2009-11-20 UTC-6 CST UMN, St Paul 2009 年美国最火的 30 种职业 博主按： 金融危机和经济萎缩改变了原先的优势职业现状，华尔街的萧条迫使银行家们转向其它行业寻找就业机会。常言道，机遇在危机之后来临（ Out of crisis comes opportunity, ），当一道门关闭的时候，另一道就会打开（ When one door closes, another opens. ）。机会总会有的。但往往表现得与众不同而不易被发现，稍纵即逝。新能源和保健行业孕育着巨大的就业机遇，但目前还不是时候，尚需假以时日。美国新闻与世界报道归纳总结出了 2009 年美国 最火爆的 30 种 职业。无论你在岗或下岗，工作市场的变迁都值得大家密切关注。您的行业景气吗？是否在这 30 种之列？ The 30 Best Careers for 2009 U.S. News's annual list of 30 Best Careers gets updated for a rapidly changing economy. By Liz Wolgemuth Posted: December 11, 2008 Full list of Best Careers 2009: Audiologist Biomedical equipment technician Clergy Curriculum/training specialist Engineer Firefighter Fundraiser Genetic counselor Ghostwriter Government manager Hairstylist/Cosmetologist Health policy specialist Higher education administrator Landscape architect Librarian Locksmith/Security system technician Management consultant Mediator Occupational therapist Optometrist Pharmacist Physical therapist Physician assistant Politician/Elected official Registered nurse School psychologist Systems analyst Urban planner Usability/User experience specialist Veterinarian 资料来源： The 30 Best Careers for 2009 http://www.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2008/12/11/the-30-best-careers-for-2009.html?s_cid=related-links:TOP Some Points about the scoring criteria: So how did we select the Best Careers of 2009? We scored hundreds of careers on five criteria: Job outlook, which took into consideration the above three factors Average job satisfaction Difficulty of the required training Prestige Pay Check out how the 30 Best Careers scored on each criterion. Add and Subtract As a result of that scoring, we removed four of the careers that were on last year's list of 31: Investment Banker: The financial industry collapse has decimated its job market. Dentist: We have received too many reports of burnout and back problems. Editor: Much as we like our jobs , we dropped that career because the publishing industry is consolidating and using more volunteer and low-pay freelance editors. Some editing work is even being offshored. Professor: Although at its best, a professorship can be a wonderful career, even many highly qualified people report being unable to land a tenure-track position. And with research-productivity requirements ratcheted up, job satisfaction often isn't what it used to be. So, we have moved Professor from a Best Career to Overrrated Career . Then we added three careers: Health Policy Specialist. Healthcare reform is a high priority for President-elect Barack Obama and Congress. That should create many jobs in developing a plan we can all live with. Physical Therapist. In previous years, this career just missed inclusion because of its difficult training requirement and a job market dampened by the increased use of physical therapy assistants. But its score rose this year because two national surveys rated physical therapy as very high in job satisfaction. In addition, the job market will likely improve as aging baby boomers are ever more likely to suffer weekend-warrior injuries and worse. Veterinarian. In tough economic times, people seek comforts, and pets are among the most treasured. So, it's perhaps not surprising that income among small-animal veterinarians is up. And as the profile explains, veterinary medicine offers many advantages over being a physician.
Struggling with your next career step? Science Careers' editorial team brings you Career Basics: Advice and Resources for Scientists. The booklet provides advice and help on preparing CVs and resumes, writing grants and scientific papers, networking, and much more. Read each article in the booklet online, or download each chapter or the entire booklet as a PDF. All for free. It is one more tool Science Careers provides to help you jump-start your career, be it in academia or outside the ivory tower! Introduction Dr. Alan Leshner, CEO, AAAS Chapter One Finding Your Way Mastering Your Ph.D.: Mentors, Leadership, and Community Mastering Your Ph.D.: Preparing for Your Post-Ph.D. Career Grad-School Campus Visits Chapter Two Marketing Yourself: CVs, Resumes, and Networking Tooling Up: Rsum Rocket Science 2007 Writing a Winning Cover Letter E-Persona Non Grata: Strategizing Your Online Persona Chapter Three Skills for the Academic Scientist Tips for Publishing in Scientific Journals Faculty Positions: Seeking the Skills for a Successful Career in Academia Chapter Four Crafting a Industry Career Tooling Up: Three Categories of Rules Transferable Skills And Portable Careers Opportunities: More School? Chapter Five Non-Traditional Careers A Matter of Policy Working as a Medical Writer Mastering Your Ph.D.: A Career in Management Consulting Chapter Six Diversity Issues in Science Family Trailblazers Nurturing Women Scientists Opening Doors for Scientists with Disabilities Chapter Seven Leadership and Lab Management Making the Leap to Independence Managing Scientists More Resources More Career-Related Resources Link: Career Basics
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