Like Dave, I spent 5+ years completing a PhD at UBC. In fact, I’m one of the “very bright and motivated people who first sat down [with Dave] at a bar about 4 years ago and posed the question “What’s wrong with the science enterprise?”“, who he mentioned in his intro posting. (So modest of me, I know!)
Unlike Dr. Dave, the newly minted-post doc, however, I decided to unplug from the Matrix that is the academy and got a job in what so many people outside the “ivory towers” like to refer to as “the real world.” My first job after my doctorate (but not a “post doc”!) was in an independent centre for research, policy and knowledge translation (I ran a research training program there) and I am now working in the health care system. To be fair, I’m still a little bit plugged into the Matrix – teaching as a sessional at UBC. Like Dave said, “once you get sucked in, it appears to be near impossible to get back out.”
So I’m looking forward to sharing with you my experiences and thoughts on the scientific enterprise in Canada (and around the world) and hope that you’ll join Dave and I (and other bloggers as we recruit them!) in these discussions!
Keep up the good work, but please try not to put a negative spin on everything. This seems to be a common thread in too many such sites. After all, nobody forced us to do a PhD (I hope not) and many of us do what we do because we love it !
I totally agree – I got my PhD in a field I love and I work a job that I love.
The intent of this blog definitely isn’t to put a negative spin on things, but rather to talk about issues we’ve experienced and, ideally, to talk about ways to improve them.