A typical PhD student is like the A-team so there is no plan B

If you are PhD student and you have not yet read the latest Miller Mccune cover story about degrading prospects of science as career and more specifically why having a PhD is not enough, then better do it now. A thought provoking article about pyramid paradigm created by PhD programs across the world on the name of shortage of scientists which appears to be too artificial. Article also reminds us (We the PhD students) about increasing gap between the demand and the supply of PhDs.

It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities.

Definitely the gap between supply and demand is all time high, in current scenario it’s hard to throw a brick without hitting a PhD in fact Barbie has a PhD in computer science. More and more PhDs are struggling to break the ice in the job market, as end result they have to revisit their plans and an increasing trend of young scientists doing multiple postdocs till they become old. I mean seriously, what people expect from us, doing postdocs with our own son or daughter in the same lab. Well it may not be that unrealistic, sooner or later you will see that. When I look around me I find so many bright young PhD scientists with excellent publication record are struggling to find a decent job with decent salary. It will be not true if I say I will not have same fate as they had, and no one should, would or could. But why? There must be something deeply wrong with the way PhD scientists are trained for doing cheap labor, and you know this shame is older than Dr. Jorge Cham’s PhD comics.

First of all I hate when someone tells me that a PhD is not a 9-to-5 job, most of PIs expect you to work for 24 x 7. Albeit I heard this more from PhD students than PIs. That is most intimidating misconception one can have during his/her PhD life. That’s the root of whole problem. Even you work 24 x 7 your career in scientific research is far from assured and at end you hardly develop any other skills than doing something which no one else will buy. I am not talking about your social skills or soft skills, I know how much time as a PhD student we spent on Facebook or those Friday drink parties. A typical PhD student is like the A-team so there is no plan B. All they think is about getting tenure-track jobs which remain scarce. Man give me a break, You have PhD, who does not?. Screw the PhD (Thanks to Anand) and you know what in ten years PhD will be extinct. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, make a 20% time rule. If you can not get 20% out of your 100% time then make it out of 120%, try something out of box, develop new technical skills which someone can buy or at-least you can stand on your four legs. As article in Miller Mccune suggests,

Business leaders have cried “scientist shortage,” but scores of thousands of young Ph.D.s are laboring in U.S. university labs as low-paid, temporary workers, ostensibly training for permanent faculty positions that will never exist.

As matter of fact both shortage theorists and glut proponents are correct, business leaders are correct when they suggesting that there is “skill shortage” while over-supply proponents are also not wrong when they argue that current supply-demand model is broken and there is no “scientist shortage”. Remind me if I am wrong but “skill shortage” and “scientist shortage” are two different things. But with current structure of most PhD programs, students have no or little time and scope to develop additional skills those can cope with the demands of outside academia. Will PhD programs be liberal enough to support the idea of a 20% time rule for their PhD student where each PhD student can develop additional skills beyond their research. Why entrepreneurs like Larry Page and Sergey Brin have to drop out from their PhD courses to make a successful business? They made a multi-billion dollar company in leas than 3 years time. Is not that what we should expect from our PhD students? Recently I saw a big trend, many science PhD students are opting for MBA courses in hope of better career options. Let me offer the cure, what if PhD programs can offer business or entrepreneurship courses apart from their research focus. I am sure this will not solve the problem but it will definitely diversify the career opportunities for the PhD students.