Zooze the Horse roams around the pasture near Lamar State College. Zooze thinks about problems in academia. Zhe wants proffies to submit posts (blog posts, not fence posts).
Are we encouraging young people to go into academia? With the way the academic job market is SO stinky, would it not be less irresponsible if we were instead to encourage them to take drugs?
Regardless, Peter Feibelman discusses choosing a mentor at length in his book "A Ph.D. is not Enough.” As he observes, picking a good mentor is SO important for grad students and postdocs who want to get jobs. Perhaps his most important advice is: get a mentor who won't be competing with you.
On the other hand, as Alan Whiting points out in the section, "Choose Your Field" of his online essay "Advice to New Astronomers: On Your Career," a couple years after The Big Breakthrough can be a bad time to start to work for a mentor. You may be riding the wave just after the crest has broken, and might miss out on the best opportunities that come from it. You want a mentor who’s always been very active, and can reasonably be expected to continue to produce more for many years to come. A Nobel laureate or other kind of hot-shot can be a double-edged sword: the name recognition can help you, but you may rarely see your mentor, who’s seemingly always jetting off to some conference halfway around the world.
On the other other hand (three hands aren't such a crazy idea in astrobiology), don't pick a mentor who is too old. They have the obnoxious habit of dying on you. Karen Kelsky, in her blog and book "The Professor is In," also points out that old mentors often have another bad habit: "Their ideas are old."
It's much like how you'll need to present yourself---convincingly---as all-things-for-all-people in order to get a tenure-track job. Good luck!
I twice has the chance to be mentored by hot-shots, but between them they all had the problems Frod points out above, and in hindsight I'm glad I didn't work overly closely with them.
He also makes the point that encouraging people towards academia is not necessarily the most responsible thing to do, and it's why I won't touch Batshit U's new grad programs, which are way, way worse than the undergrad stuff and the previous programs that were in place.
Given what's been going on at Batshit U, I guess an ideal mentor would be a combination of Zeno, Epictetus, & Aaron Beck.
Are we encouraging young people to go into academia? With the way the academic job market is SO stinky, would it not be less irresponsible if we were instead to encourage them to take drugs?
ReplyDeleteRegardless, Peter Feibelman discusses choosing a mentor at length in his book "A Ph.D. is not Enough.” As he observes, picking a good mentor is SO important for grad students and postdocs who want to get jobs. Perhaps his most important advice is: get a mentor who won't be competing with you.
On the other hand, as Alan Whiting points out in the section, "Choose Your Field" of his online essay "Advice to New Astronomers: On Your Career," a couple years after The Big Breakthrough can be a bad time to start to work for a mentor. You may be riding the wave just after the crest has broken, and might miss out on the best opportunities that come from it. You want a mentor who’s always been very active, and can reasonably be expected to continue to produce more for many years to come. A Nobel laureate or other kind of hot-shot can be a double-edged sword: the name recognition can help you, but you may rarely see your mentor, who’s seemingly always jetting off to some conference halfway around the world.
On the other other hand (three hands aren't such a crazy idea in astrobiology), don't pick a mentor who is too old. They have the obnoxious habit of dying on you. Karen Kelsky, in her blog and book "The Professor is In," also points out that old mentors often have another bad habit: "Their ideas are old."
It's much like how you'll need to present yourself---convincingly---as all-things-for-all-people in order to get a tenure-track job. Good luck!
I twice has the chance to be mentored by hot-shots, but between them they all had the problems Frod points out above, and in hindsight I'm glad I didn't work overly closely with them.
ReplyDeleteHe also makes the point that encouraging people towards academia is not necessarily the most responsible thing to do, and it's why I won't touch Batshit U's new grad programs, which are way, way worse than the undergrad stuff and the previous programs that were in place.
Given what's been going on at Batshit U, I guess an ideal mentor would be a combination of Zeno, Epictetus, & Aaron Beck.