Long (mostly self-inflicted) working hours, low pay, one short-time contract after another and no long-term guarantee whatsoever. That is academic life for you, in case you haven’t noticed. Sooner or later all academics start to ask themselves the same thing that Gabby asks: What are the nicest alternatives to academia? Dear Gabby, My personal favourites are careers that involve telling acad ...[Read More]
Jesper has a lot of green on his mind. No not money, you capitalists. Nature. The environment. Basil and chives. With the recent advent of billionaires finding new ways to caress their egos, and in a totally-not-aiming-to-start-mining-other-celestial-bodies kinda way, Jesper has some troubled thoughts: Should we really colonize other planets? We are already destroying this one… Dear Jesper, Sure. ...[Read More]
Applying for tenure-track (or something close to that) positions is the very reason for many brilliant scientists to eventually run away from academia as fast as they can. Finding an opening, preparing your application and bracing yourself for the n-th `no thank you, but you should really try again!’ is a tedious, time-consuming, numbing, soul-destroying, kill-me-now process. Among the many ...[Read More]
Hilde has been ever so occupied with her research, especially finishing a manuscript for the first time. Submitting that paper was supposed to be some sort of closure, and mental solace, yet somehow there seems to be a predilection for progressive diffidence: When has enough time passed to send a reminder/enquiry to an editor if the paper is in the ‘decision with editor’-stage? Dear Hilde, DonR ...[Read More]
