Why Sould Postdocs be Compensated Better?

Let me begin by saying that I do want to be compensated better! Which is, in part, why I spend much time and effort on looking for and applying to fellowship programs that accept international applicants. They are few and far between and involve jumping through bureaucratic hoops and harassing professors for their recommendations, humbly yet firmly. Not much fun.

The other night, at a dinner party where most of the guests just happened to be postdocs, the topic came up, as it is wont to do at gatherings of this kind. Some of us, self included, were moaning about the exigiencies of postdoctoral finances. Upon which one of the guests, who I don't know well, else I would credit her more openly, made an absolutely unanswerable point. She said that if the primary criterion for deciding appropriate recompense was to what extent one's work made another's life better, we should shut up and take it (I paraphrase). Plumbers fix the pipes, construction workers make the roads driveable, software engineers are responsibel for the smooth convenience and entertainment we expect from our phones, televisions and internet and financial planners make money for people. Postdoc research can lead to cures for cancer, but what most of us do is accumulate information piece by little piece. One day this whole body of information will coalesce into something really useful for mankind: this I truly believe, else I would just up and go! But we are little tiny cogs in a great gigantic machine, and should we all expect greater remuneration for the future possibility of something useful from that machine?

Okay, she really had me there. And I have to agree, in all conscience. If one chooses this life, then one has to deal with the consequences of it. The real sticking point for me though, comes from the incessant glorification of research as a career that is so prevalent today. Universities in the US recruit students! All the time. Any of you who work in a Biology department on a US campus in February or March have seen Recruitment. So many students, beeing wined and dined and wooed and told that the career they are choosing is so worthwhile and so important and that they will enter an elite by doing a Ph.D. in Biololgy. Does no one tell them that their chances of getting a fancy academic job are very very slim? That even the brightest among them, and they are bright, needs a healthy dose of luck to make it big? That hard work is not necessarily productive? It frustrates me to the point of screaming to see ambitious young people with sharp minds descend into cynicism and perennial whining. What a waste! By all means, let people come in to labs and do research. Please, however, do not make it out to be this glamorous career with so much success and glory in it. The first three things any potential Ph.D. candidate should be told are these:
1.Assuming there are 200 US universities with Biology departments that accept Ph.D. students. Assume also, an average entering class size of 20 per university and an avergae faculty size of about 40 PIs. So about 4000 Biology Ph.Ds are awarded every year? Make that 2000 with attrition etc. 2000 US Biology Ph.Ds a year. Add another 2000 postdocs coming in to the country from other countries. 4000 postdocs a year who want to be PIs. And 40X200=8000 tenured positions avaiable? What are you realistic chances of getting an academic job? Really.
2. If you don't get that fabulous CV and aren't really eligible for an academic position, and/or you just don't get a buzz out of lab work anymore, consider this: how marketable is your degree? Not very. Nearly every career alternative requires training in another discipline or even another degree.
3. Even if you work hard and think well, you will need Luck. Very very essential.

Now go forth and do research with my goodwill!

Just be aware. That's all I want to say, be aware, make the decision knowing what a risk you're taking. Then look at your bank account, sigh and deal.
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