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hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyd5v32 | fycsg7d | 1,594,998,049 | 1,594,990,650 | 23 | 16 | Analysis and Qualitative Effects of Large Breasts on Aerodynamic Performance and Wake of a “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid” Character Someone wrote a paper about anime titties. | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/556640/ You might regret this thread, I have a few, we had a bit of a competition going a while back at work to see who could find the best/worst/weirdest papers | 1 | 7,399 | 1.4375 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fycq8os | fyd5v32 | 1,594,989,162 | 1,594,998,049 | 7 | 23 | Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ | Analysis and Qualitative Effects of Large Breasts on Aerodynamic Performance and Wake of a “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid” Character Someone wrote a paper about anime titties. | 0 | 8,887 | 3.285714 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyd5v32 | fyd0s4q | 1,594,998,049 | 1,594,995,502 | 23 | 7 | Analysis and Qualitative Effects of Large Breasts on Aerodynamic Performance and Wake of a “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid” Character Someone wrote a paper about anime titties. | Not a journal article, but i believe this conference title/theme deserves to be here: how deep is your law? | 1 | 2,547 | 3.285714 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyd0qw6 | fycsg7d | 1,594,995,485 | 1,594,990,650 | 18 | 16 | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28454896/ "Did You Climax or Are You Just Laughing at Me?" Rare Phenomena Associated With Orgasm | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/556640/ You might regret this thread, I have a few, we had a bit of a competition going a while back at work to see who could find the best/worst/weirdest papers | 1 | 4,835 | 1.125 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fycq8os | fyd0qw6 | 1,594,989,162 | 1,594,995,485 | 7 | 18 | Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28454896/ "Did You Climax or Are You Just Laughing at Me?" Rare Phenomena Associated With Orgasm | 0 | 6,323 | 2.571429 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fycsg7d | fycq8os | 1,594,990,650 | 1,594,989,162 | 16 | 7 | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/556640/ You might regret this thread, I have a few, we had a bit of a competition going a while back at work to see who could find the best/worst/weirdest papers | Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ | 1 | 1,488 | 2.285714 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyf71wm | fydzpwl | 1,595,035,969 | 1,595,012,558 | 15 | 12 | For my amusement I have these papers saved in a file: Upper (1974) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block" Malloy (1983) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a replication Hermann (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a partial failure to replicate Olson (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of "writer's block": a review of the literature Skinner et al. (1985) unsuccessful group-treatment of "writer's block" Skinner and Perlini (1996) the unsuccessful group treatment of "writer's block": a ten-year follow-up Didden et al. (2007) a multisite cross-cultural replication of Upper's 1974 unsuccessful self-treatment of writer's block McLean and Thomas (2014) unsuccessful treatments of "writer's block": a meta-analysis | "Fuck Nuance". But the article is actually really good. | 1 | 23,411 | 1.25 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyf71wm | fye1jrg | 1,595,035,969 | 1,595,013,455 | 15 | 8 | For my amusement I have these papers saved in a file: Upper (1974) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block" Malloy (1983) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a replication Hermann (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a partial failure to replicate Olson (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of "writer's block": a review of the literature Skinner et al. (1985) unsuccessful group-treatment of "writer's block" Skinner and Perlini (1996) the unsuccessful group treatment of "writer's block": a ten-year follow-up Didden et al. (2007) a multisite cross-cultural replication of Upper's 1974 unsuccessful self-treatment of writer's block McLean and Thomas (2014) unsuccessful treatments of "writer's block": a meta-analysis | Should We Sacrifice the Utilitarians First? | 1 | 22,514 | 1.875 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fycq8os | fyf71wm | 1,594,989,162 | 1,595,035,969 | 7 | 15 | Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ | For my amusement I have these papers saved in a file: Upper (1974) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block" Malloy (1983) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a replication Hermann (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a partial failure to replicate Olson (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of "writer's block": a review of the literature Skinner et al. (1985) unsuccessful group-treatment of "writer's block" Skinner and Perlini (1996) the unsuccessful group treatment of "writer's block": a ten-year follow-up Didden et al. (2007) a multisite cross-cultural replication of Upper's 1974 unsuccessful self-treatment of writer's block McLean and Thomas (2014) unsuccessful treatments of "writer's block": a meta-analysis | 0 | 46,807 | 2.142857 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyf71wm | fyd0s4q | 1,595,035,969 | 1,594,995,502 | 15 | 7 | For my amusement I have these papers saved in a file: Upper (1974) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block" Malloy (1983) the unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a replication Hermann (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of "writer's block": a partial failure to replicate Olson (1984) unsuccessful self-treatment of "writer's block": a review of the literature Skinner et al. (1985) unsuccessful group-treatment of "writer's block" Skinner and Perlini (1996) the unsuccessful group treatment of "writer's block": a ten-year follow-up Didden et al. (2007) a multisite cross-cultural replication of Upper's 1974 unsuccessful self-treatment of writer's block McLean and Thomas (2014) unsuccessful treatments of "writer's block": a meta-analysis | Not a journal article, but i believe this conference title/theme deserves to be here: how deep is your law? | 1 | 40,467 | 2.142857 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fydzpwl | fycq8os | 1,595,012,558 | 1,594,989,162 | 12 | 7 | "Fuck Nuance". But the article is actually really good. | Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ | 1 | 23,396 | 1.714286 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fydzpwl | fyd0s4q | 1,595,012,558 | 1,594,995,502 | 12 | 7 | "Fuck Nuance". But the article is actually really good. | Not a journal article, but i believe this conference title/theme deserves to be here: how deep is your law? | 1 | 17,056 | 1.714286 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fycq8os | fye1jrg | 1,594,989,162 | 1,595,013,455 | 7 | 8 | Effects of packaging, equipment, and storage time on energy used for reheating beef stew. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=beef+stew&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DSj-zvXQpWGkJ | Should We Sacrifice the Utilitarians First? | 0 | 24,293 | 1.142857 |
hsti6p | askacademia_train | 0.99 | What are some of the more absurd journal article titles you're come across? Having recently come across "The hitchhikers guide to flow chemistry" and "Will Any Crap We Put into Graphene Increase Its Electrocatalytic Effect?" journal articles, I was quite amused by them. What are some other articles that you've come across that have weird/absurd/funny titles? Also, what did it make you think of the authors who wrote them? | fyd0s4q | fye1jrg | 1,594,995,502 | 1,595,013,455 | 7 | 8 | Not a journal article, but i believe this conference title/theme deserves to be here: how deep is your law? | Should We Sacrifice the Utilitarians First? | 0 | 17,953 | 1.142857 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbamwr | fsb4ov6 | 1,590,853,034 | 1,590,848,861 | 272 | 159 | I worked in a building that was locked 24/7. I started noticing things going missing from the fridge, and the freezer had things that belonged to none of the researchers. I started trying to convince everyone that I thought someone was living in the building. There were private showers in the building, empty offices, it was perfect. No one believes me until we walked around and opened all the empty offices. There it was, a room filled with axe body spray, clothes, a computer, etc. An undergrad had been living in our locked building. | I promise nobody has an experience as weird as this. | 1 | 4,173 | 1.710692 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbamwr | fsba677 | 1,590,853,034 | 1,590,852,578 | 272 | 137 | I worked in a building that was locked 24/7. I started noticing things going missing from the fridge, and the freezer had things that belonged to none of the researchers. I started trying to convince everyone that I thought someone was living in the building. There were private showers in the building, empty offices, it was perfect. No one believes me until we walked around and opened all the empty offices. There it was, a room filled with axe body spray, clothes, a computer, etc. An undergrad had been living in our locked building. | A year and a half of my PhD was spent talking care of a heard of sheep. I spent that year and a half covered in poop every day and got body slammed 3 times by freaked out sheep. I had to throw away all my work clothes. The sheep smell stunk up my whole place. Still, I love sheep. | 1 | 456 | 1.985401 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbalfd | fsbamwr | 1,590,853,005 | 1,590,853,034 | 91 | 272 | It was more a situational strangeness. I was at a large conference in a Vienna. Given the size of that conference, the city was full to the brim with my fellow attendees. Everywhere you went you could spot people with blue lanyards around their necks. I shared the hostel room with three others, two of which also attended that conference. (We didn't really speak at first as our schedules were a bit different but I saw their lanyards lying around.) The third one was a regular tourist. One of the two fellow scientists was an man in his forties, a quiet fellow and seemingly pleasant. One evening we started talking before going to sleep. We were sitting on our beds, discussing the struggles of working in academia, me in my PJs, him in his underwear (he had been quite comfortable shuffling around the room like that all week, though not in a creepy way). The next day, I wandered around the conference halls thinking about how I'd feel if I met him again, back in a professional context, and the whole thing felt absolutely comical. I didn't see him again, though, but I still think of him as the Prof-I-Saw-In-Underpants and it brightens my day. | I worked in a building that was locked 24/7. I started noticing things going missing from the fridge, and the freezer had things that belonged to none of the researchers. I started trying to convince everyone that I thought someone was living in the building. There were private showers in the building, empty offices, it was perfect. No one believes me until we walked around and opened all the empty offices. There it was, a room filled with axe body spray, clothes, a computer, etc. An undergrad had been living in our locked building. | 0 | 29 | 2.989011 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbqcl1 | fsbalfd | 1,590,859,895 | 1,590,853,005 | 115 | 91 | Throw away because people that know me would recognize this list immediately! 1) During my first month as a lab tech a very prominent researcher in a neighboring lab became infected with the BSL2 pathogen they were working with and died within 24 hours. The floor was closed and we were under investigation by multiple agencies and eventually they found there were no systemic issues with safety. Unofficially it's assumed the pathogen entered their body while they took a medication in the lab. Their family visited and we had on campus services eulogies etc. Horrible for everyone in every way. 2) My second lab tech job, the professor "forgot" my agreement for employment was 20 months (not 24 months, because I would want to start graduate school after my second summer in the lab) so when I asked for a recommendation letter to apply to grad school he basically said no because he "only hires people who guarantee two full years in the lab, and if you go to grad school it will only be 20 months". Multiple post-docs in the lab (who I worked under) had to basically convince him that he was wrong and just didn't remember that he said that "I seemed so capable that I wouldn't need a lot of training time, so 20 months instead of 24 months isn't a big deal" when he hired me. Almost didn't get into grad school. 3) My first day as a rotation student in my PhD program there was a bomb threat on campus, while we were in lab meeting. The professor told us not to worry about it, it was probably just someone who didn't want to take their first exam of the semester, and we kept meeting! The entire campus was closed and evacuated, we could see the streets flooding with people from our office window, and no one said anything. As a the new guy I couldn't speak up. Someone's spouse saw it on the news and called/texted them basically demanding they leave. The prof. said "OK fine" and that one person left, no one else got up. Lab meeting ended and the professor said we could leave campus if we wanted to. Everyone left. Basically could have gotten blown up because the professor didn't want to obey a bomb threat evacuation order and no one else in the lab would stand up to say we should leave. I didn't join that lab. 4) Two members of this lab divorced their spouse/broke up with significant other to be together and are now married. 4) During one of my rotations one of the graduate students in the lab committed suicide in their home, unrelated to their PhD work. We found out when lab members went to check on them when they didn't show up to the lab. Family visited the lab, on and off campus services. Horrible for everyone. 5) In the lab I ended up joining, the professor got a new prof. job in a different state and moved mid-way during my PhD. 6) The first post-doc lab I joined, which I moved across the country for...the full tenured professor was "let go" with absolutely zero reason given to us as to why, which no amount of demanding to the prof, department, and president would reveal (private institution). The whole lab of almost 20 people shut down within 9 months of me joining. 7) Moved across the country again for my current and technically "second" post-doc and now there's a global pandemic. TLDR: I. AM. CURSED. People literally are dying or losing their jobs everywhere I go. | It was more a situational strangeness. I was at a large conference in a Vienna. Given the size of that conference, the city was full to the brim with my fellow attendees. Everywhere you went you could spot people with blue lanyards around their necks. I shared the hostel room with three others, two of which also attended that conference. (We didn't really speak at first as our schedules were a bit different but I saw their lanyards lying around.) The third one was a regular tourist. One of the two fellow scientists was an man in his forties, a quiet fellow and seemingly pleasant. One evening we started talking before going to sleep. We were sitting on our beds, discussing the struggles of working in academia, me in my PJs, him in his underwear (he had been quite comfortable shuffling around the room like that all week, though not in a creepy way). The next day, I wandered around the conference halls thinking about how I'd feel if I met him again, back in a professional context, and the whole thing felt absolutely comical. I didn't see him again, though, but I still think of him as the Prof-I-Saw-In-Underpants and it brightens my day. | 1 | 6,890 | 1.263736 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbea4s | fsbqcl1 | 1,590,854,918 | 1,590,859,895 | 72 | 115 | I was in my second year and a new student came in to do a rotation. He was very eager about publishing and wrote up a commentary and asked me to read it before we submitted to our PI. The first citation was a link to his baking website...or rather pictures of him and a woman baking naked. For the record the topic was food materials. There were lots of photos of a bdsm baking session complete with rolling pins in private parts. He never joined our lab and the piece was never submitted. He also had a lot of sick cats he would talk about a lot... But that was long ago now. | Throw away because people that know me would recognize this list immediately! 1) During my first month as a lab tech a very prominent researcher in a neighboring lab became infected with the BSL2 pathogen they were working with and died within 24 hours. The floor was closed and we were under investigation by multiple agencies and eventually they found there were no systemic issues with safety. Unofficially it's assumed the pathogen entered their body while they took a medication in the lab. Their family visited and we had on campus services eulogies etc. Horrible for everyone in every way. 2) My second lab tech job, the professor "forgot" my agreement for employment was 20 months (not 24 months, because I would want to start graduate school after my second summer in the lab) so when I asked for a recommendation letter to apply to grad school he basically said no because he "only hires people who guarantee two full years in the lab, and if you go to grad school it will only be 20 months". Multiple post-docs in the lab (who I worked under) had to basically convince him that he was wrong and just didn't remember that he said that "I seemed so capable that I wouldn't need a lot of training time, so 20 months instead of 24 months isn't a big deal" when he hired me. Almost didn't get into grad school. 3) My first day as a rotation student in my PhD program there was a bomb threat on campus, while we were in lab meeting. The professor told us not to worry about it, it was probably just someone who didn't want to take their first exam of the semester, and we kept meeting! The entire campus was closed and evacuated, we could see the streets flooding with people from our office window, and no one said anything. As a the new guy I couldn't speak up. Someone's spouse saw it on the news and called/texted them basically demanding they leave. The prof. said "OK fine" and that one person left, no one else got up. Lab meeting ended and the professor said we could leave campus if we wanted to. Everyone left. Basically could have gotten blown up because the professor didn't want to obey a bomb threat evacuation order and no one else in the lab would stand up to say we should leave. I didn't join that lab. 4) Two members of this lab divorced their spouse/broke up with significant other to be together and are now married. 4) During one of my rotations one of the graduate students in the lab committed suicide in their home, unrelated to their PhD work. We found out when lab members went to check on them when they didn't show up to the lab. Family visited the lab, on and off campus services. Horrible for everyone. 5) In the lab I ended up joining, the professor got a new prof. job in a different state and moved mid-way during my PhD. 6) The first post-doc lab I joined, which I moved across the country for...the full tenured professor was "let go" with absolutely zero reason given to us as to why, which no amount of demanding to the prof, department, and president would reveal (private institution). The whole lab of almost 20 people shut down within 9 months of me joining. 7) Moved across the country again for my current and technically "second" post-doc and now there's a global pandemic. TLDR: I. AM. CURSED. People literally are dying or losing their jobs everywhere I go. | 0 | 4,977 | 1.597222 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbcjhm | fsbqcl1 | 1,590,854,123 | 1,590,859,895 | 63 | 115 | I got stalked by a colleague for 4 years. It only "ended" when I moved overseas for a postdoc. I saw him at a conference last year and he was just as creepy as ever. He briefly got kicked out when he got caught distributing faked medical records of mine to all my other colleagues. He was allowed back 3 months later. When I got a police intervention order they moved him to another floor. He was still allowed to continue his degree, and even supervise female undergrad students. | Throw away because people that know me would recognize this list immediately! 1) During my first month as a lab tech a very prominent researcher in a neighboring lab became infected with the BSL2 pathogen they were working with and died within 24 hours. The floor was closed and we were under investigation by multiple agencies and eventually they found there were no systemic issues with safety. Unofficially it's assumed the pathogen entered their body while they took a medication in the lab. Their family visited and we had on campus services eulogies etc. Horrible for everyone in every way. 2) My second lab tech job, the professor "forgot" my agreement for employment was 20 months (not 24 months, because I would want to start graduate school after my second summer in the lab) so when I asked for a recommendation letter to apply to grad school he basically said no because he "only hires people who guarantee two full years in the lab, and if you go to grad school it will only be 20 months". Multiple post-docs in the lab (who I worked under) had to basically convince him that he was wrong and just didn't remember that he said that "I seemed so capable that I wouldn't need a lot of training time, so 20 months instead of 24 months isn't a big deal" when he hired me. Almost didn't get into grad school. 3) My first day as a rotation student in my PhD program there was a bomb threat on campus, while we were in lab meeting. The professor told us not to worry about it, it was probably just someone who didn't want to take their first exam of the semester, and we kept meeting! The entire campus was closed and evacuated, we could see the streets flooding with people from our office window, and no one said anything. As a the new guy I couldn't speak up. Someone's spouse saw it on the news and called/texted them basically demanding they leave. The prof. said "OK fine" and that one person left, no one else got up. Lab meeting ended and the professor said we could leave campus if we wanted to. Everyone left. Basically could have gotten blown up because the professor didn't want to obey a bomb threat evacuation order and no one else in the lab would stand up to say we should leave. I didn't join that lab. 4) Two members of this lab divorced their spouse/broke up with significant other to be together and are now married. 4) During one of my rotations one of the graduate students in the lab committed suicide in their home, unrelated to their PhD work. We found out when lab members went to check on them when they didn't show up to the lab. Family visited the lab, on and off campus services. Horrible for everyone. 5) In the lab I ended up joining, the professor got a new prof. job in a different state and moved mid-way during my PhD. 6) The first post-doc lab I joined, which I moved across the country for...the full tenured professor was "let go" with absolutely zero reason given to us as to why, which no amount of demanding to the prof, department, and president would reveal (private institution). The whole lab of almost 20 people shut down within 9 months of me joining. 7) Moved across the country again for my current and technically "second" post-doc and now there's a global pandemic. TLDR: I. AM. CURSED. People literally are dying or losing their jobs everywhere I go. | 0 | 5,772 | 1.825397 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbqcl1 | fsbcr9f | 1,590,859,895 | 1,590,854,229 | 115 | 29 | Throw away because people that know me would recognize this list immediately! 1) During my first month as a lab tech a very prominent researcher in a neighboring lab became infected with the BSL2 pathogen they were working with and died within 24 hours. The floor was closed and we were under investigation by multiple agencies and eventually they found there were no systemic issues with safety. Unofficially it's assumed the pathogen entered their body while they took a medication in the lab. Their family visited and we had on campus services eulogies etc. Horrible for everyone in every way. 2) My second lab tech job, the professor "forgot" my agreement for employment was 20 months (not 24 months, because I would want to start graduate school after my second summer in the lab) so when I asked for a recommendation letter to apply to grad school he basically said no because he "only hires people who guarantee two full years in the lab, and if you go to grad school it will only be 20 months". Multiple post-docs in the lab (who I worked under) had to basically convince him that he was wrong and just didn't remember that he said that "I seemed so capable that I wouldn't need a lot of training time, so 20 months instead of 24 months isn't a big deal" when he hired me. Almost didn't get into grad school. 3) My first day as a rotation student in my PhD program there was a bomb threat on campus, while we were in lab meeting. The professor told us not to worry about it, it was probably just someone who didn't want to take their first exam of the semester, and we kept meeting! The entire campus was closed and evacuated, we could see the streets flooding with people from our office window, and no one said anything. As a the new guy I couldn't speak up. Someone's spouse saw it on the news and called/texted them basically demanding they leave. The prof. said "OK fine" and that one person left, no one else got up. Lab meeting ended and the professor said we could leave campus if we wanted to. Everyone left. Basically could have gotten blown up because the professor didn't want to obey a bomb threat evacuation order and no one else in the lab would stand up to say we should leave. I didn't join that lab. 4) Two members of this lab divorced their spouse/broke up with significant other to be together and are now married. 4) During one of my rotations one of the graduate students in the lab committed suicide in their home, unrelated to their PhD work. We found out when lab members went to check on them when they didn't show up to the lab. Family visited the lab, on and off campus services. Horrible for everyone. 5) In the lab I ended up joining, the professor got a new prof. job in a different state and moved mid-way during my PhD. 6) The first post-doc lab I joined, which I moved across the country for...the full tenured professor was "let go" with absolutely zero reason given to us as to why, which no amount of demanding to the prof, department, and president would reveal (private institution). The whole lab of almost 20 people shut down within 9 months of me joining. 7) Moved across the country again for my current and technically "second" post-doc and now there's a global pandemic. TLDR: I. AM. CURSED. People literally are dying or losing their jobs everywhere I go. | My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird. | 1 | 5,666 | 3.965517 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbea4s | fsbv4d6 | 1,590,854,918 | 1,590,861,528 | 72 | 89 | I was in my second year and a new student came in to do a rotation. He was very eager about publishing and wrote up a commentary and asked me to read it before we submitted to our PI. The first citation was a link to his baking website...or rather pictures of him and a woman baking naked. For the record the topic was food materials. There were lots of photos of a bdsm baking session complete with rolling pins in private parts. He never joined our lab and the piece was never submitted. He also had a lot of sick cats he would talk about a lot... But that was long ago now. | When I started my PhD there was a first-year guy from Nicaragua who I shared some classes with. He seemed smart but was a very odd fellow, he never talked to anybody outside of the classroom and inside it it seemed he felt he knew more than the professors. Entire class periods wasted on him arguing random shit with the professor in turn. He was extremely stubborn; if he had a preconceived concept or opinion no amount of evidence would change his mind. One day halfway into our first semester a couple of students and I finally managed to make some small talk with him. We asked him what were his goals and fields of interest. He said "I will not stop until I win the Nobel Prize for Computer Science". When we told him there was no such prize, he did not believe us (obviously). After like 20 minutes of arguing we showed him online that it, in fact, did not exist. He was SHOOK. His life mission cut short because he did not bother to do basic research before declaring it. Oh, and he did not care one bit for the Turing Award. It was Nobel or bust. That conversation was the last time any of us saw him. | 0 | 6,610 | 1.236111 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbcjhm | fsbv4d6 | 1,590,854,123 | 1,590,861,528 | 63 | 89 | I got stalked by a colleague for 4 years. It only "ended" when I moved overseas for a postdoc. I saw him at a conference last year and he was just as creepy as ever. He briefly got kicked out when he got caught distributing faked medical records of mine to all my other colleagues. He was allowed back 3 months later. When I got a police intervention order they moved him to another floor. He was still allowed to continue his degree, and even supervise female undergrad students. | When I started my PhD there was a first-year guy from Nicaragua who I shared some classes with. He seemed smart but was a very odd fellow, he never talked to anybody outside of the classroom and inside it it seemed he felt he knew more than the professors. Entire class periods wasted on him arguing random shit with the professor in turn. He was extremely stubborn; if he had a preconceived concept or opinion no amount of evidence would change his mind. One day halfway into our first semester a couple of students and I finally managed to make some small talk with him. We asked him what were his goals and fields of interest. He said "I will not stop until I win the Nobel Prize for Computer Science". When we told him there was no such prize, he did not believe us (obviously). After like 20 minutes of arguing we showed him online that it, in fact, did not exist. He was SHOOK. His life mission cut short because he did not bother to do basic research before declaring it. Oh, and he did not care one bit for the Turing Award. It was Nobel or bust. That conversation was the last time any of us saw him. | 0 | 7,405 | 1.412698 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbr2c3 | fsbv4d6 | 1,590,860,130 | 1,590,861,528 | 46 | 89 | Ended up going to a strip club with my PhD examiner | When I started my PhD there was a first-year guy from Nicaragua who I shared some classes with. He seemed smart but was a very odd fellow, he never talked to anybody outside of the classroom and inside it it seemed he felt he knew more than the professors. Entire class periods wasted on him arguing random shit with the professor in turn. He was extremely stubborn; if he had a preconceived concept or opinion no amount of evidence would change his mind. One day halfway into our first semester a couple of students and I finally managed to make some small talk with him. We asked him what were his goals and fields of interest. He said "I will not stop until I win the Nobel Prize for Computer Science". When we told him there was no such prize, he did not believe us (obviously). After like 20 minutes of arguing we showed him online that it, in fact, did not exist. He was SHOOK. His life mission cut short because he did not bother to do basic research before declaring it. Oh, and he did not care one bit for the Turing Award. It was Nobel or bust. That conversation was the last time any of us saw him. | 0 | 1,398 | 1.934783 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbv4d6 | fsbcr9f | 1,590,861,528 | 1,590,854,229 | 89 | 29 | When I started my PhD there was a first-year guy from Nicaragua who I shared some classes with. He seemed smart but was a very odd fellow, he never talked to anybody outside of the classroom and inside it it seemed he felt he knew more than the professors. Entire class periods wasted on him arguing random shit with the professor in turn. He was extremely stubborn; if he had a preconceived concept or opinion no amount of evidence would change his mind. One day halfway into our first semester a couple of students and I finally managed to make some small talk with him. We asked him what were his goals and fields of interest. He said "I will not stop until I win the Nobel Prize for Computer Science". When we told him there was no such prize, he did not believe us (obviously). After like 20 minutes of arguing we showed him online that it, in fact, did not exist. He was SHOOK. His life mission cut short because he did not bother to do basic research before declaring it. Oh, and he did not care one bit for the Turing Award. It was Nobel or bust. That conversation was the last time any of us saw him. | My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird. | 1 | 7,299 | 3.068966 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbv4d6 | fsbui4y | 1,590,861,528 | 1,590,861,321 | 89 | 28 | When I started my PhD there was a first-year guy from Nicaragua who I shared some classes with. He seemed smart but was a very odd fellow, he never talked to anybody outside of the classroom and inside it it seemed he felt he knew more than the professors. Entire class periods wasted on him arguing random shit with the professor in turn. He was extremely stubborn; if he had a preconceived concept or opinion no amount of evidence would change his mind. One day halfway into our first semester a couple of students and I finally managed to make some small talk with him. We asked him what were his goals and fields of interest. He said "I will not stop until I win the Nobel Prize for Computer Science". When we told him there was no such prize, he did not believe us (obviously). After like 20 minutes of arguing we showed him online that it, in fact, did not exist. He was SHOOK. His life mission cut short because he did not bother to do basic research before declaring it. Oh, and he did not care one bit for the Turing Award. It was Nobel or bust. That conversation was the last time any of us saw him. | It was the summer while I was writing up and so I had some weird hours. We had shared office spaces where it was a room for 8 people at bench desks with locking desk drawers. The office had a closing/lockable door from our lab and also had several bookshelves that lined the room. 12’ ceilings. Our lab had three total of these offices. Carpeted floors. One day I came in around 10am and people were in a panic in specifically our office. The flat surfaces of the entire room had been covered in... oil? There are 6+ grad students and post docs who couldn’t figure out what happened. We also didn’t know what kind of oil or where it came from, but it was definitely oil and it was definitely on all the flat surfaces. Talking a few hundred mL in total, so not a small amount either. The options for where it came from were the door itself, the air ducts, the sprinkler system and the lights, none of which made sense for the location of the most oil spots, spray pattern or amounts. That office had a locked door in a locked vestibule accessed by a separate key, so there were two locked doors to get into in our office and you could only get in our building/hallway via keycard access at two separate points. Our literal best guess was someone took some sort of oil, put it in a turkey basted or syringe and spun around in a Rollie-chair in the middle of the room while spraying a significant amount of oil everywhere. They were at least nice enough to roll the rest of the chairs out first since they were all clean? Still not likely, but yeah we had everything else ruled out for various reasons. Also, had I left my laptop there that night, it would have been oiled like everything else... and I defended later that summer. So glad I carted that sucker home. Tl;dr: our office got sprayed with oil and there’s no viable explanation for it | 1 | 207 | 3.178571 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbea4s | fsbcjhm | 1,590,854,918 | 1,590,854,123 | 72 | 63 | I was in my second year and a new student came in to do a rotation. He was very eager about publishing and wrote up a commentary and asked me to read it before we submitted to our PI. The first citation was a link to his baking website...or rather pictures of him and a woman baking naked. For the record the topic was food materials. There were lots of photos of a bdsm baking session complete with rolling pins in private parts. He never joined our lab and the piece was never submitted. He also had a lot of sick cats he would talk about a lot... But that was long ago now. | I got stalked by a colleague for 4 years. It only "ended" when I moved overseas for a postdoc. I saw him at a conference last year and he was just as creepy as ever. He briefly got kicked out when he got caught distributing faked medical records of mine to all my other colleagues. He was allowed back 3 months later. When I got a police intervention order they moved him to another floor. He was still allowed to continue his degree, and even supervise female undergrad students. | 1 | 795 | 1.142857 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbea4s | fsbcr9f | 1,590,854,918 | 1,590,854,229 | 72 | 29 | I was in my second year and a new student came in to do a rotation. He was very eager about publishing and wrote up a commentary and asked me to read it before we submitted to our PI. The first citation was a link to his baking website...or rather pictures of him and a woman baking naked. For the record the topic was food materials. There were lots of photos of a bdsm baking session complete with rolling pins in private parts. He never joined our lab and the piece was never submitted. He also had a lot of sick cats he would talk about a lot... But that was long ago now. | My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird. | 1 | 689 | 2.482759 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsd2mns | fsbr2c3 | 1,590,877,189 | 1,590,860,130 | 59 | 46 | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | Ended up going to a strip club with my PhD examiner | 1 | 17,059 | 1.282609 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsd2mns | fscq65m | 1,590,877,189 | 1,590,872,504 | 59 | 32 | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | Nothing as strange as yours but during my fourth year a global pandemic struck and moved all teaching to online, so that was pretty weird. | 1 | 4,685 | 1.84375 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsd2mns | fsbcr9f | 1,590,877,189 | 1,590,854,229 | 59 | 29 | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird. | 1 | 22,960 | 2.034483 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsd2mns | fsbui4y | 1,590,877,189 | 1,590,861,321 | 59 | 28 | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | It was the summer while I was writing up and so I had some weird hours. We had shared office spaces where it was a room for 8 people at bench desks with locking desk drawers. The office had a closing/lockable door from our lab and also had several bookshelves that lined the room. 12’ ceilings. Our lab had three total of these offices. Carpeted floors. One day I came in around 10am and people were in a panic in specifically our office. The flat surfaces of the entire room had been covered in... oil? There are 6+ grad students and post docs who couldn’t figure out what happened. We also didn’t know what kind of oil or where it came from, but it was definitely oil and it was definitely on all the flat surfaces. Talking a few hundred mL in total, so not a small amount either. The options for where it came from were the door itself, the air ducts, the sprinkler system and the lights, none of which made sense for the location of the most oil spots, spray pattern or amounts. That office had a locked door in a locked vestibule accessed by a separate key, so there were two locked doors to get into in our office and you could only get in our building/hallway via keycard access at two separate points. Our literal best guess was someone took some sort of oil, put it in a turkey basted or syringe and spun around in a Rollie-chair in the middle of the room while spraying a significant amount of oil everywhere. They were at least nice enough to roll the rest of the chairs out first since they were all clean? Still not likely, but yeah we had everything else ruled out for various reasons. Also, had I left my laptop there that night, it would have been oiled like everything else... and I defended later that summer. So glad I carted that sucker home. Tl;dr: our office got sprayed with oil and there’s no viable explanation for it | 1 | 15,868 | 2.107143 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsctwxu | fsd2mns | 1,590,873,866 | 1,590,877,189 | 20 | 59 | Got bullied for 3 years straight, supervisor knew, confidential advisor knew, everyone knew. After officially transfering to another uni got an email from HR asking me to fill in a satisfaction survey and to include me in their “success stories” | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | 0 | 3,323 | 2.95 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscslo9 | fsd2mns | 1,590,873,364 | 1,590,877,189 | 17 | 59 | I wrote a NIH career development grant that was supposed to be turned in by the grant office at my university. Months go by and I get some review comments back with scores- they were good but apparently it didn’t get funded. I call NIH program officer that was supposed to be in charge of reviewing my application- they have no record of a grant being submitted. Turns out the grant officer never turned in the grant and got the comments from some internal review process. Grant officer immediately resigns and I never get a explanation as to WTF happened. | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | 0 | 3,825 | 3.470588 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscjxzg | fsd2mns | 1,590,870,261 | 1,590,877,189 | 15 | 59 | I did field work on atmospheric samples during my PhD, at and school in Western Canada. I forgot about a sample collection one day and wasn't really dressed for the weather, which was brutally cold and windy. And it wasn't just a quick sample swap, we were calibrating everything that day. I vaguely remember my PI dragging me to the vehicle after I fell and didn't get up. It was about a 45 minute drive and I was only barely coherent by the time we got back to the lab. I've lived with cold winters and outdoor work my entire life to that point, and had never even been close to that happening. | Had to share a room with my PI at a conference. Third night someone took the room next to us and had very enthusiastic, loud, talkative sex. Walls were really thin, and it was like someone was banging on my headboard. Both of us had already gone to bed, and I could tell my PI was pretending to be asleep. Finally it ends and 5 minutes later we hear a knock on our front door. My PI answers and it’s a lady in her 60’s or 70’s in nothing but an open leopard print robe asking if we have any cigarettes. 5 years later and we still haven’t talked about it. | 0 | 6,928 | 3.933333 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbr2c3 | fsbcr9f | 1,590,860,130 | 1,590,854,229 | 46 | 29 | Ended up going to a strip club with my PhD examiner | My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird. | 1 | 5,901 | 1.586207 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscq65m | fsbcr9f | 1,590,872,504 | 1,590,854,229 | 32 | 29 | Nothing as strange as yours but during my fourth year a global pandemic struck and moved all teaching to online, so that was pretty weird. | My weirdest experience was being in a locked lab where everyone else was older and more mature than me. Everyone else in lab was doing their own experiments and publishing papers. I had been the target of weird pranks in the lab, and I never suspected anyone in lab. Seriously everyone was mature and had like 10 years on me. Someone stole my phone when it was charging and put it in the chemical hood to charge. That was super creepy. Another time, I came late to my desk at 5 PM. There was only 3 people in lab. I went to the bathroom, and came back 10 minutes later to find someone put old quizzes and exams in my bag. These quizzes were dated 7 months old and belonged to another lab member who was out of the country.... Yet in that 10 minute span that I was gone, someone put prior old quizzes into my bag... I asked the 3 people in lab and they all had no idea. Plus they were all post docs who didn’t need the quizzes. So I was dumbfounded as to why or how the quizzes ended up in my bag in 10 minutes. It was super weird. | 1 | 18,275 | 1.103448 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsbui4y | fscq65m | 1,590,861,321 | 1,590,872,504 | 28 | 32 | It was the summer while I was writing up and so I had some weird hours. We had shared office spaces where it was a room for 8 people at bench desks with locking desk drawers. The office had a closing/lockable door from our lab and also had several bookshelves that lined the room. 12’ ceilings. Our lab had three total of these offices. Carpeted floors. One day I came in around 10am and people were in a panic in specifically our office. The flat surfaces of the entire room had been covered in... oil? There are 6+ grad students and post docs who couldn’t figure out what happened. We also didn’t know what kind of oil or where it came from, but it was definitely oil and it was definitely on all the flat surfaces. Talking a few hundred mL in total, so not a small amount either. The options for where it came from were the door itself, the air ducts, the sprinkler system and the lights, none of which made sense for the location of the most oil spots, spray pattern or amounts. That office had a locked door in a locked vestibule accessed by a separate key, so there were two locked doors to get into in our office and you could only get in our building/hallway via keycard access at two separate points. Our literal best guess was someone took some sort of oil, put it in a turkey basted or syringe and spun around in a Rollie-chair in the middle of the room while spraying a significant amount of oil everywhere. They were at least nice enough to roll the rest of the chairs out first since they were all clean? Still not likely, but yeah we had everything else ruled out for various reasons. Also, had I left my laptop there that night, it would have been oiled like everything else... and I defended later that summer. So glad I carted that sucker home. Tl;dr: our office got sprayed with oil and there’s no viable explanation for it | Nothing as strange as yours but during my fourth year a global pandemic struck and moved all teaching to online, so that was pretty weird. | 0 | 11,183 | 1.142857 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscq65m | fscjxzg | 1,590,872,504 | 1,590,870,261 | 32 | 15 | Nothing as strange as yours but during my fourth year a global pandemic struck and moved all teaching to online, so that was pretty weird. | I did field work on atmospheric samples during my PhD, at and school in Western Canada. I forgot about a sample collection one day and wasn't really dressed for the weather, which was brutally cold and windy. And it wasn't just a quick sample swap, we were calibrating everything that day. I vaguely remember my PI dragging me to the vehicle after I fell and didn't get up. It was about a 45 minute drive and I was only barely coherent by the time we got back to the lab. I've lived with cold winters and outdoor work my entire life to that point, and had never even been close to that happening. | 1 | 2,243 | 2.133333 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscslo9 | fsctwxu | 1,590,873,364 | 1,590,873,866 | 17 | 20 | I wrote a NIH career development grant that was supposed to be turned in by the grant office at my university. Months go by and I get some review comments back with scores- they were good but apparently it didn’t get funded. I call NIH program officer that was supposed to be in charge of reviewing my application- they have no record of a grant being submitted. Turns out the grant officer never turned in the grant and got the comments from some internal review process. Grant officer immediately resigns and I never get a explanation as to WTF happened. | Got bullied for 3 years straight, supervisor knew, confidential advisor knew, everyone knew. After officially transfering to another uni got an email from HR asking me to fill in a satisfaction survey and to include me in their “success stories” | 0 | 502 | 1.176471 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscjxzg | fsctwxu | 1,590,870,261 | 1,590,873,866 | 15 | 20 | I did field work on atmospheric samples during my PhD, at and school in Western Canada. I forgot about a sample collection one day and wasn't really dressed for the weather, which was brutally cold and windy. And it wasn't just a quick sample swap, we were calibrating everything that day. I vaguely remember my PI dragging me to the vehicle after I fell and didn't get up. It was about a 45 minute drive and I was only barely coherent by the time we got back to the lab. I've lived with cold winters and outdoor work my entire life to that point, and had never even been close to that happening. | Got bullied for 3 years straight, supervisor knew, confidential advisor knew, everyone knew. After officially transfering to another uni got an email from HR asking me to fill in a satisfaction survey and to include me in their “success stories” | 0 | 3,605 | 1.333333 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fscslo9 | fscjxzg | 1,590,873,364 | 1,590,870,261 | 17 | 15 | I wrote a NIH career development grant that was supposed to be turned in by the grant office at my university. Months go by and I get some review comments back with scores- they were good but apparently it didn’t get funded. I call NIH program officer that was supposed to be in charge of reviewing my application- they have no record of a grant being submitted. Turns out the grant officer never turned in the grant and got the comments from some internal review process. Grant officer immediately resigns and I never get a explanation as to WTF happened. | I did field work on atmospheric samples during my PhD, at and school in Western Canada. I forgot about a sample collection one day and wasn't really dressed for the weather, which was brutally cold and windy. And it wasn't just a quick sample swap, we were calibrating everything that day. I vaguely remember my PI dragging me to the vehicle after I fell and didn't get up. It was about a 45 minute drive and I was only barely coherent by the time we got back to the lab. I've lived with cold winters and outdoor work my entire life to that point, and had never even been close to that happening. | 1 | 3,103 | 1.133333 |
gtf1uq | askacademia_train | 0.98 | What is the strangest thing that happened to you during your PhD? Here is mine. I spent three months abroad at a laboratory in Spain. The experiments required that I was there on the weekends. I only spoke a little Spanish and on weekends the university was practically empty except security, so I was often there alone. One weekend the security guard came down to the lab and started talking in Spanish to me. I couldn't follow everything he said, but I thought he said that he had to inspect a nearby building so my building would be empty for a while. A couple hours later I had finished for the day and went to the security desk. They have to lock you out - if I left at my own volition the doors unlock behind me and anyone can enter. The desk was empty. No security guard. I looked around and down the hall was an open door with light coming out. I presumed it was the security offices or something. I peered around the corner and this is what I saw: The security guard from earlier sat naked on a chair, legs crossed, staring into space. The chair was in the middle of the room. It was an office, not a changing room. Embarassed, I walked away and was to about leave, but remembered I couldn't. I waited a few minutes and then approached again, this time making loud footsteps and knocking the wall. When I looked this time, the guard had gotten dressed and was buttoning his shirt. He asked if I was leaving and I said yes. He let me out and I left. I told my colleagues this, and now this is has become the highlight of my stay abroad. Even my hosts and colleagues in Spain first and foremost remember this incident better than anything else from my stay. The host professor wanted to know who it was, but I only saw the guard once after this, and none of my Spanish colleagues were with me that time. TL;DR walked in on naked security guard during stay abroad. | fsdmp5h | fsdgl6u | 1,590,888,878 | 1,590,885,183 | 12 | 9 | City wide protests over the murder of George Floyd during a global pandemic takes the cake. While police brutality is far from rare, it's wild to see my whole city boarded up and everyone wearing masks. It's truly an apocalypse feel. | My dissertation included 3-weeks of data collection with a group of American teachers in China. On the final day of the trip one of the participants committed suicide. There’s not a lot a PhD program can do to prepare a candidate for that. | 1 | 3,695 | 1.333333 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6el3df | h6ehtnf | 1,627,160,408 | 1,627,158,731 | 413 | 69 | I don't think being exceptional/remarkable is as noteworthy as people make it out to be. Plenty of geniuses can't get a job. Plenty of them quit before they evem graduate Being average and knowing how to play the game (publishing, schmoozing with faculty, getting into tje right subfield, etc) is more important. Work ethic is more important etc | The top will always be competitive, no matter what field. I also suggest getting off the Internet and talking to some people who are doing what you want to be doing, and also those who are on the path but maybe not yet as far (ie not tenured but are in the grad program/postdoc/getting the experiences you want to have or feel you need to have). The Internet (and esp. reddit) is incredibly negative. I'm also kind of inclined to believe the people who are getting the jobs are NOT the ones freaking out about it on reddit/twitter/etc, so take that with a grain of salt. (and FWIW I am not in STEM but I pay attention) | 1 | 1,677 | 5.985507 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6ehgn4 | h6el3df | 1,627,158,548 | 1,627,160,408 | 63 | 413 | The top echelon of academia (regardless of the field) will always be competitive. It is up to you to decide if you're ok with a top 10 or a top 50 university. The right question to ask is, "are there enough jobs (both academia and industry) after a (insert major) degree". You could always end up in (say) finance with a math degree. It's just a question of identifying non-traditional career paths. | I don't think being exceptional/remarkable is as noteworthy as people make it out to be. Plenty of geniuses can't get a job. Plenty of them quit before they evem graduate Being average and knowing how to play the game (publishing, schmoozing with faculty, getting into tje right subfield, etc) is more important. Work ethic is more important etc | 0 | 1,860 | 6.555556 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6ehmzv | h6el3df | 1,627,158,638 | 1,627,160,408 | 63 | 413 | My perspective as a fairly new (pre-tenure) EE faculty at a non-R1. 1) Yes, you need post docs unless you're an exceptional applicant in a few select fields (EE, CS). For something like physics or biology, the typical successful applicant will have 2 post docs from very reputable labs. I don't know the details for straight math faculty. 2) Yes, you need to be the best out of a large pool of applicants. In EE, the pool size seems to be about 200. My schools psych and philosophy departments also had about 200 applicants for their searches this year (physics wasn't hiring). However, being the most qualified doesn't just mean highest research output or smartest, it also entails being a good fit both in personality and specific subfield. 3) Math olympiads have nothing to do with research success. Most of our faculty were near the top of their class, but very few were engaged in anything competitive. Really, hiring committees will care very little about undergraduate activity and not at all about anything pre-University. Personally, I'm in EE/BME and I'm not especially good at math. I'm technically competent, but squeaked by in my advanced math courses. I am, however, very good at communicating my ideas, managing projects, and making people feel comfortable and confident. Being smart is less important than working hard and understanding "the game" of academia. 4) Many faculty candidates have been aiming for a faculty position since undergrad. Very few really started that path before then. I started targeting a faculty position my 2nd year of undergrad, got my name on a publication that same year and published at least once per year after that. I taught, took a pedagogy course, wrote and won grants, took R&D heavy internships, and built a substantial network of academic collaborations. My faculty job hunt was fairly easy: 3 offers from ~20 applications (I think, it could have been as few as 14 applications). Physics and math will likely be a more difficult hunt no matter what, especially if you want to be at a research intensive university. | I don't think being exceptional/remarkable is as noteworthy as people make it out to be. Plenty of geniuses can't get a job. Plenty of them quit before they evem graduate Being average and knowing how to play the game (publishing, schmoozing with faculty, getting into tje right subfield, etc) is more important. Work ethic is more important etc | 0 | 1,770 | 6.555556 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6ehgn4 | h6ehtnf | 1,627,158,548 | 1,627,158,731 | 63 | 69 | The top echelon of academia (regardless of the field) will always be competitive. It is up to you to decide if you're ok with a top 10 or a top 50 university. The right question to ask is, "are there enough jobs (both academia and industry) after a (insert major) degree". You could always end up in (say) finance with a math degree. It's just a question of identifying non-traditional career paths. | The top will always be competitive, no matter what field. I also suggest getting off the Internet and talking to some people who are doing what you want to be doing, and also those who are on the path but maybe not yet as far (ie not tenured but are in the grad program/postdoc/getting the experiences you want to have or feel you need to have). The Internet (and esp. reddit) is incredibly negative. I'm also kind of inclined to believe the people who are getting the jobs are NOT the ones freaking out about it on reddit/twitter/etc, so take that with a grain of salt. (and FWIW I am not in STEM but I pay attention) | 0 | 183 | 1.095238 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6ehtnf | h6ehmzv | 1,627,158,731 | 1,627,158,638 | 69 | 63 | The top will always be competitive, no matter what field. I also suggest getting off the Internet and talking to some people who are doing what you want to be doing, and also those who are on the path but maybe not yet as far (ie not tenured but are in the grad program/postdoc/getting the experiences you want to have or feel you need to have). The Internet (and esp. reddit) is incredibly negative. I'm also kind of inclined to believe the people who are getting the jobs are NOT the ones freaking out about it on reddit/twitter/etc, so take that with a grain of salt. (and FWIW I am not in STEM but I pay attention) | My perspective as a fairly new (pre-tenure) EE faculty at a non-R1. 1) Yes, you need post docs unless you're an exceptional applicant in a few select fields (EE, CS). For something like physics or biology, the typical successful applicant will have 2 post docs from very reputable labs. I don't know the details for straight math faculty. 2) Yes, you need to be the best out of a large pool of applicants. In EE, the pool size seems to be about 200. My schools psych and philosophy departments also had about 200 applicants for their searches this year (physics wasn't hiring). However, being the most qualified doesn't just mean highest research output or smartest, it also entails being a good fit both in personality and specific subfield. 3) Math olympiads have nothing to do with research success. Most of our faculty were near the top of their class, but very few were engaged in anything competitive. Really, hiring committees will care very little about undergraduate activity and not at all about anything pre-University. Personally, I'm in EE/BME and I'm not especially good at math. I'm technically competent, but squeaked by in my advanced math courses. I am, however, very good at communicating my ideas, managing projects, and making people feel comfortable and confident. Being smart is less important than working hard and understanding "the game" of academia. 4) Many faculty candidates have been aiming for a faculty position since undergrad. Very few really started that path before then. I started targeting a faculty position my 2nd year of undergrad, got my name on a publication that same year and published at least once per year after that. I taught, took a pedagogy course, wrote and won grants, took R&D heavy internships, and built a substantial network of academic collaborations. My faculty job hunt was fairly easy: 3 offers from ~20 applications (I think, it could have been as few as 14 applications). Physics and math will likely be a more difficult hunt no matter what, especially if you want to be at a research intensive university. | 1 | 93 | 1.095238 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6esfsl | h6f0yqc | 1,627,164,187 | 1,627,168,733 | 12 | 36 | >People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success. | I'm not sure I can speak about math here. But as a professor in a social science, I can say with 100% certainty: if you are interested in going into academia in the humanities or social sciences, you absolutely ***must*** be exceptional and even being exceptional is no guarantee of success. | 0 | 4,546 | 3 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f0yqc | h6epdqj | 1,627,168,733 | 1,627,162,614 | 36 | 6 | I'm not sure I can speak about math here. But as a professor in a social science, I can say with 100% certainty: if you are interested in going into academia in the humanities or social sciences, you absolutely ***must*** be exceptional and even being exceptional is no guarantee of success. | yes IMO | 1 | 6,119 | 6 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f3c2g | h6f9shf | 1,627,170,032 | 1,627,173,652 | 15 | 33 | I'm finishing my PhD in engineering in a top 10 university in my field, and I don't think you need to be exceptional. What I would suggest is have interesting research interests-especially interdisciplinary- because that makes you stand out. Edit: After reading the comments here, I 100% agree about "playing the game". I know some people who weren't very smart but played the game well and now have fancy positions. It's weird how it works out sometimes. | It depends so much on your discipline. I’m an English professor and, despite what most people think, the job prospects for the field in academia are pretty good - assuming you get your degree in rhetoric and composition. The prospects for literature and creative writing are soul crushingly bad. Anecdotally I don’t know a single creative writing grad who got a full time gig except those who went on to get PhDs in rhet/comp (and that includes me) while, with one exception, the only lit PhDs I know who got full time jobs all got hired at community colleges (and the exception is working at a small liberal arts college). Meanwhile, I’m considered a failure by many of my old colleagues in rhet/comp because I DIDN’T get a tenure track job at a research university (they’re all assholes though. I’m perfectly happy in my job). | 0 | 3,620 | 2.2 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6esfsl | h6f9shf | 1,627,164,187 | 1,627,173,652 | 12 | 33 | >People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success. | It depends so much on your discipline. I’m an English professor and, despite what most people think, the job prospects for the field in academia are pretty good - assuming you get your degree in rhetoric and composition. The prospects for literature and creative writing are soul crushingly bad. Anecdotally I don’t know a single creative writing grad who got a full time gig except those who went on to get PhDs in rhet/comp (and that includes me) while, with one exception, the only lit PhDs I know who got full time jobs all got hired at community colleges (and the exception is working at a small liberal arts college). Meanwhile, I’m considered a failure by many of my old colleagues in rhet/comp because I DIDN’T get a tenure track job at a research university (they’re all assholes though. I’m perfectly happy in my job). | 0 | 9,465 | 2.75 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f7rov | h6f9shf | 1,627,172,501 | 1,627,173,652 | 8 | 33 | Do you know what works in academia? The ability to publish , which is much more about your ability to write steadily every day than anything. | It depends so much on your discipline. I’m an English professor and, despite what most people think, the job prospects for the field in academia are pretty good - assuming you get your degree in rhetoric and composition. The prospects for literature and creative writing are soul crushingly bad. Anecdotally I don’t know a single creative writing grad who got a full time gig except those who went on to get PhDs in rhet/comp (and that includes me) while, with one exception, the only lit PhDs I know who got full time jobs all got hired at community colleges (and the exception is working at a small liberal arts college). Meanwhile, I’m considered a failure by many of my old colleagues in rhet/comp because I DIDN’T get a tenure track job at a research university (they’re all assholes though. I’m perfectly happy in my job). | 0 | 1,151 | 4.125 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6epdqj | h6f9shf | 1,627,162,614 | 1,627,173,652 | 6 | 33 | yes IMO | It depends so much on your discipline. I’m an English professor and, despite what most people think, the job prospects for the field in academia are pretty good - assuming you get your degree in rhetoric and composition. The prospects for literature and creative writing are soul crushingly bad. Anecdotally I don’t know a single creative writing grad who got a full time gig except those who went on to get PhDs in rhet/comp (and that includes me) while, with one exception, the only lit PhDs I know who got full time jobs all got hired at community colleges (and the exception is working at a small liberal arts college). Meanwhile, I’m considered a failure by many of my old colleagues in rhet/comp because I DIDN’T get a tenure track job at a research university (they’re all assholes though. I’m perfectly happy in my job). | 0 | 11,038 | 5.5 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6fae98 | h6fe8bz | 1,627,173,995 | 1,627,176,130 | 17 | 22 | I'm stem faculty hired in 2019 and I was a B student in college who barely got into grad school at a mid range grad school. First: the job market is hard but not impossible. If you have a reasonable track record and apply to everything that's even remotely tangential to your field. Apply to 100-200 jobs. Go to every phone or in person interview. Second, ultimately being "exceptional" isn't about inborn talent. It's whatever you've accomplished. That might be easy for you, or it might be hard. I had to work hard to produce my scholarly output. Maybe there are some people that math seems to come easy to, or who seem to just "get" stuff. If all they do is produce homework , but they never solve any real problems or make any real discoveries, then their inborn talent was pretty worthless. | \>Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? R1 craziness aside, in my (now quite long) experience on search committees at PUIs pretty much anyone in the top 20 of a 200+ person field could do the job. Certainly all of the short-listed candidates in a typical search call it the top half-dozen) are more than qualified on the basis of research, so at institutions like mine it's teaching skill and "fit" that makes the difference. While it's possible to prepare to be more competitive as an instructor, fit is so elusive a quality that it's impossible to describe and can seem quite capricious. There's no way to know how a given individual will interact with all the members of a search committee, a department, and the dean(s) during an interview, but quite often the debates in the final step come down to how the candidates will fit with the department, its mission, and its projected future needs. So no, you don't have to be #1 on any meaningful scale. Being in the top 10% if often enough to get your file carefully considered and perhaps will get you a zoom interview. But you have to knock that out of the park *and* be a near-perfect match to the position (both the advertised part and the internal, unpublished requisites) to get an on-campus interview. From there it's usually a matter of not fucking up and fit. Still, a 1-in-200+ shot at a given job isn't very good odds. Honestly, I've often seen people who are *amazing* on paper who don't even make the short list in a search-- if something about how they interview, their attitudes, their references, their teaching reviews, etc. turns off even a couple of members of the search committee that's it, since they are looking for reasons to cut people from the pool. For example, I've seen what looked like really good candidates dropped after zoom/skype interviews when they haven't asked good questions back to the committee-- taken as evidence that they hadn't done their research on the institution so weren't really serious about the job. | 0 | 2,135 | 1.294118 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f3c2g | h6fe8bz | 1,627,170,032 | 1,627,176,130 | 15 | 22 | I'm finishing my PhD in engineering in a top 10 university in my field, and I don't think you need to be exceptional. What I would suggest is have interesting research interests-especially interdisciplinary- because that makes you stand out. Edit: After reading the comments here, I 100% agree about "playing the game". I know some people who weren't very smart but played the game well and now have fancy positions. It's weird how it works out sometimes. | \>Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? R1 craziness aside, in my (now quite long) experience on search committees at PUIs pretty much anyone in the top 20 of a 200+ person field could do the job. Certainly all of the short-listed candidates in a typical search call it the top half-dozen) are more than qualified on the basis of research, so at institutions like mine it's teaching skill and "fit" that makes the difference. While it's possible to prepare to be more competitive as an instructor, fit is so elusive a quality that it's impossible to describe and can seem quite capricious. There's no way to know how a given individual will interact with all the members of a search committee, a department, and the dean(s) during an interview, but quite often the debates in the final step come down to how the candidates will fit with the department, its mission, and its projected future needs. So no, you don't have to be #1 on any meaningful scale. Being in the top 10% if often enough to get your file carefully considered and perhaps will get you a zoom interview. But you have to knock that out of the park *and* be a near-perfect match to the position (both the advertised part and the internal, unpublished requisites) to get an on-campus interview. From there it's usually a matter of not fucking up and fit. Still, a 1-in-200+ shot at a given job isn't very good odds. Honestly, I've often seen people who are *amazing* on paper who don't even make the short list in a search-- if something about how they interview, their attitudes, their references, their teaching reviews, etc. turns off even a couple of members of the search committee that's it, since they are looking for reasons to cut people from the pool. For example, I've seen what looked like really good candidates dropped after zoom/skype interviews when they haven't asked good questions back to the committee-- taken as evidence that they hadn't done their research on the institution so weren't really serious about the job. | 0 | 6,098 | 1.466667 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6esfsl | h6fe8bz | 1,627,164,187 | 1,627,176,130 | 12 | 22 | >People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success. | \>Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? R1 craziness aside, in my (now quite long) experience on search committees at PUIs pretty much anyone in the top 20 of a 200+ person field could do the job. Certainly all of the short-listed candidates in a typical search call it the top half-dozen) are more than qualified on the basis of research, so at institutions like mine it's teaching skill and "fit" that makes the difference. While it's possible to prepare to be more competitive as an instructor, fit is so elusive a quality that it's impossible to describe and can seem quite capricious. There's no way to know how a given individual will interact with all the members of a search committee, a department, and the dean(s) during an interview, but quite often the debates in the final step come down to how the candidates will fit with the department, its mission, and its projected future needs. So no, you don't have to be #1 on any meaningful scale. Being in the top 10% if often enough to get your file carefully considered and perhaps will get you a zoom interview. But you have to knock that out of the park *and* be a near-perfect match to the position (both the advertised part and the internal, unpublished requisites) to get an on-campus interview. From there it's usually a matter of not fucking up and fit. Still, a 1-in-200+ shot at a given job isn't very good odds. Honestly, I've often seen people who are *amazing* on paper who don't even make the short list in a search-- if something about how they interview, their attitudes, their references, their teaching reviews, etc. turns off even a couple of members of the search committee that's it, since they are looking for reasons to cut people from the pool. For example, I've seen what looked like really good candidates dropped after zoom/skype interviews when they haven't asked good questions back to the committee-- taken as evidence that they hadn't done their research on the institution so weren't really serious about the job. | 0 | 11,943 | 1.833333 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f7rov | h6fe8bz | 1,627,172,501 | 1,627,176,130 | 8 | 22 | Do you know what works in academia? The ability to publish , which is much more about your ability to write steadily every day than anything. | \>Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? R1 craziness aside, in my (now quite long) experience on search committees at PUIs pretty much anyone in the top 20 of a 200+ person field could do the job. Certainly all of the short-listed candidates in a typical search call it the top half-dozen) are more than qualified on the basis of research, so at institutions like mine it's teaching skill and "fit" that makes the difference. While it's possible to prepare to be more competitive as an instructor, fit is so elusive a quality that it's impossible to describe and can seem quite capricious. There's no way to know how a given individual will interact with all the members of a search committee, a department, and the dean(s) during an interview, but quite often the debates in the final step come down to how the candidates will fit with the department, its mission, and its projected future needs. So no, you don't have to be #1 on any meaningful scale. Being in the top 10% if often enough to get your file carefully considered and perhaps will get you a zoom interview. But you have to knock that out of the park *and* be a near-perfect match to the position (both the advertised part and the internal, unpublished requisites) to get an on-campus interview. From there it's usually a matter of not fucking up and fit. Still, a 1-in-200+ shot at a given job isn't very good odds. Honestly, I've often seen people who are *amazing* on paper who don't even make the short list in a search-- if something about how they interview, their attitudes, their references, their teaching reviews, etc. turns off even a couple of members of the search committee that's it, since they are looking for reasons to cut people from the pool. For example, I've seen what looked like really good candidates dropped after zoom/skype interviews when they haven't asked good questions back to the committee-- taken as evidence that they hadn't done their research on the institution so weren't really serious about the job. | 0 | 3,629 | 2.75 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6fe8bz | h6epdqj | 1,627,176,130 | 1,627,162,614 | 22 | 6 | \>Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? R1 craziness aside, in my (now quite long) experience on search committees at PUIs pretty much anyone in the top 20 of a 200+ person field could do the job. Certainly all of the short-listed candidates in a typical search call it the top half-dozen) are more than qualified on the basis of research, so at institutions like mine it's teaching skill and "fit" that makes the difference. While it's possible to prepare to be more competitive as an instructor, fit is so elusive a quality that it's impossible to describe and can seem quite capricious. There's no way to know how a given individual will interact with all the members of a search committee, a department, and the dean(s) during an interview, but quite often the debates in the final step come down to how the candidates will fit with the department, its mission, and its projected future needs. So no, you don't have to be #1 on any meaningful scale. Being in the top 10% if often enough to get your file carefully considered and perhaps will get you a zoom interview. But you have to knock that out of the park *and* be a near-perfect match to the position (both the advertised part and the internal, unpublished requisites) to get an on-campus interview. From there it's usually a matter of not fucking up and fit. Still, a 1-in-200+ shot at a given job isn't very good odds. Honestly, I've often seen people who are *amazing* on paper who don't even make the short list in a search-- if something about how they interview, their attitudes, their references, their teaching reviews, etc. turns off even a couple of members of the search committee that's it, since they are looking for reasons to cut people from the pool. For example, I've seen what looked like really good candidates dropped after zoom/skype interviews when they haven't asked good questions back to the committee-- taken as evidence that they hadn't done their research on the institution so weren't really serious about the job. | yes IMO | 1 | 13,516 | 3.666667 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f3c2g | h6fae98 | 1,627,170,032 | 1,627,173,995 | 15 | 17 | I'm finishing my PhD in engineering in a top 10 university in my field, and I don't think you need to be exceptional. What I would suggest is have interesting research interests-especially interdisciplinary- because that makes you stand out. Edit: After reading the comments here, I 100% agree about "playing the game". I know some people who weren't very smart but played the game well and now have fancy positions. It's weird how it works out sometimes. | I'm stem faculty hired in 2019 and I was a B student in college who barely got into grad school at a mid range grad school. First: the job market is hard but not impossible. If you have a reasonable track record and apply to everything that's even remotely tangential to your field. Apply to 100-200 jobs. Go to every phone or in person interview. Second, ultimately being "exceptional" isn't about inborn talent. It's whatever you've accomplished. That might be easy for you, or it might be hard. I had to work hard to produce my scholarly output. Maybe there are some people that math seems to come easy to, or who seem to just "get" stuff. If all they do is produce homework , but they never solve any real problems or make any real discoveries, then their inborn talent was pretty worthless. | 0 | 3,963 | 1.133333 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6fae98 | h6esfsl | 1,627,173,995 | 1,627,164,187 | 17 | 12 | I'm stem faculty hired in 2019 and I was a B student in college who barely got into grad school at a mid range grad school. First: the job market is hard but not impossible. If you have a reasonable track record and apply to everything that's even remotely tangential to your field. Apply to 100-200 jobs. Go to every phone or in person interview. Second, ultimately being "exceptional" isn't about inborn talent. It's whatever you've accomplished. That might be easy for you, or it might be hard. I had to work hard to produce my scholarly output. Maybe there are some people that math seems to come easy to, or who seem to just "get" stuff. If all they do is produce homework , but they never solve any real problems or make any real discoveries, then their inborn talent was pretty worthless. | >People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success. | 1 | 9,808 | 1.416667 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f7rov | h6fae98 | 1,627,172,501 | 1,627,173,995 | 8 | 17 | Do you know what works in academia? The ability to publish , which is much more about your ability to write steadily every day than anything. | I'm stem faculty hired in 2019 and I was a B student in college who barely got into grad school at a mid range grad school. First: the job market is hard but not impossible. If you have a reasonable track record and apply to everything that's even remotely tangential to your field. Apply to 100-200 jobs. Go to every phone or in person interview. Second, ultimately being "exceptional" isn't about inborn talent. It's whatever you've accomplished. That might be easy for you, or it might be hard. I had to work hard to produce my scholarly output. Maybe there are some people that math seems to come easy to, or who seem to just "get" stuff. If all they do is produce homework , but they never solve any real problems or make any real discoveries, then their inborn talent was pretty worthless. | 0 | 1,494 | 2.125 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6fae98 | h6epdqj | 1,627,173,995 | 1,627,162,614 | 17 | 6 | I'm stem faculty hired in 2019 and I was a B student in college who barely got into grad school at a mid range grad school. First: the job market is hard but not impossible. If you have a reasonable track record and apply to everything that's even remotely tangential to your field. Apply to 100-200 jobs. Go to every phone or in person interview. Second, ultimately being "exceptional" isn't about inborn talent. It's whatever you've accomplished. That might be easy for you, or it might be hard. I had to work hard to produce my scholarly output. Maybe there are some people that math seems to come easy to, or who seem to just "get" stuff. If all they do is produce homework , but they never solve any real problems or make any real discoveries, then their inborn talent was pretty worthless. | yes IMO | 1 | 11,381 | 2.833333 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f3c2g | h6esfsl | 1,627,170,032 | 1,627,164,187 | 15 | 12 | I'm finishing my PhD in engineering in a top 10 university in my field, and I don't think you need to be exceptional. What I would suggest is have interesting research interests-especially interdisciplinary- because that makes you stand out. Edit: After reading the comments here, I 100% agree about "playing the game". I know some people who weren't very smart but played the game well and now have fancy positions. It's weird how it works out sometimes. | >People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success. | 1 | 5,845 | 1.25 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f3c2g | h6epdqj | 1,627,170,032 | 1,627,162,614 | 15 | 6 | I'm finishing my PhD in engineering in a top 10 university in my field, and I don't think you need to be exceptional. What I would suggest is have interesting research interests-especially interdisciplinary- because that makes you stand out. Edit: After reading the comments here, I 100% agree about "playing the game". I know some people who weren't very smart but played the game well and now have fancy positions. It's weird how it works out sometimes. | yes IMO | 1 | 7,418 | 2.5 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6esfsl | h6epdqj | 1,627,164,187 | 1,627,162,614 | 12 | 6 | >People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, Yes, it's very hard to get faculty positions in physics or mathematics, but winning math Olympiads secondary school is not the best predictor of success. | yes IMO | 1 | 1,573 | 2 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6flski | h6f7rov | 1,627,180,419 | 1,627,172,501 | 10 | 8 | Hi, math PhD here. Most of my fellow math PhD graduates got great jobs in industry and government. Math is absolutely a viable degree for going into BIG (business, industry, government) jobs. Not sure why people think math can only be used for teaching. I fight that perception daily. | Do you know what works in academia? The ability to publish , which is much more about your ability to write steadily every day than anything. | 1 | 7,918 | 1.25 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6flski | h6epdqj | 1,627,180,419 | 1,627,162,614 | 10 | 6 | Hi, math PhD here. Most of my fellow math PhD graduates got great jobs in industry and government. Math is absolutely a viable degree for going into BIG (business, industry, government) jobs. Not sure why people think math can only be used for teaching. I fight that perception daily. | yes IMO | 1 | 17,805 | 1.666667 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6f7rov | h6epdqj | 1,627,172,501 | 1,627,162,614 | 8 | 6 | Do you know what works in academia? The ability to publish , which is much more about your ability to write steadily every day than anything. | yes IMO | 1 | 9,887 | 1.333333 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6foi5p | h6epdqj | 1,627,182,051 | 1,627,162,614 | 7 | 6 | There are a lot of idiots in academia. | yes IMO | 1 | 19,437 | 1.166667 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6epdqj | h6fqqvl | 1,627,162,614 | 1,627,183,453 | 6 | 7 | yes IMO | I have spent a good 10 years at University level in both undergrad and postgrad. I have met a whole bunch of people who were demonstrably more intelligent than I or who understood three material far better, but were unable to perform at the level i could. There are many reasons, but a common one is being very smart as a youth and being told so throughout, while never learning the skills to push through something difficult or that they had trouble learning. | 0 | 20,839 | 1.166667 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6gtm2e | h6gku74 | 1,627,215,466 | 1,627,207,798 | 7 | 5 | It’s competitive. But it’s also luck. Anyone who doesn’t admit there is a HUGE element of luck is kidding themselves. Some of the smartest and most talented very well published (top journals like nature nature comms PNAS etc) have struggled, and even left academia. Then there are others who have totally just walked in at the right place at the right time. It’s good to be exceptional but by no means is academia the be all and end all. | Not really. As other commenters are saying, what matters most is work ethics and knowing how to play the game (publishing, getting grants, networking,...). Of course being "genius smart" helps, but I have seen many of these failing because they refuse to play the game. Sometimes they get a job out of their "genius" reputation, but then they get quite behind in terms of funding and visibility because they start to work on some niche field or lose interest and dedicate themselves to other things (being pro chess player or being fluent in Chinese or whatever). | 1 | 7,668 | 1.4 |
oqx5qp | askacademia_train | 0.98 | Is academia so competitive now that it's pointless to try if you aren't exceptional/remarkable? People will suggest to major in engineering instead of physics or mathematics due to academia being so extremely competitive. Has it reached a point to where if you're not, say, winning math olympiads during secondary school, you should probably not bother with a mathematics degree & academia, and instead default to engineering & industry instead? I'm wondering how the landscape looks for any and all fields right now, but especially STEM. Do you need to be effectively the #1 best applicant out of 300-3,000 applicants to recieve an offer? Do you actually need 1-3 post-doctoral positions to have a chance? Is all of that just hyperbole from bitter people? It reminds me of how some children in europe begin training at 5 years old in these expensive soccer camps, so that they can have a chance of being on a team when they grow up. Is that what it's like now? Are you competing with people like that? | h6epdqj | h6gtm2e | 1,627,162,614 | 1,627,215,466 | 6 | 7 | yes IMO | It’s competitive. But it’s also luck. Anyone who doesn’t admit there is a HUGE element of luck is kidding themselves. Some of the smartest and most talented very well published (top journals like nature nature comms PNAS etc) have struggled, and even left academia. Then there are others who have totally just walked in at the right place at the right time. It’s good to be exceptional but by no means is academia the be all and end all. | 0 | 52,852 | 1.166667 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr56x9 | hfrjqga | 1,633,628,430 | 1,633,634,440 | 102 | 203 | There's a whole article article on the the subject! But seriously, everyone thinks they'll make it big (read: become a TT professor) because of survivor bias - all you see for years is professors! | So a lot of the answers here are "competition" but the situations in which I have seen toxicity are generally not about people stabbing each other in the back or being resentful over the jobs or opportunities of others. The truly toxic people are usually those who don't have any direct competition, can get away with behavior that would get them in trouble in a different environment, and often have long-set grievances that may have nothing to do with the academic environment directly (e.g., their now-deceased parents didn't respect them enough) but somehow get expressed well in it. My own experience is that among professors there is a fair percentage of unchecked narcissists. I don't know if the absolute percentage of narcissists is higher than baseline (I could imagine why the academic selection system would favor narcissists, but this is just a pet theory), but I do think that they are more unchecked than you'd get at a lot of places. Even without tenure there is a high tolerance of awful behavior towards colleagues if your research is good, and certainly tenure can insulate people. I suspect you also get knock-off effects by what gets normalized at the "top" of fields and institutions; it is clear that some disciplines consider being nasty and aggressive to be a sign of "brilliance" and it is rewarded rather than shunned. I don't particularly think it is about there being too much competition or too little resources. My sense is that academia could be pretty toxic even before those kinds of conditions existed. The most toxic places I have seen have been those that are very close to the "top," where resources are relatively abundant and nobody is competing in a serious way anymore. To put it another way, in my experience, competition does lead to anxiety and that obviously can lead to some minor bad behavior and resentment. Certainly people who are actively on the job market and stressed about it can be ungenerous and difficult to be around, especially if they see their immediate peers doing well. I certainly was; I tried to just isolate myself from others when I felt particularly gloomy, because I had seen how some good colleagues who had a few months in which they temporarily unbearable when they were in that situation, but then they came out of it when they got a better sense of what their future might look like, even if it was just temporary (it's the uncertainty that is the anxiety-producer, that lack of control). But that kind of anxiety is not what I associate with "toxicity" — the toxic people are the people who have the solid jobs already, in my experience, but are bitter about the institution (for reasons justified or not), their colleagues (ditto), or their unattained goals (which may or may not be reasonable). More importantly, they are enabled to act on this bitterness, because their behavior is essentially unchecked. I would just note that this is one of those "be the change you want in the world" sorts of situations as well. I try to do a lot to be non-toxic, to be the very opposite of it. In some departments, the toxicity is just the defining aspect of it, and it self-perpetuates in terms of who they hire and how they act, but in some the toxicity can be isolated and minimized. Cultures can change, though. I have been sometimes impressed by the power of small attempts to improve things — even with regards to the toxic people themselves, who are used to their toxicity being reflected back at them in some way, and are sometimes quite disarmed by unexpected kindness as a result (your mileage may vary). | 0 | 6,010 | 1.990196 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr4h43 | hfrjqga | 1,633,628,142 | 1,633,634,440 | 80 | 203 | I think a big part of it is that most people with PhDs have spent their whole life being told how smart they are, and getting the highest academic degree feeds into that. On top of that, you're the one at the front of the classroom, imparting your knowledge to everyone else, and you're often one of the smartest people in the room, if not the smartest. But far too many people take their expertise in one tiny little area to mean that they're equally knowledgeable about everything, instead of instilling the humility it should. | So a lot of the answers here are "competition" but the situations in which I have seen toxicity are generally not about people stabbing each other in the back or being resentful over the jobs or opportunities of others. The truly toxic people are usually those who don't have any direct competition, can get away with behavior that would get them in trouble in a different environment, and often have long-set grievances that may have nothing to do with the academic environment directly (e.g., their now-deceased parents didn't respect them enough) but somehow get expressed well in it. My own experience is that among professors there is a fair percentage of unchecked narcissists. I don't know if the absolute percentage of narcissists is higher than baseline (I could imagine why the academic selection system would favor narcissists, but this is just a pet theory), but I do think that they are more unchecked than you'd get at a lot of places. Even without tenure there is a high tolerance of awful behavior towards colleagues if your research is good, and certainly tenure can insulate people. I suspect you also get knock-off effects by what gets normalized at the "top" of fields and institutions; it is clear that some disciplines consider being nasty and aggressive to be a sign of "brilliance" and it is rewarded rather than shunned. I don't particularly think it is about there being too much competition or too little resources. My sense is that academia could be pretty toxic even before those kinds of conditions existed. The most toxic places I have seen have been those that are very close to the "top," where resources are relatively abundant and nobody is competing in a serious way anymore. To put it another way, in my experience, competition does lead to anxiety and that obviously can lead to some minor bad behavior and resentment. Certainly people who are actively on the job market and stressed about it can be ungenerous and difficult to be around, especially if they see their immediate peers doing well. I certainly was; I tried to just isolate myself from others when I felt particularly gloomy, because I had seen how some good colleagues who had a few months in which they temporarily unbearable when they were in that situation, but then they came out of it when they got a better sense of what their future might look like, even if it was just temporary (it's the uncertainty that is the anxiety-producer, that lack of control). But that kind of anxiety is not what I associate with "toxicity" — the toxic people are the people who have the solid jobs already, in my experience, but are bitter about the institution (for reasons justified or not), their colleagues (ditto), or their unattained goals (which may or may not be reasonable). More importantly, they are enabled to act on this bitterness, because their behavior is essentially unchecked. I would just note that this is one of those "be the change you want in the world" sorts of situations as well. I try to do a lot to be non-toxic, to be the very opposite of it. In some departments, the toxicity is just the defining aspect of it, and it self-perpetuates in terms of who they hire and how they act, but in some the toxicity can be isolated and minimized. Cultures can change, though. I have been sometimes impressed by the power of small attempts to improve things — even with regards to the toxic people themselves, who are used to their toxicity being reflected back at them in some way, and are sometimes quite disarmed by unexpected kindness as a result (your mileage may vary). | 0 | 6,298 | 2.5375 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrimg2 | hfrjqga | 1,633,633,973 | 1,633,634,440 | 67 | 203 | Because it is disproportionately populated with extremely privileged people who have rarely had to interact with people in situations in which they werent in the advantageous position. Do y'all *reallllly* think academia is so much more taxing on your body, mind, and soul than, say, ohhhhhh working in a shitty blue collar job where your boss treats you like a stupid asshole and you have to put on a smile for fuckface customers all day? Do you really think academia is so much more taxing than working in fast food or a million other places? Haha, go work on a city work team and get back to me. It's just that people in academia, myself included, are not used to not being in control. Oh I'm so sorry. A stressful, underpaid work environment in which you are never quite sure what future opportunities will materialize? Yeah, welcome to the club. | So a lot of the answers here are "competition" but the situations in which I have seen toxicity are generally not about people stabbing each other in the back or being resentful over the jobs or opportunities of others. The truly toxic people are usually those who don't have any direct competition, can get away with behavior that would get them in trouble in a different environment, and often have long-set grievances that may have nothing to do with the academic environment directly (e.g., their now-deceased parents didn't respect them enough) but somehow get expressed well in it. My own experience is that among professors there is a fair percentage of unchecked narcissists. I don't know if the absolute percentage of narcissists is higher than baseline (I could imagine why the academic selection system would favor narcissists, but this is just a pet theory), but I do think that they are more unchecked than you'd get at a lot of places. Even without tenure there is a high tolerance of awful behavior towards colleagues if your research is good, and certainly tenure can insulate people. I suspect you also get knock-off effects by what gets normalized at the "top" of fields and institutions; it is clear that some disciplines consider being nasty and aggressive to be a sign of "brilliance" and it is rewarded rather than shunned. I don't particularly think it is about there being too much competition or too little resources. My sense is that academia could be pretty toxic even before those kinds of conditions existed. The most toxic places I have seen have been those that are very close to the "top," where resources are relatively abundant and nobody is competing in a serious way anymore. To put it another way, in my experience, competition does lead to anxiety and that obviously can lead to some minor bad behavior and resentment. Certainly people who are actively on the job market and stressed about it can be ungenerous and difficult to be around, especially if they see their immediate peers doing well. I certainly was; I tried to just isolate myself from others when I felt particularly gloomy, because I had seen how some good colleagues who had a few months in which they temporarily unbearable when they were in that situation, but then they came out of it when they got a better sense of what their future might look like, even if it was just temporary (it's the uncertainty that is the anxiety-producer, that lack of control). But that kind of anxiety is not what I associate with "toxicity" — the toxic people are the people who have the solid jobs already, in my experience, but are bitter about the institution (for reasons justified or not), their colleagues (ditto), or their unattained goals (which may or may not be reasonable). More importantly, they are enabled to act on this bitterness, because their behavior is essentially unchecked. I would just note that this is one of those "be the change you want in the world" sorts of situations as well. I try to do a lot to be non-toxic, to be the very opposite of it. In some departments, the toxicity is just the defining aspect of it, and it self-perpetuates in terms of who they hire and how they act, but in some the toxicity can be isolated and minimized. Cultures can change, though. I have been sometimes impressed by the power of small attempts to improve things — even with regards to the toxic people themselves, who are used to their toxicity being reflected back at them in some way, and are sometimes quite disarmed by unexpected kindness as a result (your mileage may vary). | 0 | 467 | 3.029851 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrjqga | hfrhvbd | 1,633,634,440 | 1,633,633,657 | 203 | 35 | So a lot of the answers here are "competition" but the situations in which I have seen toxicity are generally not about people stabbing each other in the back or being resentful over the jobs or opportunities of others. The truly toxic people are usually those who don't have any direct competition, can get away with behavior that would get them in trouble in a different environment, and often have long-set grievances that may have nothing to do with the academic environment directly (e.g., their now-deceased parents didn't respect them enough) but somehow get expressed well in it. My own experience is that among professors there is a fair percentage of unchecked narcissists. I don't know if the absolute percentage of narcissists is higher than baseline (I could imagine why the academic selection system would favor narcissists, but this is just a pet theory), but I do think that they are more unchecked than you'd get at a lot of places. Even without tenure there is a high tolerance of awful behavior towards colleagues if your research is good, and certainly tenure can insulate people. I suspect you also get knock-off effects by what gets normalized at the "top" of fields and institutions; it is clear that some disciplines consider being nasty and aggressive to be a sign of "brilliance" and it is rewarded rather than shunned. I don't particularly think it is about there being too much competition or too little resources. My sense is that academia could be pretty toxic even before those kinds of conditions existed. The most toxic places I have seen have been those that are very close to the "top," where resources are relatively abundant and nobody is competing in a serious way anymore. To put it another way, in my experience, competition does lead to anxiety and that obviously can lead to some minor bad behavior and resentment. Certainly people who are actively on the job market and stressed about it can be ungenerous and difficult to be around, especially if they see their immediate peers doing well. I certainly was; I tried to just isolate myself from others when I felt particularly gloomy, because I had seen how some good colleagues who had a few months in which they temporarily unbearable when they were in that situation, but then they came out of it when they got a better sense of what their future might look like, even if it was just temporary (it's the uncertainty that is the anxiety-producer, that lack of control). But that kind of anxiety is not what I associate with "toxicity" — the toxic people are the people who have the solid jobs already, in my experience, but are bitter about the institution (for reasons justified or not), their colleagues (ditto), or their unattained goals (which may or may not be reasonable). More importantly, they are enabled to act on this bitterness, because their behavior is essentially unchecked. I would just note that this is one of those "be the change you want in the world" sorts of situations as well. I try to do a lot to be non-toxic, to be the very opposite of it. In some departments, the toxicity is just the defining aspect of it, and it self-perpetuates in terms of who they hire and how they act, but in some the toxicity can be isolated and minimized. Cultures can change, though. I have been sometimes impressed by the power of small attempts to improve things — even with regards to the toxic people themselves, who are used to their toxicity being reflected back at them in some way, and are sometimes quite disarmed by unexpected kindness as a result (your mileage may vary). | The secret of STEM advanced degrees is that it’s more about competition and ego than the science itself. Those who make it to TT positions are the most driven by the competition. If you want to do cool stuff and be happy, you go into industry. Or at least this is my hot take as I finish my PhD in bio. | 1 | 783 | 5.8 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr891m | hfrjqga | 1,633,629,675 | 1,633,634,440 | 7 | 203 | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | So a lot of the answers here are "competition" but the situations in which I have seen toxicity are generally not about people stabbing each other in the back or being resentful over the jobs or opportunities of others. The truly toxic people are usually those who don't have any direct competition, can get away with behavior that would get them in trouble in a different environment, and often have long-set grievances that may have nothing to do with the academic environment directly (e.g., their now-deceased parents didn't respect them enough) but somehow get expressed well in it. My own experience is that among professors there is a fair percentage of unchecked narcissists. I don't know if the absolute percentage of narcissists is higher than baseline (I could imagine why the academic selection system would favor narcissists, but this is just a pet theory), but I do think that they are more unchecked than you'd get at a lot of places. Even without tenure there is a high tolerance of awful behavior towards colleagues if your research is good, and certainly tenure can insulate people. I suspect you also get knock-off effects by what gets normalized at the "top" of fields and institutions; it is clear that some disciplines consider being nasty and aggressive to be a sign of "brilliance" and it is rewarded rather than shunned. I don't particularly think it is about there being too much competition or too little resources. My sense is that academia could be pretty toxic even before those kinds of conditions existed. The most toxic places I have seen have been those that are very close to the "top," where resources are relatively abundant and nobody is competing in a serious way anymore. To put it another way, in my experience, competition does lead to anxiety and that obviously can lead to some minor bad behavior and resentment. Certainly people who are actively on the job market and stressed about it can be ungenerous and difficult to be around, especially if they see their immediate peers doing well. I certainly was; I tried to just isolate myself from others when I felt particularly gloomy, because I had seen how some good colleagues who had a few months in which they temporarily unbearable when they were in that situation, but then they came out of it when they got a better sense of what their future might look like, even if it was just temporary (it's the uncertainty that is the anxiety-producer, that lack of control). But that kind of anxiety is not what I associate with "toxicity" — the toxic people are the people who have the solid jobs already, in my experience, but are bitter about the institution (for reasons justified or not), their colleagues (ditto), or their unattained goals (which may or may not be reasonable). More importantly, they are enabled to act on this bitterness, because their behavior is essentially unchecked. I would just note that this is one of those "be the change you want in the world" sorts of situations as well. I try to do a lot to be non-toxic, to be the very opposite of it. In some departments, the toxicity is just the defining aspect of it, and it self-perpetuates in terms of who they hire and how they act, but in some the toxicity can be isolated and minimized. Cultures can change, though. I have been sometimes impressed by the power of small attempts to improve things — even with regards to the toxic people themselves, who are used to their toxicity being reflected back at them in some way, and are sometimes quite disarmed by unexpected kindness as a result (your mileage may vary). | 0 | 4,765 | 29 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr4h43 | hfr56x9 | 1,633,628,142 | 1,633,628,430 | 80 | 102 | I think a big part of it is that most people with PhDs have spent their whole life being told how smart they are, and getting the highest academic degree feeds into that. On top of that, you're the one at the front of the classroom, imparting your knowledge to everyone else, and you're often one of the smartest people in the room, if not the smartest. But far too many people take their expertise in one tiny little area to mean that they're equally knowledgeable about everything, instead of instilling the humility it should. | There's a whole article article on the the subject! But seriously, everyone thinks they'll make it big (read: become a TT professor) because of survivor bias - all you see for years is professors! | 0 | 288 | 1.275 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrhvbd | hfrimg2 | 1,633,633,657 | 1,633,633,973 | 35 | 67 | The secret of STEM advanced degrees is that it’s more about competition and ego than the science itself. Those who make it to TT positions are the most driven by the competition. If you want to do cool stuff and be happy, you go into industry. Or at least this is my hot take as I finish my PhD in bio. | Because it is disproportionately populated with extremely privileged people who have rarely had to interact with people in situations in which they werent in the advantageous position. Do y'all *reallllly* think academia is so much more taxing on your body, mind, and soul than, say, ohhhhhh working in a shitty blue collar job where your boss treats you like a stupid asshole and you have to put on a smile for fuckface customers all day? Do you really think academia is so much more taxing than working in fast food or a million other places? Haha, go work on a city work team and get back to me. It's just that people in academia, myself included, are not used to not being in control. Oh I'm so sorry. A stressful, underpaid work environment in which you are never quite sure what future opportunities will materialize? Yeah, welcome to the club. | 0 | 316 | 1.914286 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr891m | hfrimg2 | 1,633,629,675 | 1,633,633,973 | 7 | 67 | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | Because it is disproportionately populated with extremely privileged people who have rarely had to interact with people in situations in which they werent in the advantageous position. Do y'all *reallllly* think academia is so much more taxing on your body, mind, and soul than, say, ohhhhhh working in a shitty blue collar job where your boss treats you like a stupid asshole and you have to put on a smile for fuckface customers all day? Do you really think academia is so much more taxing than working in fast food or a million other places? Haha, go work on a city work team and get back to me. It's just that people in academia, myself included, are not used to not being in control. Oh I'm so sorry. A stressful, underpaid work environment in which you are never quite sure what future opportunities will materialize? Yeah, welcome to the club. | 0 | 4,298 | 9.571429 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr891m | hfrhvbd | 1,633,629,675 | 1,633,633,657 | 7 | 35 | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | The secret of STEM advanced degrees is that it’s more about competition and ego than the science itself. Those who make it to TT positions are the most driven by the competition. If you want to do cool stuff and be happy, you go into industry. Or at least this is my hot take as I finish my PhD in bio. | 0 | 3,982 | 5 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrvqnv | hfropqz | 1,633,639,443 | 1,633,636,502 | 31 | 22 | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | It's a dying industry where there are fewer and fewer TT jobs each year, while the people who tend to get the TT jobs are often obnoxious, anti-social narcissists. | 1 | 2,941 | 1.409091 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrvqnv | hfrk03w | 1,633,639,443 | 1,633,634,549 | 31 | 17 | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | Are we... certain that academia is comparatively more toxic than other fields? Having worked in tech-adjacent and journalism jobs, in addition to academia, I find the level of toxicity comparable, as a byproduct of the demands of capitalism to milk productivity out of every person. The one benefit of growth industry jobs, is you can always quit a toxic work environment for a better one, whereas in a declining field like academia, one can't quit because there are no other jobs if one has a job already. | 1 | 4,894 | 1.823529 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrufyn | hfrvqnv | 1,633,638,903 | 1,633,639,443 | 13 | 31 | Lots of reasons already stated, but I’ll add a few: The work is a (supposed) reflection of your passion- and so overwork demonstrates that you REALLY REALLY care about the questions you study. Another is the formalized hierarchy structure, which almost turns into a pyramid scheme- and so there is rampant opportunity for exploitation. These issues are not unique to academia, but I think are more widespread than generally acknowledged. | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | 0 | 540 | 2.384615 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrvqnv | hfrunvp | 1,633,639,443 | 1,633,638,995 | 31 | 12 | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | Because it's run by a majority of people that are fundamentally insecure and desperate for confirmation of their brilliance and their achievements. All of whom have to fight each other for the crumbs of money that have fallen off of the government's table for university research (hence many universities try to work with companies in order to plug the gap but have to on occasion sacrifice some scientific integrity to do so). More significantly though, the university model is so outdated and conservative that oftentimes psychopaths that make it to professorship will get away with truly heinous behaviour as many universities don't have any system for accountability. | 1 | 448 | 2.583333 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrt0ty | hfrvqnv | 1,633,638,311 | 1,633,639,443 | 10 | 31 | Because it involves people, money and power—in other words it’s political and made of humans. | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | 0 | 1,132 | 3.1 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrvqnv | hfr891m | 1,633,639,443 | 1,633,629,675 | 31 | 7 | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | 1 | 9,768 | 4.428571 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrkj89 | hfrvqnv | 1,633,634,769 | 1,633,639,443 | 6 | 31 | Some people are, in all fields. Academia is no exception. | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | 0 | 4,674 | 5.166667 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrvqnv | hfrqoho | 1,633,639,443 | 1,633,637,320 | 31 | 5 | I worked as a lab manager in academia for a few years. From an employee perspective, I have to say that it's toxic because academics can be quite full of themselves. It's all about that power structure and the way they perceive it. They don't really treat you like a person if you don't have a fancy degree attached to your name. I've been told to my face that my job is "not that hard" on several occasions. It was only after I left the job and talked to some other people in similar situations that I realized that I was doing the job of at least 2 people (on top of research), and that I was being milked for what I can do. I can confirm this because after I left that lab, my PI hired 2 managers to replace one of me. As a grad student now, I think it highly depends on what lab you join and the environment your lab cultivates. So far, I've been pretty lucky. Not that there's no pressure, there definitely is. But I can definitely appreciate my lab for how it's run and people's attitudes. It's far better. People are honest. I think having a good PI sets the standard. | lack of accountability and lack of external oversight | 1 | 2,123 | 6.2 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfropqz | hfrk03w | 1,633,636,502 | 1,633,634,549 | 22 | 17 | It's a dying industry where there are fewer and fewer TT jobs each year, while the people who tend to get the TT jobs are often obnoxious, anti-social narcissists. | Are we... certain that academia is comparatively more toxic than other fields? Having worked in tech-adjacent and journalism jobs, in addition to academia, I find the level of toxicity comparable, as a byproduct of the demands of capitalism to milk productivity out of every person. The one benefit of growth industry jobs, is you can always quit a toxic work environment for a better one, whereas in a declining field like academia, one can't quit because there are no other jobs if one has a job already. | 1 | 1,953 | 1.294118 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr891m | hfropqz | 1,633,629,675 | 1,633,636,502 | 7 | 22 | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | It's a dying industry where there are fewer and fewer TT jobs each year, while the people who tend to get the TT jobs are often obnoxious, anti-social narcissists. | 0 | 6,827 | 3.142857 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrkj89 | hfropqz | 1,633,634,769 | 1,633,636,502 | 6 | 22 | Some people are, in all fields. Academia is no exception. | It's a dying industry where there are fewer and fewer TT jobs each year, while the people who tend to get the TT jobs are often obnoxious, anti-social narcissists. | 0 | 1,733 | 3.666667 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrk03w | hfr891m | 1,633,634,549 | 1,633,629,675 | 17 | 7 | Are we... certain that academia is comparatively more toxic than other fields? Having worked in tech-adjacent and journalism jobs, in addition to academia, I find the level of toxicity comparable, as a byproduct of the demands of capitalism to milk productivity out of every person. The one benefit of growth industry jobs, is you can always quit a toxic work environment for a better one, whereas in a declining field like academia, one can't quit because there are no other jobs if one has a job already. | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | 1 | 4,874 | 2.428571 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrufyn | hfrt0ty | 1,633,638,903 | 1,633,638,311 | 13 | 10 | Lots of reasons already stated, but I’ll add a few: The work is a (supposed) reflection of your passion- and so overwork demonstrates that you REALLY REALLY care about the questions you study. Another is the formalized hierarchy structure, which almost turns into a pyramid scheme- and so there is rampant opportunity for exploitation. These issues are not unique to academia, but I think are more widespread than generally acknowledged. | Because it involves people, money and power—in other words it’s political and made of humans. | 1 | 592 | 1.3 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr891m | hfrufyn | 1,633,629,675 | 1,633,638,903 | 7 | 13 | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | Lots of reasons already stated, but I’ll add a few: The work is a (supposed) reflection of your passion- and so overwork demonstrates that you REALLY REALLY care about the questions you study. Another is the formalized hierarchy structure, which almost turns into a pyramid scheme- and so there is rampant opportunity for exploitation. These issues are not unique to academia, but I think are more widespread than generally acknowledged. | 0 | 9,228 | 1.857143 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrkj89 | hfrufyn | 1,633,634,769 | 1,633,638,903 | 6 | 13 | Some people are, in all fields. Academia is no exception. | Lots of reasons already stated, but I’ll add a few: The work is a (supposed) reflection of your passion- and so overwork demonstrates that you REALLY REALLY care about the questions you study. Another is the formalized hierarchy structure, which almost turns into a pyramid scheme- and so there is rampant opportunity for exploitation. These issues are not unique to academia, but I think are more widespread than generally acknowledged. | 0 | 4,134 | 2.166667 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrufyn | hfrqoho | 1,633,638,903 | 1,633,637,320 | 13 | 5 | Lots of reasons already stated, but I’ll add a few: The work is a (supposed) reflection of your passion- and so overwork demonstrates that you REALLY REALLY care about the questions you study. Another is the formalized hierarchy structure, which almost turns into a pyramid scheme- and so there is rampant opportunity for exploitation. These issues are not unique to academia, but I think are more widespread than generally acknowledged. | lack of accountability and lack of external oversight | 1 | 1,583 | 2.6 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfrt0ty | hfrunvp | 1,633,638,311 | 1,633,638,995 | 10 | 12 | Because it involves people, money and power—in other words it’s political and made of humans. | Because it's run by a majority of people that are fundamentally insecure and desperate for confirmation of their brilliance and their achievements. All of whom have to fight each other for the crumbs of money that have fallen off of the government's table for university research (hence many universities try to work with companies in order to plug the gap but have to on occasion sacrifice some scientific integrity to do so). More significantly though, the university model is so outdated and conservative that oftentimes psychopaths that make it to professorship will get away with truly heinous behaviour as many universities don't have any system for accountability. | 0 | 684 | 1.2 |
q3do6k | askacademia_train | 0.91 | Why is academia so TOXIC? As title. | hfr891m | hfrunvp | 1,633,629,675 | 1,633,638,995 | 7 | 12 | invincibility from tenure, ego, entitlement, ego, celebrity status | Because it's run by a majority of people that are fundamentally insecure and desperate for confirmation of their brilliance and their achievements. All of whom have to fight each other for the crumbs of money that have fallen off of the government's table for university research (hence many universities try to work with companies in order to plug the gap but have to on occasion sacrifice some scientific integrity to do so). More significantly though, the university model is so outdated and conservative that oftentimes psychopaths that make it to professorship will get away with truly heinous behaviour as many universities don't have any system for accountability. | 0 | 9,320 | 1.714286 |
Subsets and Splits