Academia

[Anonymous No.18155166]

Anyone here in academia? What field do you specialize in? Do you like it?

During college I had intended to go into academia but switched and ended up as a wagie in the tech industry. Now I'm 30 and about ready to blow my head off.

Starting to think I fucked up by working in companies instead of having a comfy academic job where I could spend my time researching and contributing to a field

[Anonymous No.18155173]

PhD in making your bitchass seethe

[Anonymous No.18155195]

>>18155166
funny, I always see posts about PhDs or even undergrads wishing they did a trade rather than waste their time in university

[Anonymous No.18155210]

Work sucks. I always thought academic jobs must be a shitload of dicksucking though.

If there is anything you need to avoid in life, it's sucking dicks. And if you're posting on 4chan, with very little connections, and most likely some kind of stupid family who just likes fucking and doesn't care about the opportunities for their children later in life; if you wanted an academic career and didn't have a trustfund, you were guaranteed to HAVE to SUCK DICK for it.

Just go out, work your ass off, and pay your way through the rest of your college career if you were lucky enough to already have a Bachelor's.

[Anonymous No.18155219]

>>18155166
Not literature retard

[Anonymous No.18155233]

>>18155166
I got a doctorate in taking fat dicks in my ass

[Anonymous No.18155249]

Everything I've ever heard about modern academia made it sound like a publish or perish hell full of crusty old professors and their dick-sucking sycophants

[Anonymous No.18155361]

I work in Uni Admin so I don’t really work in Academia but I work close enough to it to see what it’s like. It seems like it sucks honestly. Most of these people are pretty insufferable and their jobs are basically a joke.

[Anonymous No.18155372]

I have a PhD in English.
>comfy academic job
Doesn't exist.

[Anonymous No.18155377]

>>18155195
Grass is always greener.

[Anonymous No.18155398]

>>18155361
Could you say more?

[Anonymous No.18155416]

I am in college and it seems that the majority of my teachers, who are for the most part female, all have PhDs or are in the process of getting one. Despite this, they all come across as pedantic and shallow, failing to excite any of the students, as they simply regurgitate the same tired, boring crap every class. Their PhD thesis is almost always on something trivial and forgotten, which will be read only by their advisors and, perhaps, their mother.

[Anonymous No.18155427]

I got a PhD, couldn't get work in academia, and moved to the tech industry to triple my salary.

[Anonymous No.18155444]

>>18155166
>comfy academic job
You have to work long hours, severely underpaid for having 10+ of tertiary education, and it's unlikely you'll go two days without living some stressful situation.

That said, it is fulfilling. Everyone who works in academia likes to think their work is not just something they do to buy food and nice things (if you work in humanities you have neither). The other side of this is that some people who work in academia tend to see anyone who is not in academia as a "factory worker" or peasant. A fair amount are as stuck-up as aristocrats, while having none of the wealth.

[Anonymous No.18155446]

>>18155377
I swapped into "manual labor" (forestry) after getting my master's and the grass is literally greener. There is nothing to regret.

[happiness !!5I6j9kLHLQc No.18155455]

>>18155416
>Their PhD thesis is almost always on something trivial and forgotten

That's the case with every thesis, and with pretty much every published paper.

[Anonymous No.18155470]

>>18155455
So it's just one big circle jerk of pointlessness where everyone is allowed to climb the social ladder despite contributing academic work that is essentially worthless?

[Anonymous No.18155554]

>>18155470
No. It is difficult to produce genuinely substantive work. That is the product of a lifetime, not a few years.

[happiness !!5I6j9kLHLQc No.18155564]

>>18155554
>That is the product of a lifetime, not a few years.
and of a community.

The work of one researcher, even throughout many years, rarely amount to much.

[Anonymous No.18155597]

>>18155564
>The work of one researcher, even throughout many years, rarely amount to much.
Perhaps in the sciences it is so, but the humanities and social sciences are very different.

[Anonymous No.18155825]

>>18155446
How did you get into it? I'm pretty much in the same boat as you

[Anonymous No.18155852]

>>18155166
when they say academics are people who couldn't handle industry they mean it
if you like research do it
you will likely do some research outside your main interests
cushy as for the less practical minded
be prepared to embrace far left politics or you're out

[Anonymous No.18155864]

>>18155195
I just spoke with someone on /tv/ the other night, he has a ton of money and a doctorate and is forever alone, I spent my 20s doing psychedelic drugs at rock shows and married my highschool gf, and wish I had more money. We both envy each other.

[Anonymous No.18155869]

>>18155470
>So it's just one big circle jerk of pointlessness where everyone is allowed to climb the social ladder despite contributing academic work that is essentially worthless?
Yes.

[Anonymous No.18155877]

>>18155852
>be prepared to embrace far left politics or you're out
thats based tho

[Anonymous No.18155891]

>>18155877
I hate academics
I love being in a position where I get paid to tell them that

[Anonymous No.18155893]

>>18155891
ERRORE, anonimo

[Anonymous No.18155895]

>Why yes, I get paid to to defend postmodern neomarxism. How could you tell?

[Anonymous No.18156156]

>>18155166
I'll probably end up doing a phd on latin american or spanish and portuguese literature because there's really not much else I can do other than read. I don't expect to do very good or be very happy but as long as I get out of my shitty city I'll be ok. I've gotten more and more disenfranchised with academia though, so I dont know.

[Anonymous No.18156245]

>>18156156
Endless funding for "Latinx Studies" right now, bro. You're golden.

[Anonymous No.18156270]

>>18155398
I’m not sure what you want me to say exactly. They are largely insufferable bureaucrats who excel at politicking most of all. The work they do isn’t particularly profound, interesting, or fulfilling and more than occasionally, they are exactly the type of specter that people talk about in conservative imageboards. The only people worse than the faculty are the staff because at least the faculty is intelligent.

[Anonymous No.18156281]

>>18155455
i frequently read theses written by others by simply searching for things i'm interested in. many people really do make genuine and novel contributions to their field

[Anonymous No.18156288]

>>18155877
actually, it's gay and niggerpilled

[Anonymous No.18156317]

>>18155166
>spend my time researching and contributing to a field
LOL, that's not you, that's only %1 elite in every field of study.
The rest just repeats what they learn from the best.

t. academic

[Anonymous No.18156347]

>>18156270
Yeah I think Spanish departments are not doing so bad as others but they're still doing very badly. "Precarious" is how they'd put it. It's even worse outside the US, in Mexico university professors and academics are doing horribly and the government just keeps fucking them even more.

[Anonymous No.18156368]

>>18156347
I don’t really know too much about the Spanish department where I work. I just see what I see what I see all over the place. Personally, I wouldn’t try to go into academia if for no other reason than the unlikelihood of landing a decent position but if someone does decide to do that, I would basically understand their motivations and I don’t think it’s the worst thing. I suppose it’s just better if you know what you’re getting into.

[Anonymous No.18156491]

>>18156245
This guy knows what's up, play the game