graduate school, you cruel mistress
This last month has been characterized by a real spotty running record. I guess it makes sense: getting sick, traveling, finishing my thesis.
Graduate school is really one of those double edged swords: on one hand it's very cool because of its flexibility but also sucks because of the price you pay for that flexibility.
One nice thing is the ability to work from home, or take time off during the week (although it will usually be paid back in some nasty form during the weekend or that evening). Also, it's a very selfish time in your life - you are getting paid to learn and to acquire skills.
One nasty thing is the pay you get for that flexibility. Graduate students are basically slave labor. You'll work 60 hours and get paid less than $20,000 for it. Never mind that you're hyper qualified for a job that pays 3 or 4 times that - you're doing it out of love. Which is why I am leaving - I have no more love for what I'm doing. In particular, the crappy pay, crappy insurance, and desire to be with my family more is what's calling me to sell myself out to the oil industry. I'm pretty excited about the new job: very challenging and very interesting. Plus it pays much better than being a weather model monkey.
Another thing I'm looking forward to: consistency in my schedule. No more having to try to get to meetings on the other side of Boulder. No more being told: "your doing too much of X. I think it would be better if you investigated the mechanisms behind Y and Z" (note: never mind that your orals are coming up and they're changing everything. The onus of getting everything done will be done by the grad student!).
I'm really looking forward to leaving academia. It's cool in some respects, but really dysfunctional and pathological in many other respects. I won't innumerate some of the flaws I've seen here, but if anyone is thinking about pursuing a PhD in the sciences, think really really hard about it. Especially if you have kids or are getting married.
What's funny about all this is that I'll be making more money than I could have after post-docing for ~10 years. I'll laugh all the way to the bank. Especially now that gas is really expensive (yeah!).
