Would you say it is only related to math researchers??
I think it depends also in the capability of each person, someone who managed to write more than 4 Journal Papers in their PhD’s maybe would not have any problem at all.
Supply and demand – employers would like to pay as little as possible for educated employees. Thus the regular “studies” that proclaim dire shortages of engineers/scientists, even when the job market sucks.
None of this has changed since before *I* went to college – more than 30 years back.
(1) It is not limited to Mathematics. In fact, the reference I point to states that things were better in Mathematics than most fields.
(2) Writing four good research articles during your Ph.D. years might help you find a job, but people with 15 or 20 research articles routinely fail to get jobs.
(3) Yes, the people who stand out get jobs, but standing out is a mix of different factors: luck, talent, work, nurture, support, and so on.
(4) And not all jobs are created equal. Excellent applicants routinely get jobs as research assistants (or the like) whereas they desserve much more. So, it is not just a matter of who is getting a job, but also, what kind of job they may get.
(5) And then again, there must be jobs in whatever subfield you have chosen. As some fields become fashionable, others become “passé”.
(6) And of course, there must be jobs in the locations where you are willing to live. If you have three kids, moving them in the middle of nowhere for a so-so job is harsh.
I think it is relevant right now, I just completed PhD and looked recently on job market. I have 10 conference papers and I found it is fairly difficult to get any job for PhD. For web development jobs I am overqualified, for low-level technical job possibly under qualified.
Francois Rivestsays:
By experience, for each tenure-track position open, there can be an averaged of 100 post-doc applicants or more… (independently of the field)
Would you say it is only related to math researchers??
I think it depends also in the capability of each person, someone who managed to write more than 4 Journal Papers in their PhD’s maybe would not have any problem at all.
Supply and demand – employers would like to pay as little as possible for educated employees. Thus the regular “studies” that proclaim dire shortages of engineers/scientists, even when the job market sucks.
None of this has changed since before *I* went to college – more than 30 years back.
@Palafox
(1) It is not limited to Mathematics. In fact, the reference I point to states that things were better in Mathematics than most fields.
(2) Writing four good research articles during your Ph.D. years might help you find a job, but people with 15 or 20 research articles routinely fail to get jobs.
(3) Yes, the people who stand out get jobs, but standing out is a mix of different factors: luck, talent, work, nurture, support, and so on.
(4) And not all jobs are created equal. Excellent applicants routinely get jobs as research assistants (or the like) whereas they desserve much more. So, it is not just a matter of who is getting a job, but also, what kind of job they may get.
(5) And then again, there must be jobs in whatever subfield you have chosen. As some fields become fashionable, others become “passé”.
(6) And of course, there must be jobs in the locations where you are willing to live. If you have three kids, moving them in the middle of nowhere for a so-so job is harsh.
I think it is relevant right now, I just completed PhD and looked recently on job market. I have 10 conference papers and I found it is fairly difficult to get any job for PhD. For web development jobs I am overqualified, for low-level technical job possibly under qualified.
By experience, for each tenure-track position open, there can be an averaged of 100 post-doc applicants or more… (independently of the field)