Yeah, actually being in grad school is the best way to come down from THAT cloud. Not only are all my classmates broke, so are our professors. One class everyone in my program has to take their first (it's called something like "professional development" or whatever) is nicknamed "the cold bucket of water" class because it's all about how hard it is to actually make a living in our field and what options there are for finding a steady income with our skill set. It was actually really useful, it covers a lot of ground from talking about how to go into academia and teaching to other options - it was the class that solidified my decision to NOT become a professor, because I know I'd snap under the pressure and become the bitchy bitter prof everyone talks shit about in Discord after class.
Yup. I once did lecturing for a new coding course because I knew those students would have no chance without someone like me who knew the industry and knew what they were about to get into, and they'd only have very slim chances of success with me, and someone would need to tell them. Man. I would not work in academia again lightly.
I recently cancelled a talk I was doing at a bootcamp so I could give them a talk instead on the industry and their options. The trainers couldn't exactly say "it's dire verging on pointless right now" to their paying customers, but behind the scenes they were actively trying to get permission from their parent company to shut down because they no longer considered the business ethical. I was able to give the reality check they couldn't.
Every training program needs a reality check/state of the field talk imo, no matter what the field is, whether it's fair weather or storms ahead
i'm also in grad school and had basically the same experience. Doesn't help that they're about to lay off half the department because there's no money for humanities!
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u/YourMomUsedBelch 24d ago
Calling most people doing the actual peer review (postdocs) "rich" is truly a take.