How did you decide academia was or wasn’t for you?
Ask a Biologist Monday 4/22/24
Answers from Biologists:
The real world application of the research was lacking in academia.
I love the mentorship, teaching, and constant learning of academia. The flexibility and variety is great.
Research was great, thesis writing was not.
Love surrounding myself with curious and inspiring people. Academia isn’t unique here though.
I realized wildlife work wasn’t enough for me but mentoring students fulfilled more.
I’ve always wanted to teach. I’m not primarily a teaching professor (only 10% research).
Still deciding but so far getting to help students have a better experience than I did is worth it.
I’ll leave after my MS because my family lives in a small town nearby with no universities.
Seeing how grad assistants were treated (poorly paid and undervalued) was a big turn off.
I work with crops and being in academia helps me focus on the bio rather than laws or money.
I didn’t want to have to chase tenure track positions across the country.
Too much misogyny.
I realized I would have to work more than 40 hours and still ensure racism/sexism from colleagues.
There’s too much preference for wildlife nepo babies.
As soon as I started grad school I knew it wasn’t for me. So much unnecessary competition.
I had an amazing undergrad advisor who made me want to help people how she helped me.
Little to no teamwork and culture that encouraged 7 day work weeks.
Tried it with a masters. Finished and decided it was enough.
I loved student mentorship and research and decided academia was a fit.
Professors make you struggle because “that’s what they did in college”.
Publishing my thesis as a paper. Proud of it but I can’t do that constantly.
The constant hustle of publishing and all that is too exhausting.
The elitism, stress overload, lack of work life balance.
I realized I would have a more tangible impact on wildlife by working in management.
I don’t like the preference for money over human decency in academia.
Education/degrees outweigh actual experience and ability to apply knowledge and skills.
I missed the possibility of actually applying the new insights we gain in science.
Male professors made me feel like a dumb girl because of my nontraditional science background.
Nope. So much sexual harassment casually dismissed.
Too cutthroat and sometimes publishing gets in the way of real conservation.
The amount of gatekeeping within academia was too much for me.
It was so competitive. I believe science should be more collaborative and cooperative.
Never had a strong research interest. Wanted to be on the applied side of things from the start.
I realized I could do research and mentorship outside of academia with better pay and work life balance.
As a grad student. TAing for extremely overworked and underpaid professors.
I preferred doing the application and hands on part of management.
I don’t agree with the rewards system and how success is measured.
I learned some of the professors were not my cup of tea and pretentious.
It’s horrible for mental health, no jobs available, competitive, lots of bad people. 10% science, 90% other.
Academia still has huge issues and fieldwork became my happy place.
The pressure I saw in my colleagues who were in it sealed it for me.
Too much writing and I didn’t like forever outsourcing the parts of the career that brought me joy.
Post undergrad, was a tech for grad students. Seeing them suffer made it an easy decision.
Wasn’t impressed with the lack of professionalism and clear check/balances of the system.
