A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic research culture is to blame

Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by fatnoah on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @10:42AM (#36045026)

> Academia places unrealistic goals on brilliant people and pays them so meagerly that they have to often find other sources of income

Early in my career, I considered (with an MS in Electrical Engineering, but with 4 years of professional programming experience) a switch into law. Big firms hire (or did in the past) people with tech degrees to do patent work and will pay a salary plus pay for law school.

When I joined the big firm, there were about 25 people in my role. I was the only with with an EE or CS degree/background, the only one without a PhD, and the only one with actual post-academic work experience. For me, it was a 10% pay cut before accounting for law school tuition, similar benefits, and an small increase in hours. For all of the PhDs, it was essentially a 100% raise, substantially less work, and superior benefits.

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by jebarker on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @04:23PM (#36050349)

> Big firms hire (or did in the past) people with tech degrees to do patent work and will pay a salary plus pay for law school.

I've never heard this before. What job title would you search for?

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by iancmceachern on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @05:29PM (#36051094)

I'm not the parent poster, but I believe they are generally called patent agents

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by fatnoah on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @09:12AM (#36057522)

Patent Agent is related, but is a subset of the role. Only one of the patent technology specialists at my firm was a patent agent when they joined. While, it was expected that we'd eventually sit for the patent bar, but it wasn't a requirement to get the job. The further expectation was that we'd also go to law school, receive our JDs, and pass the state bar as well.

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by AlbertCory on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @07:25PM (#36052105)

Although I AM a patent agent, the job title that I had at Google was "technical advisor." Most of the others with my job were not patent agents and the credential was really not necessary. Litigation is not something you study to pass the Patent Bar.

If you're looking for a job like that with Big Law, you might look for "litigation advisor" or something similar.

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by fatnoah on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @09:13AM (#36057547)

The specific role I had was on the Patent Prosecution side vs. the Patent Litigation side. The litigators were more "normal" attorneys, and while we did some small level of advisement, for any real litigation they'd always hire an outside expert.

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by AlbertCory on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @11:27AM (#36059447)

Same with Google: there's always an outside firm that does the work. The Google attorney was in charge and monitored all their bills.

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Re:A mental-health crisis is gripping science – toxic resear... by fatnoah on Wednesday May 24, 2023 @09:09AM (#36057496)

For this particular role, it was "Patent Technology Specialist" or "Technology Specialist".

For example: https://foleyhoag.com/careers/technology-specialists/ (note, this is the firm where I did that work)

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