The Big Data Brain Drain: Why Science is in Trouble

Re:The Big Data Brain Drain: Why Science is in Trouble by dnautics on Saturday November 09, 2013 @01:15PM (#6702466)

"overhead", i.e. administration. I told someone that I was a postdoc, he estimated my salary at first six figures. Then I told him down. He said 75k. When I told him 45k, his eyes bugged out and he said 'there's something wrong here'.

I mean, I come from an excellent pedigree, too, top 10 undergraduate, top 10 grad school, and I currently work at a place where my boss is a nobel laureate. (He makes at least 250k, according to the place's 990 forms)

However, my going price gets diluted by the idiots running around with rubber-stamped PhDs. Maybe there needs to be a 'brain drain', if we can drain those people selectively somehow.

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Re:The Big Data Brain Drain: Why Science is in Trouble by lost_marbles on Sunday November 10, 2013 @02:18AM (#6705626)

I'm really confused - why don't Ph.D.'s with excellent pedigrees just get paid more money than "idiots running around with rubber-stamped PhD.s"? Maybe the market doesn't see such a big difference..

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Re:The Big Data Brain Drain: Why Science is in Trouble by ananduri on Sunday November 10, 2013 @02:30PM (#6708032)

I think you are right lost_marbles. The difference between a PhD with an excellent pedigree and a rubber-stamped PhD should be their publication records. The problem would still exist if these rubber-stamped PhDs weren't there, I think. As a postdoc, you're going to get paid zilch, period.

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