"While more money in science is a great thing and should be increased, the data suggests that money alone is not the answer to improving the engineer/scientist quality of life. Specific policy to increase salaries would do this, but the reality of that occurring is thin at best." - Daniel Mietchen from Bookmarklet

A good time to bring this up again: http://friendfeed.com/ruchira... "How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers" - Ruchira S. Datta

Its interesting. THere is this disconnect between career and quality of life. At a dirt poor shit pay of ~36K/yr I have a great quality of life. I live in a beautiful area, have a fun and rewarding job in basic research (i'm a lab technician). I work with people that view me as a colleague instead of a Masters level indentured servant. I wish I could make more pay, but the reality is biting. But I am happy also with my current position and I'm doing kick ass research in pop gen of deep sea animals, plus they let me do amy own sideprojects in phylogenetics and taxonomy. I think some of it is with how students are taught to view themselves. The whole inferiority complex. If your attitude is "Fuck you i know some shit too" and your ready to bring it to the table and speak up for yourself, people are going to a bit more respect for you then if you are sheepishly working 16 hours a day and jsut pipette without asking questions. Does anyone have a feel for the quality of recent PhDs? Are we putting out more which are subpar versus fewer that were higher quality from 5, 10, 20 etc. yrs ago? - Kevin Z from twhirl

Interesting comments, Kevin. I think I'd be a lot better off if I'd stayed a tech and devoted the time my PhD used up to finding a research niche that really, really floated my boat. (Still haven't done that -- I find everything fascinating, for about five minutes.) Oh, and about that pay -- except for two years on an NIH fellowship, that's about as much as I've ever been paid as a postdoc in the US (max pay $38K). NRSA scale for postdocs tops out at about $51K (though v few places will pay that -- according to my years in the game, that's what I should earn!), research assistant scale goes to $53K in my neck of the woods and doesn't top out -- if the lab wants to keep you on and keep paying COL increases, they can. I know one RA making $80K; though he does have a PhD it has nothing to do with his pay, just the length of time he's put in. Also, unlike postdocs, holding more than a couple of RA positions doesn't stamp "loser" on your CV for all time. - Bill Hooker

Kevin and Bill, thanks for the comments. I'm currently in a situation where I'm finishing my Masters and have a pretty good opportunity to move in either direction, academia (PhD) or "real world". It's not an easy decision to make and there are various factors that have to be weighed in. You'd think that getting a PhD would guaranty you a good position down the road, but it can actually lead you to a dead-end of over specialization. On the other hand, specific companies require PhD for specific positions. Despite my background in biological engineering, the engineering component get's a bit lost and diluted when entering a PhD program and this worries me a bit. I was always taught that we should go to school, go as far up as possible, because later in life you'd reap the rewards. It doesn't seem as linear as it did back then... - Ricardo Vidal

My bro is a social scientist studying science policy and international funding trends. He says Msters degrees will become in high demand with the next few years. He used to work for NAS and now is making real good money with a private consulting company. He pointed me to this NAS report: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.... It is titled "Maste's Education for a Competitive World". The summary itself is worth reading. - Kevin Z from twhirl