Poor supervision is pushing young researchers out of academia(nature.com)
nature.com
Poor supervision is pushing young researchers out of academia
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01693-4
3 comments
Having a bad boss has always been a top reason people leave a job. In academia it can be fatal because the boss has so much power and leaving for another job isnt always an option in a specialized field or a field where one institution is the leader, and moving would mean a huge step down in an early career.
> Bad experiences with supervisors are common among early-career researchers and one of the leading reasons they leave academia, a survey of more than 2,600 researchers has found1.
Huh, I thought my experience was kind of rare.
I found out my supervisor had about a ~10th grade reading level in English. Needless to say, I wasted a few years on my program before I switched advisors. Finished in less than a month with someone with an appropriate level of reading skill. So disgusted, I left the industry.
Huh, I thought my experience was kind of rare.
I found out my supervisor had about a ~10th grade reading level in English. Needless to say, I wasted a few years on my program before I switched advisors. Finished in less than a month with someone with an appropriate level of reading skill. So disgusted, I left the industry.
> A survey finds that academic supervisors can have a huge impact on their students’ mental health
And it's mostly not about America's recent-years drama over research funding:
> Respondents came from 65 countries, but around 80% were based in Europe.
I've heard little about academic research careers in Europe - but even decades ago there were major problems in the US with extremely long work hours, meager & uncertain pay, and very poor prospects of achieving either good pay or tenure. Given those - would a good supervisor tell young researchers to stay in academia?