Stranger than Fiction

If doing your job requires constant applications to keep doing it, is that really a “job”? 

Why do we need to keep “auditioning” for work we’re already performing?

Let’s first agree that there isn’t a typical career trajectory in academia. But there are some recurring steps one usually has to go through.

Getting the job

There are definitely some unwritten laws about getting jobs in academia. There isn’t always an open position to apply to, one can also get a job by emailing their current “favorite” lab, provided the lab is interested and can afford the funds. This does not mean that getting a job in academia is easier than in industry or corporate life. In fact, it probably is more difficult because there are so many factors that affect the length of one’s stay, the extent of what one can do and the position that one can have.  

You write, you rewrite, you wait. Eventually, someone says yes and you are offered a position. For a brief moment, it feels like it's all working out.

That sensation doesn’t last long.

Getting the money to do your job

Now that you have the job, you are responsible for funding the actual work. That means applying for grants. Many of them. You write detailed proposals outlining your research goals, anticipated outcomes, risk mitigation strategies and the broader impact of the project. You also most definitely need preliminary data…but you need funding to do the research to get the preliminary data.

Do you like writing fiction? 

Well, get ready, because research proposals have milestones and deliverables. 

Unless it is a straightforward application of a method, how can one know the deliverables in advance? To me this clashes with doing research. 

I liken it more to sailing in the open sea. But who would fund that, right? 

Get ready for rejections. And painful feedback.

“While the proposal was scientifically sound, the panel had concerns about the feasibility within the timeline.”

Or:

“The research question is interesting, but the novelty remains unclear.”

Or just nothing, no answer.

Getting the money to survive while doing your job

Probably one of the strangest things a researcher has to do is to find the money to fund their own salary. It’s like applying for a grant to be allowed to write grants.

Granted (no pun intended), this is not the case in all countries but that just adds to the unfairness of the whole research ecosystem. Some countries offer institutional support or longer-term positions. Others place the financial burden entirely on the researcher. As a result, career security becomes deeply uneven across the world and also across disciplines. The outcome depends on where you are, who you are, and what you work on.

The fact that this layer even exists says something about the values of academic culture. Namely, that curiosity alone is not enough to sustain a career.

Getting the money to share what you did at your job 

Let’s assume the project worked. You got results. Maybe they’re groundbreaking, maybe they’re incremental, maybe they’re negative (does it matter?). In any case, you want to publish them to share what you did.

That, too, requires funding.

Sometimes there are fees to submit a paper. There are usually fees to publish it and to make it open access. 

But there are options to share your findings in other ways too.

Those too, require funding. For example, fees to register for conferences, to print your poster, to travel. Or you pay out of pocket and hope your institution will reimburse you…eventually.

And again…

This strange ritual of defending why your life's work deserves to exist has to be repeated every 3-5 years. It’s hard, in this job, to feel like one is progressing, especially in the “fog” after the PhD; it’s rather like a bunch of loops that keep getting added back to back.  

Funding is not a phase. It is not a side task. It is not an occasional responsibility that arises once you’re “established.” It is a structural component of the job.

I don’t have a solution to offer here, but it’s important to recognize how strange this all is. I do think we should talk more openly about the absurdity baked into the system, because I doubt it’s sustainable.

And somehow, we still love the work. 

That might be the strangest part of all.