Jonathan Yewdell published an interesting essay in Nature Reviews Mol Cell Biol recently. The essay is an odd mix of massively discouraging and heart-warming. He starts by basically telling all young PIs to run for their lives away from a career in academic research, due in part to the shortage of funding and positions, as well as the multiple hardships of the job. He then goes on to say that you should do science only if you truly love it, if those 60 hours a week you spend in lab are happy hours and not spent thinking about where you would rather be. He goes on to give a number of very helpful and level-headed tips on how to choose a thesis lab and what it takes to secure a good post-doc position. Overall, I can’t decide if I am more frustrated with the article or happy with the good points he does make. I would be happy to hear what others think of it.

There is discussion of this essay elsewhere on NN, but I thought the essay pertained specifically to grad students. Please pardon the partial repost.