Milestone achieved with Civil Service Alpha

NedS

barnstar2077 said:

NedS said:

hugheskevi said:

Universidad said:

NedS said:

A lot has changed in our lifetimes, and I wouldn't want to advise young people today whether a career in academia is worth it's salt.

Diplomatically put.

There seems to have been a shift in perception of staff from "skilled and respected professional" to "fungible service worker", both inside and outside the sector. That, for me, is the thing people looking to enter the sector right now probably don't realise. They can see the low pay and long hours, and may be willing to pay the passion tax, so to speak. But I don't think they would necessarily realise how thankless it is.

From my perspective as someone not in academia, but having friends who are and having worked professionally with academics over the years, there is very little attraction and hasn't been for about 20 years or so now.

I agree with both. Growing up in the 70's, I remember a neighbour who was a "lecturer" at the local town college and was held in very high regard by my parent - certainly more so than a teacher, for example.

Fast forward 20 years, I have a degree and PhD, and am working at a good University and my parents want to know when I'm going to leave college and get a proper job!

hugheskevi said:

There is huge job uncertainty in the early years, with a succession of short term contracts. That really prevents things like buying a house, etc, as you need to be mobile. And there is job insecurity too of course which would probably limit mortgage options.

That was us - moving all around the country chasing the latest short term contracts and unable to contemplate buying a property and settling down. Eventually I landed a 5 year contract which gave us just enough security to look for and buy a house, which we sold 3 years later when the contract ended. We paid down the mortgage heavily during those 3 years, and luckily for us we bought well in a rising market, making enough on the deal to buy our next house outright. I got out of academia shortly after and haven't regretted it. It's amazing how much freedom being mortgage free gives you, especially in your 30's.

Mortgage free in your thirties, without an inheritance, is very impressive.  It is good to hear that hard work does pay off sometimes! 

Yeah, well, we had little choice as once my contract ended we would have had no way to pay the mortgage. Whilst friends had new cars, foreign holidays and ate out 3 times per week, we ran old cars, no holidays, stayed in and ate our own cooking, living off one salary whilst using the other to clear the mortgage. Back in those days you only borrowed 3-3.5 times your salary, so you can see how the maths stacks up.

Ibrahim5

I was mortgage free in my late twenties, but not in a house I would have wanted to live in forever. Sold it and bought a house 7x the price. Mortgage free again in late forties. Living in a nice house is really nice, whilst driving a posh car of no importance to me. I retired at 50 in a nice house, I guess I could have retired much earlier in a small house.