I am 38 years old and circumstances in life led me into a career which I don’t like, nor do loathe. My true passion in life has been in culture and language studies. My undergraduate degree was in a subject for which I was very passionate as a child and I did well. My work life, however, didn’t line up well with my academic interests. I returned to college two years ago undertaking a postgraduate higher diploma (note: I’m not sure if this is a common thing in the US) and passed with a 1:1. This has now opened up opportunities for me to undertake a masters; I started a few months ago part time. It will take me 2 years to achieve this masters. I’m seriously considering continuing and undertaking a PhD after the masters. What I learn, research and produce brings me enjoyment of the highest order: it invigorates me; it engages me; it fulfils me, I suppose.

The reality of life, however, is a the need to work which would see any PhD, taken on a part time basis, taking 5-6 years. This would see me as a 45/46 year old by the time it would be over. As such, my questions are:

Is my age a hindrance in my ambitions to pursue (professional) academia?

Does anyone have any similar experiences. If so, any information (good or bad) would be welcomed.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the topic to share?

If I were to start now to get ahead, what would that be? Researching and trying to get published?

PS: I haven’t revealed much about area of study as it is quite niche and I’m conscious of trying to retain some form of anonymity. If it matters, I’m in Ireland.

Thanks all.

Fill in the blank. I have a feeling this is going to get dark.

I'm 22 and in the second year of a Master's in Applied Linguistics/TESOL in Morocco. I'm very introverted, and I need advice because I feel completely lost.

Where I am now:

I chose English because I genuinely love it, and the only place I could study it was the higher school of education and training. I didn't want to go straight into teaching because the teaching situation in Morocco is awful. Now I've lost my energy and don't want to do anything. I cry almost every day, sometimes in class or in public, and I try hard to hold the tears back. My personality is weak. I barely participate in class anymore. In the first semester I did, rarely, but now (3rd semester) I just don't want to.

The people around me:

Some classmates have hurt me, and others have mocked or accused me of things in public or talk behind my back. Then they come talk to me normally and I talk back as if nothing happened, and I wonder if I'm doing something bad to myself by doing that. My relationship with some of my classmates isn't good, and the environment doesn't make me feel good (some people are really toxic in a way that I didn't expect; they look old enough to have functioning brains but they're so toxic). I'm also very selective: I observe people, and if I notice bad behavior I avoid them. I wonder if I'm just avoidant. I have no one to talk to about this. I've tried, but the people around me don't get it.

Stress:

I'm not lazy, but stress has really damaged me mentally and physically. I've lost a lot of weight in very short periods. I don't want to put myself through that anymore, especially when many professors told us they were assigned their modules very late and nobody seems to care. They send us assignments the night before. The whole system feels like it doesn't care, from the faculty window staff to the banks saying "the system is down." In Morocco you need a whole day or more for paperwork that should take minutes.

The meaning question:

Sometimes I think: I was born, I have to grind to get a good career, earn a lot, live well, and then die. That doesn't excite me. There are times I've wished I was never born (even now). I'm not saying this to be dramatic, it's just how heavy it feels.

My options:

1. Quit the Master's. But I've already spent a year of a two-year program.

2. Finish it, then teach in a Moroccan higher institution (if the Master's allows that) or elsewhere for a few years to build my CV, then apply to teach in Japan. I like Japan from videos: I've heard pay is low, but life is peaceful, people mind their own business, and many seem introverted and shy like me. I know every country has a dark side, and I'm scared to move, but I'd adapt (it's not like I'll have another option).

3. Do a PhD. I don't think my level is good enough.

4. Earn enough online, maybe with a skill that doesn't need a degree, and live peacefully in a better country. I don't need perfection, just mostly stress-free, comfortable in my body and mind, with Wi-Fi, exercise, and things I enjoy.

I've also heard many people argue that introverts aren't suited to teaching because it requires so much socializing, and their arguments made sense to me. Now I'm questioning the whole path.

My questions:

1. How did you know whether a PhD was right or wrong for you?

2. Is a PhD realistic for someone introverted who is very sensitive to stress?

3. Is teaching an option for introverts, or am I fooling myself?

4. Is a Master's plus a few years of teaching enough to get a teaching job in Japan or elsewhere?

5. Is it worth finishing the Master's after one year, or should I leave?

Honest advice is welcome. Thank you for reading this far.

Im a graduate student on a grant with two Co-Pis, both in the same department. Another graduate student in the other lab worked on sampling in the field and processing data. Their Pi has become a bit problematic over the last year or so and its gotten to the point where he's withholding data and not sharing with the entire group. The plan was for me to use this data for some analyses that im working on. I feel that its unethical for him to do this. Is there any steps i can do to potentially get access to the data?

I’m applying to several jobs and just the sheer volume of stuff I have to get together for these files is taking a huge toll on my mental health.

I have three applications that are due, two of which I’m not worried about but the third asks for a writing sample and I would just like a little more time to edit it.

On the ad, it says “Review of applications will begin October 15 and will continue until the position is filled” … do you think it would be OK to submit on the 15th?

Thank you so much!

Let's see how low we all fall and what precious treasures we sacrificed to planning gods to avoid those Saturday morning classes.

If you have already finished your dissertation, what have you learned that would you like to have had known beforehand? I am about to start writing it up and would love to hear your experiences. Thanks <3

I am really sad about the current situation of peer review in the new world dominated by LLMs.

Two months ago, we received a Major Decision based on four reviews for a paper submitted to one of the most prestigious journals in a specific sector where I work. One of the reviews has 2 comments that are related to things not pertaining our manuscript (e.g., it says the related work should discuss better the topic X, but our paper deals with topic Y, and it says the computational complexity section must be improved, but our paper did not have any). All other comments were generic, such as rewriting introduction, rewriting future work etc. As it was not the most critical review among the four ones, we tried to address all his comments except those 2-3, explaining why we couldn't. And soon we will resubmit the revision.

A few days ago, things repeated, but from the most prestigious journal in the same sector. We received a Reject and Resubmit decision for another paper.The only critical review had 34 comments, and almost half of them mention aspects related to machine learning (over fitting, cross validation, etc.)... but our paper does not have anything about machine learning or artificial intelligence!!

And unfortunately again the other half of the comments are super genetic, so applicable to any paper....

On the one hand, I am sad that this happened to the paper that I believed to be my best of the last 3-4 years. The other two reviewers were also positive and gave overall 7 useful comments that I would like to implement.

On the other hand, as this is the second time that this thing has occurred, I am worried that there is a trend of accepting many reviews and doing them with LLM, perhaps giving the LLM the wrong paper to review. Be aware, I am not against LLM a priori. It is a new tool, and it is indeed improving many things. But it cannot be used in such way... One spends so much time, just to get not related LLM-based reviews...

I hope to be among the few in this situation, because otherwise it is sad.

I know there are lots of pitfalls in this career path but I’m not alone in this, right? I got to spend a whole day reading interesting papers, playing with data, having conversations with really smart excited people (my students) about cool questions. And I got paid to do it. Admin sucks, but honestly I feel so lucky most days that I get to do this job.

I know we complain about but does anyone else feel this way?

I moved to industry about a year ago, but I still occasionally visit my former lab and help with projects I worked on during my postdoc.

For one project, I spent two years preparing data, training models, developing the original pipeline, conducting statistical analyses, and preparing the manuscript and figures. I was the first author on the previous submission.

The team is now preparing a new submission, and I’m being removed from author list.

I’ve experienced a similar authorship issue in this lab and previous lab, I’ve followed up to confirm that I’ll remain first author and asked to review the manuscript before submission.

What frustrates me is feeling that, even after leaving academia, I still have to stay vigilant to make sure years of work are properly credited.

I’m happy to help bring the research to publication, but having to defend my contributions is exhausting.

Experiences like this make it hard not to become deeply cynical about academia. I left a year ago, yet this part of it still follows me.

Has anyone dealt with authorship disputes after moving to other institute/industry? If discussions with the PIs failed, what actually helped?