| View Larger Image | A PhD Is Not Enough: A Guide To Survival In Science | Paperbackby Peter J. Feibelman (Author)
| List Price: | $16.50 | | Price: | $11.88 | | You Save: | $4.62 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Basic Books | | Edition: | illustrated editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 128 Pages | | Publication Date: | December 20, 1993 | | Sales Rank: | 52,120nd |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780201626636
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Despite your graduate education, brainpower, and technical prowess, your career in scientific research is far from assured. Permanent positions are scarce, science survival is rarely part of formal graduate training, and a good mentor is hard to find. This exceptional volume explains what stands between you and fulfilling long-term research career. Bringing the key survival skills into focus, A Ph.D. Is Not Enough! proposes a rational approach to establishing yourself as a scientist. It offers sound advice of selecting a thesis or postdoctoral adviser, choosing among research jobs in academia, government laboratories, and industry, preparing for an employment interview, and defining a research program. This book will help you make your oral presentations effective, your journal articles compelling, and your grant proposals successful. A Ph.D. Is Not Enough should be required reading for anyone on the threshold of a career in science. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 43 reviews)
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Very helpful book by 3dof (Atlanta, GA)  4 Stars
June 10, 2009
I just read A PhD is Not Enough in just two sittings. I'm a 4th year PhD student in engineering and I thought this book was thoroughly helpful. I've noticed a common theme among other reviews which imply that the concepts presented in this book should be obvious to anyone enrolled in a graduate school environment.
While that's somewhat true, the problem is that depending on several factors (the culture of your university, your relationship with your advisor, your lab environment, etc.), it can take too long to figure these concepts out on your own, perhaps even long enough that your chances for success are sabotaged are at least improbable. I do agree that with time in graduate school, Feibelman's observations become more and more clear to see, but you really need this information before you begin.
What I'm saying is that people should read this book when considering graduate school in science or engineering in the first place. Is all the advice perfect? I doubt it. But it very effectively gets the ball rolling and exposes the key issues that you need to keep in mind.
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Generally useful but dated and uneven by John E. Vidale (Seattle, WA USA) 4 Stars
April 18, 2009
I read this to see whether to recommend it to graduate and undergraduate students in the sciences that attend my university. The author is a well-credentialed scientist at Sandia National Laboratory.
There are many opinions presented that people considering or attempting a career in scientific research should know. Interviews, preparing talks, choosing what to publish and how, research plans, weighing various career options - all these topics are addressed.
Some opinions differ from mine, most notably his preference for government labs like his over universities, but common sense generally prevails. The prose was vaguer than I prefer, much of it seemed obvious, perhaps because I've already been there. A few times it was obvious this dates to 1993.
Overall, I prefer the book Academeology (google it) by "Female Senior Professor", which nails the university life with much greater accuracy and precision. Aspiring scientists should really read both, and go into their careers with their eyes open.
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I expected so much more... by J. Fink (St. Louis, MO)  3 Stars
March 14, 2009
This book has the right idea. But upon reading it (and it is a fast read; I finished it within a couple of hours), I didn't really feel like I learned anything. Most of what was in the book was fairly intuitive. While it was nice that Feibelman took a closer look at the career paths and expectations of a scientist, I didn't really feel like he contributed anything. Most scientists already know that papers, funding and research presentations are vital to their careers. But in his sections about each, he said little more than...make them good. (OK, so that is an exaggeration, but I felt that there was little instruction and helpful advice). He did a nice job describing the benefits and hassles of each career choice, but I felt that some of his scientific worlds were imaginary. I've yet to find anyone who got a tenured professor position by skipping both an academic post doc and junior faculty position. While I have known people to leave the corporate world for academia, those people just wind up years behind their peers who rode the academic ladder upwards, for the corporate turncoats still have to go back and do a junior faculty stint, if not a post doc as well.
My other gripe is that I feel the book is outdated. Perhaps it is different in the land of physicists, but the youngest junior faculty members these days are mid to late 30s, not just turning 30. In the world of biology, grad school takes 5-7 years, post docs 3-5. Add on the fact that many soon to be grad students often take a stint in industry or as a lab tech before applying to school....
All in all, I feel that he tried to hit upon important points, but didn't really flush them out. I suppose at the end of it, he forgot to follow his own presentation advice and tried to snowball us.
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should be obvious to experienced people, a must-read for new graduate students by Lance C. Hibbeler (Urbana, IL, USA) 4 Stars
December 13, 2008
The book is a quick and easy read, outlining some facts of life as a scientist. I'm taken aback by some of the other reviewers though. For people that are in the process of getting, or already have, a Ph.D., they seem rather enthralled/amazed by the content of the book. Maybe it's just because I have been at an upper-echelon school for a few years now, and I get to see first-hand what it takes to do or die in academia, but I found nothing new in the book; all of the author's points were extremely obvious. The book is a little old, but if you can't step back and realize the big picture of what the author says, you need to get out of your lab. Just use your imagination; when he says "overhead foils", just pretend it says "powerpoint slides" or whatever.
Also, the content is just one opinion of one man. I agree with some of his points, and outright reject the rest. Or maybe I'm just doing what we, as Ph.D.-level scientists, as supposed to do (though the question is not a Ph.D.-level question)- gather information from multiple sources to form our own opinion of the state of the art, and then do some field research to refine said opinion. Multiple sources include your advisor, other professors in the department, postdocs in your lab/department, and friends in industry...go talk to people. In my experience, building and maintaining a network of friends in the scientific community will pay more dividends than anything else.
And for the love of god, don't publish five or six papers a year about the same project as the author advocates. As if there aren't already enough crappy papers floating out there in the literature...don't make my literature searches any more difficult and time-consuming. Be like Gauss, "few but ripe," when it comes to publishing.
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Worth Reading, Not Buying by M. Janczak (SLC, Utah USA) 3 Stars
December 04, 2008
I found this book to be a great introductory text to prepare you for more reading on books related to scientific mentoring. The matter-of-fact and casual tone used in the book sound more like a mentor speaking to you than a published text.
Pros:
--Very short (109 pages)
--Easy reading (casual tone)
--Straight talk. A lot of the book is obvious, but it's nice to hear it from someone in the field of science.
Cons:
--Very short (109 pages)
--Outdated (published in 1993) Needs a new version with updated information. No mention of the internet. Mentions using overhead slides in a talk (really, who does that at a professional meeting in current times?)
Unless they update this book, I would hold off on buying it. See if you can get it at your school library. It's worth reading, but not buying.
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