Reply to Uncomfortable truth: non-partiers wind up working for the partiers

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Depends entirely on your filed.

My kid is getting a science PhD.

Thank God she did not choose a field where success hinges on glad-handing and drinking skills. The ability to make fake small talk and butter up those in the Executive Suite.

[/quote]

Oh sweet summer child. Do you truly think success in academia does [b]not[/b] require glad-handing, fake small talk, and the ability to butter up your superiors? Do you not know how hiring and promotion works in academic departments? Better get her working on her social skills or she will be one of the many sad PhDs who does not get tenure. In which case... she will end up working in the business world, where she will need to know how to do glad-handling, fake small talk, and buttering up superiors.[/quote]
Holy crap, you have no idea how tenure actually works. Tenure-lines are determined before an academic listing is advertised. The lack of tenure is a reflection of the economics of academic, and not a reflection of someone's inability to socialize. Three things matter to get tenure--assuming one was hired into a tenure-track position (which are increasingly rare, again due to market conditions, not due to lack of social skill or talent)--are publishing, teaching, and service. At R1 universities (where I am a tenured professor), your publication record is 95% of tenure. Teaching and service make up 5%. When you publish in top journals, your articles undergo a blind peer review process. It has nothing to do with your ability to schmooze a reviewer. The reviewer is not supposed to know who you are, and if she does, she's not supposed to review the article. When you publish a book for an academic press, again, it's supposed to undergo a blind review. You can't build up a dossier of sufficient peer-reviewed publications based on social skills. 
This is not to say that social skills don't matter--of course they do. You may end up sharing a hall with your faculty colleagues for decades, you need to serve on committees, and you need to interact with collaborators and students. But, please, stop insulting other kids who may be incredibly successful following their own paths. And stop talking about fields that you know very little about. [/quote]

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