morpeth

I don't know about Australia, and can only speak from anecdotal experience ( (1) hiring foreign graduates (2) having taught and studied at American education institutions (3) knowing people who have had to deal with the issue.

First , American system works on credits not years, so the idea that it matter whether one studied 1, or 2 or even 3 years I am not sure is even a consideration (maybe in medical field).

Second, I just have never encountered a situation where a British degree was even questioned.

Third, as I posted there are private organizations which will provide an equivalency evaluation for not too much cost, and I have never seen one rejected.

It isn't a bad issue to double-check as maybe some US university may have a "check the box" issue that requires an evaluation certificate, but no I doubt it is really an issue for the OP to be concerned about. The worse case might be having to take one or two classes.

Any employer worried about a British university degree probably not worth working for. I mean really, I have had third or fourth year university students in USA who would struggle passing one A level examination.

I don't know about the medical field though, perhaps there are some specific issues.

PetrifiedExPat

Agree with most, but, US academic politics are extremely easy to navigate, purely since it's so low brow!

I had the chance to stay in academia in my city of choice, as do the 1 in the every 300 who apply, since they are the best candidate. Only <1% who go through the training process are actually equipped to be an independent scientist, hence why there are lots of complaints about it being impossible, but, the reality is most just don't cut it. A lucky few may get a job in a non choice city, I bet upon kidding themselves they are happy. Most are not, since the research intensive colleges are often in fixed, well known locations.

Acedemia is brutal, most aren't up to it.

Hiro11

Fair enough. I was certainly referring more the MBA than other Masters. Fairly or unfairly, an MBA from a non top tier school is often not worth very much for the more lucrative jobs in the US.

I agree with this.

retzie

Very much agree. It took a long time and one failed attempt for me to leave. I have finally flown the coop permanently and couldn't be happier


Low brow it may be, but when there is a myriad of forces at work--many of which are personal--there is no possible way to be aware of all of them, much less leverage them to your advantage. Once, we had first offer of a job go to research group Y, because research group X got the good seminar room that year


300 applicants?? What field are you in??? I got my postdoc in an absolute shithole (but excellent department) as 1 of 600. The good departments in good locations routinely get 1.5K+ applications for a single tenure-track job (maths).

We have a huge number of really top-notch researchers stuck in places they hate living. And prospects got substantially worse post-2008.

Hiro11

My father was a professor for 40+ years at a very prestigious university in a great location in the Northeast of the US. He sat on the hiring committee for the school for decades. Suffice it to say, the competition for even any non-tenure-track instructor spot at this university was absolutely insane. Even getting a first round interview was essentially impossible. For any Asst. Prof. spot... my God. They were deluged with extremely impressive candidates with top level experience and the decisions ended up being about extremely minor differences. If anyone is thinking they're going to waltz in and easily snag a plum tenure track position at any reasonable school, think again.

PetrifiedExPat

You caught me, I picked a number above the other 1-200 numbers being banded about. Yes, you are right, the true number is much likely a lot higher. In fact, for a recently minted undergrad tech level job the no. of applicants can reach 100, so 1000 for assis. prof. is on the mark.

As the dean of a, no 'the', most prestigious school in the country once said, the very best will not have any trouble and wont have to move. Alas they were right, I hated the system, collected my hat, and said goodbye. It was amazing how many feathers that ruffled because I had the research funding but didnt subscribe to the system.

morpeth

It really depends on the industry - investment banks will look more closely at top tier schools for MBA's for example, but I think many companies can often just look at whether someone has or doesn't have an MBA, plus what work experience the person has. I also know companies ( including one I was with) who are very leery of MBA's from top name school. I know of another company that had so many bad experiences with MBA's from Harvard that it became a red flag to consider if someone went to a top name school like Harvard or Stanford. I know when I was hiring executives I was always a bit careful about hiring an MBA from a top school, though they could always do pretty presentations.

carcajou

Well, the "very best" institutions understand that the one million Dollar federal grant you bragged about earlier is not a lot of funding - especially post-2008, when research grants at the "very best" schools are also expected to cover staff salaries ("grant-funded positions") for the lead researcher and his/her team in addition to paying for project-related expenses, which add up very quickly. The "very best" schools non-renew professors who aren't able to do that. Professors who win one million Dollar grants at the "very best" schools are not considered to have "had the research funding" and their departures would not leave a Dean "ruffled."

For prospectives reading this who think they might like a career in academia - this way of doing things also means that effectively, a professor is a hired gun who is pursuing someone else's research agenda, instead of their own, as your research topics have to be in the interests of the donors to attract funding in the first place.

Which is why those applying to the programs who just view it as "the next level of success" after a Masters, just want a high-profile credential to notch on their belts or want to do something impressive-sounding for a few years as a placeholder while they figure out what they really want to do with their lives, will be weeded out pretty quickly (faculty are pretty good at identifying these people from reading their Statements of Intent). To be successful in an high-level intense PhD program you have to really, really be involved in your field and make it the #1 priority in your life ahead of everything else. It isn't something you can do half-idly like you can a Masters.

morpeth

While I think he emphasis om having a PhD to teach in many fields is excessive, I think you make a good point that a good PhD program can be extremely demanding to do right, and perhaps may underestimate the degree of focus and work required.

Having come from a business background a DBA or PhD in business is perhaps the most useless degree I can imagine except it does help n securing teaching positions, somewhat because of the accreditation process. On other hand having also a History degree, a History degree from the better universities I know, would require an intense multi-year effort far exceeding the process of getting a Master's.

PetrifiedExPat

$1 million for reagents and salaries... including all the indirects brought to the institution? I would have to check, but, it was multiples of.

For a 2 year time period it was at least on par with the best performers in the dept.

In any case, the whole system is broken and i wanted nothing to do with it.

How is teaching at a liberal arts college??

vikingsail

Just to add some perspective to the academic side of things. There is a reason they are all 'clamouring' to access the profession. If (and I agree its a big if) you attain that elusive 'tenured' position it really is the ultimate job. Largely autonomous you can exist for your entire working career on very good money with a gold plated pension at the end. Even with pension reform this is still true at most institutions. Don't believe me, well not to pick on this particular bastion of liberal thinking but it is a public institution and its salaries are therefore public. Just pick a professors name from here Home | University of California, Berkeley

and then search the salary here:

https://ucannualwage.ucop.edu/wage/

For example I just picked at random a Dean and their 2016 reported earnings were $317,000.

Thus imho academia is still one of the best gigs around. How many private industry middle managers do you know earning $300K +? With 'cadillac' type benefits.

scrubbedexpat099

Times like this I think of Ward Churchill and the Native American Professor at Harvard.

carcajou

I don't know, how is it?

Regarding your other comment, as you noted, I would imagine a liberal arts college would have some of the same problems as elsewhere - snakes in the faculty offices, snowflakes in the classrooms, financial cuts here, there and everywhere.

As for vikingsail, Cal-Berkeley is one of the top universities in the world, on par with the Ivy Leagues, I would not consider the pay for their senior academic management to be reflective of other places. However, at run-of-the-mill university, if you are a tenured, veteran professor, you should expect to earn in the low-to-mid $100s. You would not start there, however.

In terms of job security sure it's almost impossible to beat if you have tenure. But the stereotype of 40 years ago of professorial life could not be further from the truth today. In my field I really wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they showed exceptional scientific and research ability, a good ability to write academically, and enjoyed penury and slamming their head repeatedly against a wall. Part of that would be the difficulty of ultimately getting a job, and part of that would be how oversubscribed graduate programs have become in the last 10-15 years - we just don't need any more mediocre students gumming the place up.

morpeth

The whole academic university system is a racket raping the taxpayer and promoting mediocrity in many cases. Just imagine a business where ( a) there is unlimited access to customers( students) ability to pay for you product (b) you can admit however many students as you would like (c) you can restrict the amount and type of employees to maintain our position and salary (d) you can pay non-tenured online teachers at a fraction of your salary to have more students and more classes to make money on (e) and you can keep students happy through grade inflation (f) you can generate a climate of ideological control to reduce challenging new or different ideas.(g) great pensions ( at university and schools) but can convince the public that teachers are underpaid.(h) no pesky shareholders to control salaries paid.

I have a family member who teaches at a public university considered one of the top 10 in the country. The university has made clear directly and indirectly she is not to give too many grades below C, and she will be judged mainly by reaching a certain percentage of A and B grades. And the taxpayers are paying for this. In Ohio I read a newspaper report just 2 years ago- over 25% of students entering the public universities there require remedial English or Math classes- makes one wonder (a) how did they graduate high school (b) how were they accepted for university study.

Yes if you can break into the academic system great work benefits !