sci.research.careers

On Sat, 22 Sep 2007, Beladi Nasralla wrote:

> On Sep 23, 1:11 am, Straydog wrote:
>
>>> The manager also expressed his doubts that I would like to work at
>>> his organisation after I worked at my govt lab.
>>
>> So, you are not in the worst of all possible worlds!!!
>
> Out of the last batch of the six PhD graduates from our advisor, only
> me and the other guy (a local one) are in scientific research jobs.
> All others fell off the science altogether,

rick++ are you reading this?

or doing lowly paid
> science-related jobs ( . in measurment standards or in mind-numbing
> industrial engineering technician job).

rick++ I guess this is what you mean when you talk about all that exciting
stuff that everyone else is doing besides us handful of "losers" on SRC,
right?

All the other guys in the
> science-related jobs are envious that I got a job in this govt lab.

I think there might be a couple here on SRC that would be envious, too,
and I won't mention any names.

> Coincidentially (or not), they all are Chinese. And they are those
> guys who got the jobs in the photonics industry during the IT boom --
> I was the one who could not get a job in there. That's a curious life/
> career dynamics.

Sometimes for a dumb job you have to look dumb. I interviewed for what
looked like a nice dumb job way back in the mid-1970s, and I had one other
person interviewing, too, just with a BS and I had grad school and they
offered _him_ the job, and when I called up about it, I got the impression
that they thought that he, who was much more passive (I gathered from the
conversation) during the interview, would be a better "fit." So, again,
sometimes you have to look dumb, act dumb, and behave dumb to get the dumb
job.

>
>> Of course, if I went that way, I would have not met my
>> wife who is still with me after 25 years and I want to keep her. .
>
> At the risk of being called disrespectful, I can tell you that if you
> did not meet this woman, you would probably meet another one equally
> as good.

Probability says half of all marriages end in divorce, and a big fraction
in the first months to 2 years. And, we both know some of those.

I will be superstitious and thank my lucky stars.

But, I still remember vividly the one before who I asked, after being
together for maybe a year, to marry me and for her (a blond) it was: sex
yes and marriage no. Later I asked again, she still said no.

And, if you worked at UL, you could well be bored out of your
> skull, and this would reflect negatively on your family life.

But, if I knew what I know now, I would be eternally thankful for that
boring, dull, dumb, well-paid, high job security, tollerable bullshit job.

I also had some experience with KP in the Army and also cleaning latrines
in the Army. Do you know what that is all about? Oh, yes, they called us a
lot of not nice names, too, during basic training.