A while ago, I made two videos (linked below) on the options for parents if their child is interested in science. Recently, I received a rather critical email in response. The essence was: Why are you recommending science as a career when the pay is so small?!
The answer is quite simple: passion. If my child is passionate about pursuing science (and he is), I must chalk out a path of excellence for him and urge him to study hard to be admitted to top-tier institutes where the teachers are PhDs and researchers. Also,see: The world may run on money but passion is the fuel!
Even with such an Ivy League education and best-in-class tenure, the salary in academia will be significantly lower than corporate salaries. Science postgraduates can end up in corporate core careers and get paid better. But such jobs are not always open in all disciplines and most science graduands stay in government or privately funded academia either in teaching or research or both.
Now is this such a terrible deal for your child? We are assuming here that the child is clear about what what she wants to – science. Academia pays less but there would be incredible work-life balanace. And a less pay is relative to where we work and how we live.
In India, academic entry level salaries offered by the IITs, IISc, and other top-tier institures are fairly good enough for an upper middle-class existence. So it is a pretty good deal. In the long run, an academic job is far less stressful than a corporate job.
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However there is a risk. If one end ups in private educational institutions, the demand on the employees time may be far higher than the reward. So a career in science is not for everyone. It is only for those intensely passionate. Note: passion here means not just talk. It is means a drive to work hard and be the best. If your child has such a drive, then the parents should urge them to excel.
There is yet another aspect to all this. In school students only know about physics, chemistry, maths, biology as “science”. One can do a lot of science or research in engineering as well or for that matter any subject. Todays the boundaries between science and engineering have disapperared.
So research and adacedmia are still “good” options with a lot of “scope” for driven engineers or arts majors.
So if your child is “interested” in science or doing reserarch in engineering or any other subject, don’t try to talk them out of it. Encourage them and motivate them to excel. These are the two videos mentioed above.
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Dr M. Pattabiraman (PhD) is the founder, managing editor and primary author of freefincal. He is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has over 14 years of experience publishing news analysis, research and financial product development.
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