When funding from the National Institutes of Health began to steadily fall (adjusting for inflation) following its boom years, so did the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty positions. From 2003 to 2007, the number of those positions declined by 5.8 percent across all sectors of academia, according to the American Federation of Teachers.
Perhaps as a result of the tighter funding climate and the ever-rising competition for fewer tenure-track positions, the number of PhD-level life scientists seeking alternative careers appears to be steadily increasing; the National Postdoctoral Association reports that more than 50 percent of science and engineering PhDs work outside of academia. Alternative career-seekers include academic investigators who fail to obtain tenure, some who are tenured but fail to obtain or renew funding, postdoctoral fellows faced with a dismal search for a tenure-track position, and new PhD graduates. I fell into the latter category. Despite keen interest and ...
