Someone who just left our company on Friday worked the magic of cranking out good research publications while working as a programmer, always taking on only projects that had good publication potential and never getting stuck with the horrible life-sucking, year-sucking drudgery tasks of, say, converting application X from using database Y to database Z. I just don’t know how he did it.
I’m guessing that people are relatively good at identifying departments which aren’t intellectually sexy, but may not have the tools for getting out of them. Have you asked him about the latter?
Another possibility is that they could figure out for themselves how to stay out of those departments, but they believe that the right thing to do is not take initiative.
A third is that if more people tried to stay out of dead end work, the pressure to take it would increase.,
Most of my colleagues seem to want to burrow deep into their research niche and start counting their pension. The idea of even wanting to switch departments or even rock the boat by refusing a project offered by a superior is antithetical to their psychology.
What I’m saying is that some mix of ambition and risk tolerance is required to even see the options for career development clearly.
Can you ask him?
I’ve asked him twice, but didn’t get a clear answer beyond “Get out of dead-end departments that aren’t intellectually sexy.”
I’m guessing that people are relatively good at identifying departments which aren’t intellectually sexy, but may not have the tools for getting out of them. Have you asked him about the latter?
Another possibility is that they could figure out for themselves how to stay out of those departments, but they believe that the right thing to do is not take initiative.
A third is that if more people tried to stay out of dead end work, the pressure to take it would increase.,
Most of my colleagues seem to want to burrow deep into their research niche and start counting their pension. The idea of even wanting to switch departments or even rock the boat by refusing a project offered by a superior is antithetical to their psychology.
What I’m saying is that some mix of ambition and risk tolerance is required to even see the options for career development clearly.