Keeping My Head Above the Water
Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash
Research fellowships are temporary research jobs, often underpaid, yet are designed to provide you with the space to advance your academic prospects. When these fellowships were first designed, the academic world was much less competitive. Back then, it was not as difficult as it is today to secure a permanent position at an academic institution — and especially not after completing a research fellowship. Yet, the conditions today have tremendously changed. PhDs feel lucky to have found a temporary position, and even those positions receive hundreds of applications. Receiving one is a matter of luck, considering how there are sometimes over a dozen of excellent candidates in such pools. There cannot be one perfect candidate. The person chosen amongst the excellent ones is the luckiest of multiple perfects.
