PhD Problems: You’ve Never Had to Negotiate

To jump from academia to business, you’ll need to.

When you get into graduate school to do a doctorate, if you’re lucky they send you a letter that tells you how much you are going to be given as an annual stipend. The pittance that most students are offered is handed down by fiat and intended only to cover the most basic costs of living so that you can stay reasonably alive to conduct your studies — and that’s for programs that offer funding at all.

At no point is there a conversation about what you as a worker are worth to the school where you are doing your research. There is no phase where different entities compete over you and you have the chance to get a little more money from an organization that really needs you. There is no negotiation.

This has after effects. I know quite a few postdocs and ex-academics who internalized the thinking that you get told how much you will be paid, and it is not be questioned. These folks did not negotiate their salary offers after grad school, and they should have — but no one taught them that.

Academia has a really distorted, unhealthy view of compensation. Often, in academic circles, career advancement and stability of a position are prioritized over salary and benefits. The end result is a world where a PhD and…