I work for a large corporation. Always have and I hope, always will.
People say that corporations are soulless organizations, especially if said people live in the USofA. People in India will give you a completely different view, especially the middle class. Their lives have been changed a lot by these corporations.
Anyway, that's not what this post is about. It's about corporations and academia. Academia, the hot seat of intellectual stimulation and collaborative growth, versus the soulless corporation. Or at least that's what people say.
Surprisingly, my experiences have been quite different. Barring a couple of corporate slime balls that I have had the misfortune to encounter, most people have been very helpful. They have encouraged me to challenge myself, meet with others of similar interest and grow in my career.
And then there's academia.
I just finished a graduate degree from an institution of moderate repute. The final thesis submission was more like an escape. From bad advising, unwarranted malice and a complete absence of any sort of intellectual stimulation. My best time during the program was the communication role I had at a different organization on campus. Till date, I am trying to figure out why.
Where popular wisdom claims there is bitchiness, I have found collaboration. While the 'natural' home of collaboration houses a degree of bitchiness that I find very unnerving.
Having been in academics much past my own peers and hoping to stay in the field till I get kicked out, i cant agree with you more. At the university, where I am spending a few months as an exchange student, a person of fairly recent Indian origin has made some path breaking discovery in cancer research. That set some of us talking. Why is it that one has to move to greener pastures to be recognised as an innovator? Why do almost all academic paper have upto ten authors in a prestigious journal and one in an unknown journal? And why is it that goodies like foreign trips and fellowships are doled out to those whose academic credentials are hardly worth a mention? Thats because insecurity and pettiness defines the profession. The intellectual hallmark of hypocricy is most obvious in the profession and thats why despite the pay hike, the best continue to look the other way.
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