T-Shaped People and Academia
<i>&gt;Setting up a suitable build system. Writing some unit tests for the code. Creating a skeleton of the models that are to be developed. Designing nice mock-ups or logos. Creating animations or graphics for presentations.</i><p>I actively advise students against joining labs like this and consider the whole enterprise unethical. I raise concerns whenever I&#x27;m reviewing grant proposals by folks who run their labs like this. I&#x27;ve successful nuked funding proposals because the work plan included language like this.<p>Want a devops engineer? Hire a devops engineer (&quot;systems scientist&quot; or so on). Want a graphic designer? Hire a graphic designer.<p>But DO NOT lie to impressionable youth by telling them that you are admitting them into a PhD program to be your apprentice on a research project and then proceed to pay them $30K&#x2F;yr (with marginal benefits) for uninteresting and unexceptional engineering and design work. They are taking a huge financial opportunity cost to work on uniquely high leverage problems. Maintaining your research group&#x27;s build system is not what they signed up for.<p><i>&gt; ‘I’m a researcher, not a(n) X,’ with X∈ {software developer, designer, marketing person, artist, …}</i><p>Sure, but here&#x27;s the rub. What does everything in that set have in common? They make <i>at least</i> 2x+ the average PhD student and have much better benefits.<p>If you want a &quot;force multiplier&quot; person in your lab, do your job: get a grant and pay a fair price for that sort of labor. PhD students are NOT ∈ {software developer, designer, marketing person, artist, …}. If they were, you&#x27;d be paying quite a bit more and&#x2F;or getting far less exceptional candidates.