Doesn&#x27;t the fact that you don&#x27;t even get a degree out of a postdoc make it worse? In some groups, being a postdoc means simply that you&#x27;re software engineering for 0.25 of the pay that you would get as a software engineer in industry. You&#x27;re hoping to get a chance to stick around as a researcher, but you&#x27;re not doing actual research (hence no degree).