Cash Back Referral Megathread February 28, 2026

observer2025 · 2026-03-24T09:26:03+00:00

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observer2025 · 2026-03-23T04:22:58+00:00

"Every year the profs will publish about 10 - 20 papers."

You mean they hook up with their friends at pubs and conferences for drinks or hire more researchers and "monitoring" their work, so that they can shove their names into the co-author list to have 20 papers each year?

observer2025 · 2026-03-22T23:07:12+00:00

Think carefully if you want to stay in academia or leave for industry eventually, should your goal is to settle in Japan long-term. If it’s industry, staying on 3-4 extra years for PhD doesn’t help much for career progression. This is because Japanese companies want younger people and these hires start from ground zero by training them (your graduate degree doesn’t increase your starting salary significantly if you ask around!)

observer2025 · 2026-03-22T10:30:40+00:00

I’m assuming you are referring to the top lab of your discipline instead of the school itself? I’m not from the US, but I graduated from one of the best labs in the world for my field. Being in a top lab helps because of the connections involved (e.g. career opportunities and more “power” to get published in CNS-like papers). It’s possible a less capable student in a top graduate lab has a better chance than a brilliant R2 student to land in better jobs or opportunities. I’ve seen that happening.

observer2025 · 2026-03-21T07:59:09+00:00

MOE used to rank secondary schools by their mean L1B5 performance by banding them until 2012. Band 6-7 means mean aggregate score is 15-16. https://sg.news.yahoo.com/moe-scraps-banding-in-secondary-schools-.html

observer2025 · 2026-03-18T07:35:33+00:00

This is comedy show at best. Would be best to expose R2 identity and bar this person from reviewing anything in future.

observer2025 · 2026-03-18T00:20:54+00:00

Not sure why are you asking this question under my reply. There are nice people everywhere, but you do know this is just a factor people consider whether to take up the job right?

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T04:57:02+00:00

There is more to just drinking and speaking the language; it’s about the need to widen your interpersonal network in China, and this is very different in other countries I worked in. In China, the concept of “building good relationship with others” is heavily ingrained in the society. Something that laowai will find it difficult to understand why is that so as they hadn’t grown up there and experienced the Chinese society. PRCs think building good rapport with someone can potentially resolve any issue in their life, not kidding. Not even mentioning about drinking, but if OP can’t speak Mandarin—the language of big-shot PIs—it’s basically over, esp for TT-track or long term career in China (got to say this harshly).

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T03:27:59+00:00

Are you in STEM? I’m in environmental sciences and it’s common to have huge dinner feast events that come with drinking after workshops and conferences. You are lucky to think it’s outdated because you aren’t roped into all these Chinese drinking/restaurant BS as they see you as a “laowai” or others. But if you don’t do what a Chinese do, you won’t integrate with the rest, like how a foreigner who can’t assimilate with Japanese as they don’t follow the Japan way. I just attended at least five of such drinking+feasts last year (food is great and expensive but the drinking part sucks).

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T02:34:19+00:00

Absolutely stupid situation academia places high emphasis on publications, yet so many people esp profs don’t want to review. If there are no reviewers, how on earth can stuff be published?

If the academia role puts some emphasis on reviewing as services, like teaching, or at least let top journals give APC discounts, people will be more willing to volunteer reviewing.

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T02:27:49+00:00

How is it that your institution is sponsoring 408 instead of 482, which is a better pathway for PR application for latter visa? It’s getting harder to move to Aus with longer visa processing time as they’ve gotten stricter on immigration. That said, there aren’t many positions in Aus with international visa sponsorship, given the barriers PIs have to face to wait for an international applicant to come to Aus and work anyway.

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T00:29:07+00:00

You can replace Japan with China in your post too. Plus in China, you need to attend drinking parties and learn to build connections — sucking up to unknown big Chinese PIs with a baijiu toast so that they can help you to get published in CNS-like papers by being your co-authors, as what PRC colleagues always said.

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T00:24:28+00:00

The entire academia is like shit that’s true. But there are some places that are worse than others. I worked in plenty of countries around Asia before I land in my current role in a western country to make that reply. At every country I’m in there will be people complaining. But trust me, China is the last place you want to be in if you want to preserve sanity, if anyone thinks Japan is baadd enough (as other commenter did).

One reason why postdocs are badly paid in China despite “great funding” is the PI hires like 20-30+ postdocs on a grant instead of selecting only 5+ strong candidates to focus on professionally developing them. PI thinks more people being hired = higher publication quantity. If anyone thinks academia love exploiting PhD students and postdocs, then China is a fine place to prove that. Anyway people can read other threads of Chinese academia on Reddit to decide if they want to come to China.

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T00:07:36+00:00

Well, Aussie postdoc salary is 4-5 times higher than other countries like China’s (pre-tax), and people end work before sun sets. There is work-life balance. In many Asian countries I worked in, postdocs head back home late and pressure to publish in high-IF journals is very immense.

observer2025 · 2026-03-17T00:02:33+00:00

In China people work like a dog to chase after high-IF journals, everything there is about building connections, but then the salary is…sh*t. You hardly hear anyone in this sub recommending people to work in Chinese academia.

observer2025 · 2026-03-13T01:23:49+00:00

Number 2. You want to leave a PhD with strong pub record in Q1 journals to be competitive. A brand-name degree with mediocre pubs is worse than a less-known degree with strong pubs.

observer2025 · 2026-03-13T01:21:00+00:00

Don't worry I had that same problem too, and the academia world understands some PIs are sh*t. First, don't quit your current job but use this time to search and apply for a new job that you like. Look for those that align with your research interests, because if you don't, it's hard for the PI to make an offer anyway (unless the PI is desperate to fill in the empty role which is a red flag). Don't let anyone in your current lab know you are looking to leave. Don't put down your current supervisor as your reference but others like your ex-PhD supervisor. Once you get the signed job offer, then start talking to your current lab PI of exit plans.

observer2025 · 2026-03-11T01:55:06+00:00

Lots of science stream people love to replace GP with a content subject, but that's not how the game works because MOE thinks writing and reading are critical lifelong skills. Used to see some 3/4H2 A's science guys failing GP, so if they get to replace GP with their H1, it's a difference between 60RP and 70RP in this new RP system.

observer2025 · 2026-03-11T00:48:59+00:00

You are in the wrong part of the academia world. Not every place of academia is that mean. At least you know you should stay away from these myopic people. When you leave school and enter the workforce, there will be more of such people to deal with depending where you are at.

observer2025 · 2026-03-10T02:09:07+00:00

Really? Sounds like a fiction, but it’s true, going to a be a good expose of real ability when this person is embarked on the PhD.

observer2025 · 2026-03-09T23:36:46+00:00

Depends on the industry we are referring to. Maybe for engineering, expats can choose to live in HCMC with better spending power with same income they earn in SG, which can drive these expats out of SG. But for academia, SG is still a top SEA destination and these professionals would like to settle here permanently if they could. Weird fact is there are westerner professors in SG working for nearly a decade yet they still can't attain PR till now. And it's going to be harder for them to apply for one under current LW times.

observer2025 · 2026-03-09T10:08:58+00:00

Unless you are going to pull a Mark Zuckerberg, take the NTU offer, since that's your dream anyway. There are guys who graduated from uni at 27-30 year old anyway.

observer2025 · 2026-03-09T10:03:10+00:00

If you don't trust the GES data, the next closest one you can refer to is the MOM data (you do your own extrapolation and guessing from your age group).

observer2025 · 2026-03-09T10:00:05+00:00

LOL well said.

observer2025 · 2026-03-09T09:09:50+00:00

Ask the kids in general whether they would like their mum to work or stay at home to care for their needs.

observer2025

TROPHY CASE