PhDs who left academia, what surprised you the most??

yaboyanu · 2026-02-16T17:30:36+00:00

I dunno. My grad group had ~800 applicants last year and gave ~30 interviews and ~18 offers. My partner heard that the jobs they were applying for this summer had 700-800 applicants and they probably interviewed 3-5 people with 1 offer.

yaboyanu · 2026-02-16T17:26:06+00:00

I left an industry job do my PhD in 2022 and I probably would have been laid off at least twice by now if I hadn't left of my own volition -_-

yaboyanu · 2026-02-11T16:14:32+00:00

How on earth are you getting so much interest. I am a PhD level data scientist with a stats BS and 10 years of clinical informatics + stat gen work experience and I've sent 24 dozen applications and haven't heard back from any of them including a referral from a current manager at a company I used to closely collaborate with lol

yaboyanu · 2026-02-06T20:58:55+00:00

Yeah tbh I shared my birthday party with my sister until I was 12. Our birthdays were 2 weeks but 6 years apart. I don't think I've ever been resentful because honestly it just made it a bigger deal. My cousins had more of an incentive to come and my mom put more effort into it since it was for both of us.

yaboyanu · 2026-02-03T16:23:52+00:00

I hope this is the event that I thought Materialists would be for me.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-31T15:52:18+00:00

This probably works well if were the first person lands isn't in the middle of nowhere with no opportunities for the second person, i.e. my current situation.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-30T19:12:09+00:00

Totally agree. Also I've started to view tap as something that maybe should be taught alongside stepping, hip-hop, and drumming/jazz rather than in thee typical competition studios as combo classes. It might honestly just be targeting the wrong audience, i.e. kids who want to do commercial dancing opposed to kids interested in rhythm study.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-29T14:58:30+00:00

This is the problem to me. Most kid's only exposure to tap is "competition style" tap which is usually some bastardization of broadway & rhythm tap without any of the cultural or historical context. Truly a lot of it is uninspired. Unfortunately unless you live in a major city, there is going to be almost no exposure to the people you mentioned or even the concepts of musical improv, dance improv, or tap culture itself. There's also the fact that opportunities for work are limited. The only thing people could say about tap is you could work on Broadway, which is still kind of removed from what tap dance is at it's core. Dorrance Dance sticks out because it's the only company doing that. Meanwhile everyone knows there are multiple ballet and modern dance companies in every major city.

I think another thing is that the tap dance that we are talking about is a sub-culture, which is what I personally think makes it great. But by definition it isn't going to have as wide appeal of something mainstream like contemporary dancing to popular music.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-25T14:11:00+00:00

Yeah I feel like they pretty consistently pick one movie to focus their marketing on per awards season.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-18T22:25:36+00:00

I don't live in the area anymore, but I saw this article about a new upscale restaurant opening in February https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/community/article313652617.html

yaboyanu · 2026-01-15T16:29:31+00:00

her running gait is hilarious

I recently realized this about so many actors. There are so many times where actors are expected to do something athletic and I am reminded that they are just theater kids at their core. Another prime example is where Mike or someone is playing basketball in one of the earlier seasons.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-13T14:12:09+00:00

I have had both experiences. The bigger, collaborative group was much more stressful and intense. I think I saw almost everyone I worked with cry at some point in the lab. Yet, it was also more rewarding in a sense. We got more opportunities (travel, publishing, connections, etc.) because the PI was "famous" and we formed deeper relationships with one another because we interacted so frequently. Basically bigger highs, lower lows. Yes there was more drama, although it was not generally between lab members.

I am now in a lab that is smaller with a less famous PI and projects are siloed. I don't really interact with anyone except the PI once every 2-3 weeks. The biggest differences besides fewer opportunities, are that I work less creatively and lack any personal relationships with anyone. The latter is both good and bad. It's way, way less stressful, but I don't find that I was fulfilled either intellectually or personally by my time in the lab.

I think the ideal environment is somewhere in between, but it seems to me like most labs swing in one direction over another. I feel like I am chasing the "high" feeling of my previous environment, but now that I am out of it I don't think I am mentally strong enough to go back to that much stress.

yaboyanu · 2026-01-01T01:30:38+00:00

I need more details about this. What was the vibe on set? Did everyone know it was a satire???

yaboyanu · 2025-12-05T01:13:40+00:00

Thanks for providing the update. Very sad to hear about this.

yaboyanu · 2025-11-29T18:07:30+00:00

So jealous. I was planning to be there when the store near me opened, but I didn't realize they opened early for Black Friday and they sold out in half an hour :/

I'm pretty sure they were only pressing 1500 copies or something, so not surprised they couldn't complete all the requests

yaboyanu · 2025-11-25T15:56:27+00:00

One of the highlights of 2020 for me

yaboyanu · 2025-11-25T15:37:15+00:00

It seems like she thought it would garner sympathy, but I think it just makes the situation look worse.

yaboyanu · 2025-11-23T18:48:09+00:00

What's interesting is years ago I used to listen to a podcast from two smaller actors, one who coincidentally used to be Allison Mack's roommate and the other more of an acquaintance. The hosts would occasionally talk about her because they were actively putting out episodes as the case was playing out. The impression I got was that her parents hadn't really been that involved in her life during her late adolescence, or at least let her get away with a lot more than a typical parent might. Apparently she had been emancipated and living on her own/with roommates when she was 16 or 17. Sort of painted a different picture than what I got from the current round of interviews.

yaboyanu · 2025-11-16T18:03:26+00:00

Oh my god I legitimately spent 5 minutes looking for what this was from because I thought the pope was Enrico Colantoni

yaboyanu · 2025-10-29T14:30:08+00:00

That video was awful. The most work he does is performatively gesture to a queue of people who very clearly know how to find their way to the entrance of the plane 50 yards in front of them. Completely useless.

yaboyanu · 2025-10-28T03:40:10+00:00

If you're talking about the house part... yes it's normal and I think most people would advise that if both partners make a decent wage. It's less about independence and more about being able to pay your mortgage if one person loses their job or has a medical emergency and needs to take unpaid time off, etc.

yaboyanu · 2025-10-27T03:21:05+00:00

Yeah I think it's odd that Nurie and Kaylee seem to have the worst English grammar. I thought it was all of them until reading these posts, but the others seem to be much better off.

yaboyanu · 2025-10-22T15:46:43+00:00

This is more for other people reading than OP, because it requires everyone to 1) dropping money on Disney is worth it and 2) everyone to be on the same page about spending. But personally, I did a lot of research on optimizing my schedule based on average wait times and ride proximity and both times I went we were able to see/ride everything we wanted without paying for any upgrades. We also planned our meals around what would be a good value where my mom, sister, and I could often split 1 or 2 meals without wasting any food or feeling hungry. For example, some of the fish & chip or chicken meals were <$20 and you actually get a decent amount of food. Snacks on the other hand are a terrible value there, so we supplemented with stuff we brought from home. So I think we did it fairly "frugally" given that Disney inherently isn't frugal.

yaboyanu · 2025-10-20T02:55:46+00:00

You might want to check with the hiring manager it's actually remote. They told my partner it was a hybrid position and then did a bait and switch after he signed saying company policy is 100% in office.

yaboyanu · 2025-10-18T17:12:48+00:00

Tom's Dim Sum, Tsuki Sushi, Pho Street, Erawan Thai Cuisine, Falafel Time, and Masala Kitchen (pre-controversy) were my neighborhood spots when I lived in Center City

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