# [2022.04.24] Old School PhD Students

I've found one curious document, the so-called European Framework for
Research Careers, explaining four levels of research positions. In my
opinion, it's nearly the same as Junior, Middle, Senior, and Lead in
software development positions. The key is the ability to work
independently. For example, R1 First Stage Researcher is the same as
Junior Developer. This guy must produce data under supervision. Not
scientific results expressed in papers published in peer-reviewed
international venues, but simply data collected from the experiments
that they don't even plan themselves. These R1s are the workhorse of
old school labs headed by authoritarian professors. As my supervisor
put it, usually, people start publishing papers building on the
results they obtained in their thesis. So, an old school PhD student
is a weak creature who is scientifically invisible before their opus
magnum sees the light of day. In the same way, a Junior Developer
takes only tasks of least priority with highly detailed instructions,
which can be done relatively quickly and don't need much code
written. The idea of this level is to get a taste of how to code or
do the most routine research tasks.

The second level, R2 Recognised Researcher co-authors papers at
workshops and conferences. Their desirable competencies include
mentoring First Stage Researchers. These guys are stereotypic, old
school postdoctoral fellows. Or they are similar to Middle Developers
who can code some important tasks lacking step-by-step instructions
in their descriptions. Also, a Middle can not only review Junior's
code assessing its clarity but also can give them advice about the
coding efficiency, design suitability, et cetera. Or, these R2 folks
are more realistic and more contemporary PhD candidates who are
obliged to publish papers in co-authorship with their tyrant
professors before they can defend a thesis. So, a professor who mines
publications using their PhD students not only exploits but also
treats R2 researchers as if they were R1. Thus, such PhD candidates
are underpaid, and their supervisors become more like slave masters.

The third level, R3 Established Researcher publishes papers as lead
author, organises workshop or conference sessions. Their desired
competences include securing research funding. I don't think that
being funded is a competence, but anyways. It's more like an old
school young professor (associate, adjunt, you name it) working
independently and chairing some low-profile events. Or, that's a
Senior Developer, who can take a high-level task description, split
it into subtasks, add details and delegate them to others if needed.
They can code nearly anything, but still type only that many
characters a minute. Or it's a PhD candidate of a type I see a lot.
They work independently of their superivsors and publish as first
authors. They don't chair conference sections, but they organise
doctoral colloquiums and seminars. And to be honest, I don't think
they won't manage to organise a workshop if anyone had given them
such power and responsibility. I'm not saying all PhD candidates are
like that. We are different, someone better, someone worse. But a
modern PhD candidate creates their thesis by combining enough papers
they have published. A PhD candidate is already an independent
researcher treated as an elementary school pupil (and paid
accordingly).

A good question is whether society should pay researchers for their
work, but the current state of public research is miserable. Workers
here belong to medieval estates of the realm, not pay grades, and the
exploitative feudal hierarchy hypocritically calls itself a
meritocracy. In software development, I saw Senior people with
slightly more than one year of experience. Seniority is the
capability to act, not a crown and epaulettes. In business, that
sometimes works. If you can deliver results, you have chances to be
paid well. Not always, since capitalism is not fair either. But
sometimes, it makes sense. In academia, I don't think it ever
happens. Maybe I'm wrong. I'll be happy to see counter-examples.