Should i give up on being a professor?
Currently a biology postdoc in Belgium.
I have what it takes scientifically, my CV of experience, funding, and publications is not too shabby, but I don't like to kiss ass and I don't like to exploit people. Hiring a PhD/postdoc is basically exploiting people. That's nothing to do with you as a person, that's how the system works. And being on tenure track means kissing ass of tenured faculty for 10+ years.
Am i wrong? I love science, I hate how people are treated within science and I don't want to be part of it. It's not a bad experience I had, this is how it is labs in countries in 3 different continents I've worked on.
Is it as bad in industry? I feel like while there is still kissing ass, workers are at least slightly more fairly compensated for their labor. Having to fire someone is terrible, but I feel is less often than when you have to let people go in academia because of lack of funding and also you're not ruining the life of someone who travelled halfway across the world to a new country just to join your lab and will be kicked out of the country if you fail to get funding.