Chapter 475: A Noob researcher

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

[Do you have a friend in materials science? Why not apply to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study? Link: Recruitment page.

[PS1: All you need is a passion for scientific research. Minimum education level: PhD, with more than 12 months of experience working as a postdoc or corporate scientific researcher.

[PS2: You don’t have to be a PhD in materials science. PhDs in Mathematics, physics, and other disciplines can also throw in your resumes. But please attach a formal research project application to your resume.]

At midnight, in a materials science laboratory at the University of Science and Technology of China.

Hou Jinli, who was guarding the laboratory, was scrolling through his Weibo when he saw this post. He suddenly felt motivated.

Like most people, he only followed God Lu on Weibo to see God Lu bragging about his achievements. Since this Nobel Prize winner didn’t post anything on Weibo for so long, he didn’t expect to see a… recruitment ad?

He looked at the comments and saw the plebeians discussing.

[Minimum PhD, 12 months of postdoc experience… God Lu, I’m still studying my undergrad, can you save me a spot?]

[This advertisement is making me uncomfortable, I’m reporting it!]

[Can a high schooler apply? I can clean the floors, pour tea, and act cute~~]

[Man, how come there isn’t biology? Think about us biologists! (cry) (cry)]

[That biologist must be autistic, how about we… (evil smile) (evil smile)]

Hou Jinli: “…”

He saw the hundreds of likes and felt like there was a deep malevolence coming from across the screen; he decided not to read any more comments.

Every year, there were plenty of students that fell into the big dark pit of biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, environmental studies, and materials sciences.

The materials science research environment was the same, whether it was in China or around the world.

The profit margin was less than 30%. It was common for the product development cycle to be 7-8 years. The real question was, how many real estate buildings could be built during those 8 years? How many online companies could grow, go public, and go bankrupt in that time frame?

Of course, materials science was still relatively important in China as the industry received quite a lot of support.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many companies that relied on state subsidies and scientific research funding to survive.

Of course, for noob researchers in this field, doing scientific research still depended on one’s passion; it wasn’t just about money.

If Hou Jinli were to ask himself why he didn’t change fields, it would be because of his passion for the materials science world.

At the same time, he hoped that one day he would be as successful as his PhD supervisor and that he would be driving a BMW, handling multi-million projects, and chatting with CEOs of public companies.

However, while dreams were beautiful, the reality was often cruel.

Million-dollar projects? He didn’t even have his own laboratory!

His ideal future path was probably two years of postdoc. After that, he would apply for the Thousands Talents Plan. Then, he would work at a good university…

However, this was only an idea.

Like what the name had suggested, his chance of achieving this was less than one in a thousand.

When Hou Jinli looked at the Weibo post and saw the name of Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, he couldn’t help but think about the matter that caused intense controversy in academia a while ago.

Lu Zhou was the chief designer of the new controllable nuclear fusion research unit in Jinling.

Even though this matter wasn’t publicly reported, this was no secret among the academic community.

Some people thought Lu Zhou was arrogant; some people thought he was crazy. Some people were arguing about the possibility of the allegations being true. After all, one could argue that humans were a long way from controllable nuclear fusion technology, but one could also argue that humans were one football kick away from the winning goal.

However, it had been fifty years, and the ball hadn’t entered the goal.

Hou Jinli couldn’t help but think if the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study’s recruitment post for materials science researchers was related to the controllable nuclear fusion project.

He curiously clicked on the link within the Weibo post and read the details.

When his eyes arrived at the compensation section, he was frozen.

Formal researcher will get a salary of 300K!

And the end of the year bonus, insurance, accommodation, and food subsidies…

Of course, what attracted his attention the most wasn’t the 300k annual salary but the description after that.

According to the information listed on the page, as long as one passed the interview and finished a 1-6 month long internship, one would receive the qualification of a formal researcher!

Normally for PhDs that didn’t study abroad, the usual procedure was to do a two to three-year postdoc at a university, then become assistant researcher, then associate researcher, then associate professor. This entire process would take at least six years. Also, if someone got unlucky and had a terrible, heartless boss, it could take them eight years to earn an independent research qualification.

And how many years one had in a lifetime?

A researcher only had ten golden years, and that period was the period from 30 to 40 years old.

If he could successfully become a formal researcher, he could cut down the process by at least six years.

Hou Jinli remembered that in two days, he would have stayed at the University of Science and Technology of China as a postdoc for exactly one year. His mind began to race.

If he was a formal researcher, he could have his own laboratory and could engage in independent research. He could skip the six years of exploitation he would have to endure otherwise.

Even though this scientific researcher position wasn’t attractive for expert researchers, but for noob researchers like him that were still suffering, this was insanely appealing.

…

Staying up all night was the norm for Hou Jinli.

The next day, Hou Jinli filled in the experimental data on the report. He then energetically opened his laptop and downloaded the attachments from the recruitment website.

Suddenly, his friend at the laboratory walked over.

Sun Hao stood next to his friend’s seat and looked at the computer screen. He then said, “… Minimum a PhD, 12 months of scientific research experience. Jesus, what kind of scientific research institute has this kind of threshold?”

Hou Jinli: “Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.”

When Sun Hao heard the research institute’s name, he was stunned.

“Jinling Institute for Advanced Study? F*ck me! You want to work for the Nobel Prize winner?!”

Hou Jinli: “It’s at least worth a try?”

Regardless, he was a postdoc at the University of Science and Technology of China; he had an advantage in terms of his academic qualifications.

Of course, he didn’t know how big this advantage was.

“Unfortunately, I still have seven months to go; otherwise, I’d apply as well.” Sun Hao looked at the recruitment post on the screen and said with envy, “Bro, if you really end up working at this Nobel Prize winner’s laboratory, don’t forget about me.”

Hou Jinli smiled. He then sighed and said, “We’ll see. I’m afraid the competition is quite fierce.”

200 spots seemed like a lot.

But if the jobs were evenly spread across China’s major universities, it wasn’t a lot at all.

Also with a salary like this, it wouldn’t only be domestic universities; even postdocs who were doing their research abroad would be tempted…

After some anxious waiting, Hou Jinli successfully received an interview invitation. He confidently sat on a high-speed train and left Luyang, arriving at Jinling.

However, after he took a taxi and arrived at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

He had a hunch when he was booking his hotel room.

Now it seemed like his hunch was correct.

He looked at the crowd of people gathered at the research institute and felt hopeless at his profession for the first time ever…

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