Outlook on astronomy field

http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/astro-ph/0301061v1

Key excerpts

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The breakdown makes for interesting reading and should be
brought to the attention of prospective PhD students: 48% of the positions
were targeting ‘theory’, 32% were targeting ‘observation’, and 20% were targeting ‘instrumentation’. In terms of research areas, 56% were looking for
cosmologists of one sort or another, 25% were looking for planetary scientists,
11% were looking for high energy astrophysicists, and 8% were looking for
stellar astronomers.

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"""
In terms of a so-called “recipe for success” for prospective astronomy
PhD students, the following was suggested: (1) investigate the past history
of both the school and supervisor who interests you (e.g. how have their past
students fared? What is their grant history like? What are the opportunities
for external & international collaborative links?); (2) know what’s hot (both
in the near- and long-term - e.g. computational and/or theory, cosmology,
instrumentation, planetary, astrobiology); (3) get experience writing grants;
(4) be sure to network; (5) avoid excessive observing; (6) be wary of undertaking PhDs within very large teams; (7) for Australian students, move
institutes for your PhD and PDF, and be prepared to emigrate; (8) be aware
of the competition (most folks have ∼10 papers by the end of their first PDF
position)
"""