<p>References:
“Give postdocs a career, not empty promises” Published online 2 March 2011 | Nature 471, 7 (2011)
“Fix the PhD” Nature 472, 259–260 (21 April 2011) doi:10.1038/472259b
Published online 20 April 2011
“What is a PhD really worth?” Nature472 , 381-381(2011)
“The real science Gap” Miller McCune (just google it)
“Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists (1998)” National Academy of Sciences</p>
<p>Just make sure you do your homework before you end up 35 and switching careers. Its very unlikely you will get a P.I. position in academia OR industry. And to do so you will have to be talented AND lucky.
Think about it. If there are 300 applicants for every tenure track faculty position or lab head position in industry, the employer has all the power. This supply and demand effect permeates throughout academia and industry.
PhD’s just aren’t worth that much anymore. It is a bad investment of your time and has huge opportunity costs. Get an MD or MD/PhD. Even if you just want to do research. They have research track residencies, ability to do a postdoc, etc.</p>