Kamal R. Prasad
Russia practising (applied) science. As you all might know, the Russian economy collapsed in the early 1990s. Scientists were especially only pay rent for flats they got during the Soviet era, and buy bread and milk, and there was nothing left anymore from their salaries. In the end-1990s, the Russian economy rebounded somewhat (due to petrol dollars), and scientists could do some applied work for enterprises and agencies, and have a reasonable living standard. The problem is that not everyone survived in the beginning of 1990s. Some scientists left for the West, some left for retail business, some just turned into drunks. It is Darwinian selection at work. There are two corollaries from here:
(i) There are job opportunities for scientists in Russia now, but it is not a fact that a Russian immigrant scientist (now in the West) would get the today's Russian jobs. There is a chance that he would not survive the economic collapse of the early 1990s.
(ii) The today's scientists in Russia are not good. The today's young scientific graduates en mbutte are much worse than the scientific graduates of pre-1990s. (Russian science is not funding well anymore, and the most capable scientists-instructors had left Russia for the West).
It is interesting, about a year ago I was checking the scientific job market in my home city. The 30+ year old graduates of my university are a hot commodity nowdays. They have the work ethics and the skills obtained during the Soviet time. All of them already found a place for themselves, either at a western company in Russia on a good salary, or overseas. This is why it is not possible for employers to find such an employee. There are simply none of them in the job seekers market. And there are plenty of projects to do fuelled by the petrol trickle-down dollars.
