The problems of training and recruitment of academic medical staff have been the subject of a recent independent working party report1 and several editorials.2 3 All suggest long term changes in the academic career structure, but they fail to address the real life problems of “partially trained” junior doctors currently employed in academic posts. This editorial reflects the views of just such a group of academic trainees engaged in research at the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK. The current uncertainties in academic training have led many of us to question our future in academic medicine, and we suggest that a more structured and consistent approach to the academic career ladder would improve academic recruitment. Our decisions to embark on academic training were made for a variety of reasons: some aimed to improve career prospects, others relished the intellectual challenge of being at the …