publications - Dealing with an advisor who is not interested in publishing

My advisor is a full professor nearing retirement age. Although he does not seem to be planning to retire anytime soon; he has this "been there/done that" attitude toward publications. He says that he has published enough significant work to be happy and that he only wants to publish breakthrough papers from now on. My issue is that I need publications to build a good resume. As of now, I have no publications from my PhD research.

My research project is structured in a way that any other professor would see it as an opportunity to get multiple publications out of it because each stage of the project has enough significance to be published separately. My adviser however wants only one comprehensive paper. I have several issues with this:

1. 
   
   

   This reduces the number of publications appearing on my resume. I know that this really shouldn't be important, because I would still be publishing the same content. However, this is important when applying for competitive R&D positions in tech (the types of jobs I'm interested in) where during the first stages of screening applicants the number of publications would matter (since no one will actually read them at that point).

   
   


2. 
   

   This also means that I will not be able to submit anything until close to my graduation which would mean that unless I delay my graduation until after the review process is over, I would have no publications when I graduate. Several people in industry who would be hiring for the types of jobs I'm interested in have told me that they do not consider PhD applicants who have no publications.

   
   

How would you propose I handle this situation? Today I told him that I'd like to submit an abstract to a conference but he would not permit it, saying that he is afraid that someone at the conference will steal our idea and publish it in a journal before we are able to. I really think he was just using that as an excuse though.

Answer

One of the first "guides" to a PhD that I ever read, mentioned the pros and cons of choosing a young advisor versus an old advisor. Certainly it isn't that black and white but your description is exactly what that article talked about.

In response to your points:

1. The number of publications on your resume is important. It is how you will be evaluated on the job market. Just as importantly though, submitting papers and attending conferences is a great way to get feedback, network, and find collaborators.


2. Not publishing until the end isn't a death sentence but you definitely need to be getting feedback from other researchers in your community years before that. Again, publishing and attending conferences is an awesome experience and could help you find jobs (it certainly has helped me find great internships!).

My suggestions would be to (A) talk to your advisor about this again, (B) find a co-advisor, or (C) switch advisors entirely. A co-advisor could potentially give you the best of both worlds. But it sounds like your current advisor has very different goals for you than what you want so you have to take some time and contemplate if you want to continue working with him.