its glamorized because some of the more popular jobs, like engineering , scientists for stem is in the media alot, and they assume its easy for people find a job in it. they dont see the the actual uglyness behind it, need a competitive gpa for grad school, and then research/lab experience,etc and its also not easy getitng these. alot of phds trying to get academic jobs in our area are like in thier 40s already,