Re: Way OT: Career/Graduate school advice seeked - Saab General Bulletin Board - Saabnet.com
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Re: Way OT: Career/Graduate school advice seeked
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Posted by Bart [Email] (more from Bart) on Wed, 21 Jan 2004 20:30:12 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: Way OT: Career/Graduate school advice seeked, Alex Athanasiou, Tue, 20 Jan 2004 17:44:34
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I am sorry that I cannot read all the responses to your post, just have time to stick in my $0.02

Because my college degree was a B.S. in chemistry, I know a lot of PhDs, including just about everyone I took my chemistry classes with. The vast majority of them have OK jobs but few of them have jobs that actually require a doctorate. (One went to a terrific school and he is really smart and he just couldn't get a job so now he takes his PhD to work for the phone company every day. One got this awesome NSF fellowship at a superdelicious place and when the program was done and the degree in hand, settled for a job in a location far from desirable and far from home.) They are smart people but the fact is that there are way more PhD owners than there are good jobs. If you are a super genius then by all means go get the degree, get a university job at a decent salary with good benefits and the perks of campus life. But competition for those spots is ferocious.

Your post hints at a desire for autonomy. You will not have as much as you think as a professor. You have to answer to your section head or your department chair or your dean. You will ALWAYS have to answer to someone unless you are the president of the university, but then you have to answer to the board of trustees.

You like to teach. You don't have to be a professor to teach. You will have the power to touch people's lives in many, many different professions that are not strictly labeled "education." Every time that you come in contact with open-minded people, you can help them benefit from your experience.

I don't know much about IT but my wife worked in the field for a while. It strikes me as having a fairly large upside. It may be frustrating because you are on the ground floor. Try to imagine how different things may be in 10 years. You sound like you would be a great manager ("teacher").

Dude I'm not trying to talk you out of following your dreams. I am 34 and I quit my job as a chemist to go to med school. It has worked out okay, but I basically gave up my twenties for a long training period, and now I have 80 grand in student loans to pay back (not the same for grad students in the sciences, who are all supported with grants, although the pay is really low). I'm not sure I would do it over. Pretty much every good career track in the U.S. seems to include 8-10 years of low wages and long hours and, yes, following orders from people you'd rather ignore (it is this way in business, law, and yes, hard science).

Oh, and don't forget: depending on your field of study, your training may not end when you defend your thesis. Even after five years of indentured servitude, you may need to do a "post doc," prolonging the agony.

Oooooooh do I sound bitter. Really, I'm pretty happy.

posted by 68.163.6...

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