I think the real advice is that you shouldn’t do post-graduate studies unless it’s paid for, comes with a stipend, or comes with an assistantship. Too many people (including myself) have paid for advanced degrees out of pocket only to find that they were pure coursework with no tangible experience.
The other piece of advice that isn’t often given is that post-graduate work really is training for jobs in academia. If that’s not where you want to end up, then those degrees are rarely useful (outside of academia). There are a few fields where masters-level is required for entry level jobs, but setting your course for a PhD is really a course to an academic post.
Exactly, but even if your tuition is paid for with a grant, alongside a stipend, I would argue against pursuing a PhD, with the only exception being when you want a job in academia, like you said. The amount of money you’ll be making in academia is absolute peanuts compared to the industry, and the same goes for relevant work experience.
Personally, I had to get a grant with a stipend, or else I wouldn’t be able to afford it. I also got to lecture as an invited assistant for a year, but I never really wanted to teach. I wanted to dedicate myself to research, but I quickly realized nobody around me was actually trying to push the boundaries of knowledge and, instead of discussing ideas, learning from each other, and taking some freakin’ risks, what I found was a lot of ass kissing, and seniors constantly doing paperwork to get funding, while delegating research to students. Everything that mattered to me felt secondary to everybody else. It felt quite lonely, so I eventually made the decision to leave, after nearly 20 years studying and working at the university.
It wasn’t easy (still isn’t), and this is why I like to share this perspective. Maybe it can save some heartache and financial hardship to a few people.
I think the real advice is that you shouldn’t do post-graduate studies unless it’s paid for, comes with a stipend, or comes with an assistantship. Too many people (including myself) have paid for advanced degrees out of pocket only to find that they were pure coursework with no tangible experience.
The other piece of advice that isn’t often given is that post-graduate work really is training for jobs in academia. If that’s not where you want to end up, then those degrees are rarely useful (outside of academia). There are a few fields where masters-level is required for entry level jobs, but setting your course for a PhD is really a course to an academic post.
Exactly, but even if your tuition is paid for with a grant, alongside a stipend, I would argue against pursuing a PhD, with the only exception being when you want a job in academia, like you said. The amount of money you’ll be making in academia is absolute peanuts compared to the industry, and the same goes for relevant work experience.
Personally, I had to get a grant with a stipend, or else I wouldn’t be able to afford it. I also got to lecture as an invited assistant for a year, but I never really wanted to teach. I wanted to dedicate myself to research, but I quickly realized nobody around me was actually trying to push the boundaries of knowledge and, instead of discussing ideas, learning from each other, and taking some freakin’ risks, what I found was a lot of ass kissing, and seniors constantly doing paperwork to get funding, while delegating research to students. Everything that mattered to me felt secondary to everybody else. It felt quite lonely, so I eventually made the decision to leave, after nearly 20 years studying and working at the university.
It wasn’t easy (still isn’t), and this is why I like to share this perspective. Maybe it can save some heartache and financial hardship to a few people.