Why should you (or not) do a PhD?

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*edited for grammar

I often talk with my friends, peers, and research mates on reasons they chose to do a PhD and what they want to do afterwards, and more often then not I have been disheartened by their reply. It’s not that I believe their reason for choosing a PhD is wrong, but more so by how often their reply changes. And the thing is, it’s not their fault.

Personally, I took a 6 month leave of absence from my program because I was so stressed and worried about my future thinking how such a program would help me achieve my dreams and goals. Overall, however, after asking a few questions and rephrasing my perspective on what a PhD program is, I concluded that I wanted to return to the program.

Below I attempt to elucidate common reasons people choose to do a doctorate program, as well as how I believe people should rephrase the question and what they should expect to gain from a PhD program.

Reasons people choose to do a PhD

As expected one of the most common reasons people choose to do a PhD is because they want to become a professor. They want to teach and mentor a class of college students and feel the satisfaction of helping them. But it’s important to make a distinction. Do you enjoy the act of teaching and mentoring, or do you enjoy the act of researching, discovering, and understanding how the world works. Because depending on your answer, a job in a National Lab would be more suitable for you.

While I do respect candidates that desire to become a Professor I feel dispirited by the idea that they do. Times are different from the past where getting a tenure track position straight out of a getting your doctorate was a possibility. According to this article (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/upshot/so-many-research-scientists-so-few-openings-as-professors.html), the best case scenario (the biological sciences) for every 1 tenure track job there is, 5.3 people miss out. The math simply doesn’t add up, and the job prospect in this field is simply dismal. So unless you have a heart of platinum and are willing to sacrifice much of your life for a chance of becoming a tenured professor, choosing to do a PhD doesn’t seem like the right choice for you.

Another reason people choose to do a PhD is because they want better job prospects. They want to become the head researcher of companies like Google, Apple, Dupont, and whatever you can think of, or high governmental positions like policy analysts. And while I think this is a great reason for choosing to do a PhD, it simply is not enough. Many seem to believe that getting a paper with a PhD on it is the ends to all their troubles in finding jobs. And while it may be helpful in showing that you have the necessary credentials to complete a job, it doesn’t guarantee upwards movement from there. A PhD is simply a title, and while it does offer credibility that you are an individual capable of harkening away 5 to 8 years of your life on a few projects, it doesn’t say much more. People who equate having a PhD with intelligence are simply incorrect, it simply means that they have more knowledge in one small particular area of research. To better understand my perspective for this portion you can check out the article here (https://medium.economist.com/why-doing-a-phd-is-often-a-waste-of-time-349206f9addb)

Rephrasing the PhD

So while in the above, I have mentioned the fallacies of reasons of people pursuing a PhD, I do believe there is a way to reconcile this thought.

More than anything, I believe that the successful mindset to a PhD is thinking of it as a program where you buy time with time. Nonsensical you might think, but I would argue otherwise. The time you pay and use on a PhD is the amount of hours you toil away in research for the project you (probably chosen for you by your professor) chose. It’s the frustration and excitement and stress you accumulate for 5 to 8 years on something which you (hopefully) think is useful. But from the PhD you get a set of technical skills that can be applied for the job you are interested in. But this is like many other jobs, just that they would probably be paid significantly more. But unlike traditional jobs, a PhD also offers flexibility and resources that no other job can mimic. You get to set the deadlines for projects, as well as choose how to complete the project. You get to tailor which set of skills you want as well as when you work. You get to meet with peers who are still excited as well as stay within a school environment. The responsibilities you have are minimal and this is what makes the PhD program so great.

One could definitely argue that time in college is similar, and I wouldn’t disagree with that even a wee bit. Just that I tend to believe that students in college tend to not know what they want. They tend to go with the flow and worry about the next internship they need to get, the next assignment, test and exam they need to ace, all to ultimately get a reasonable paying job for who knows what. Therefore, despite the many similarities between undergraduate and a PhD program, I would argue that because a PhD is undertaken when a person has a better understanding of what they want to do in the world, it is a significantly better and more fulfilling experience.

So that leads me to my overarching advice.

You can do a PhD if you are dead set on becoming a Professor. You can do a PhD if the job you really want requires a minimum education of a doctorate. But do remember that a PhD can also be the time you are looking to get to learn the skills and knowledge of a field or fields you want for whatever you think is interesting. But remember not to simply do a PhD for the sake of doing it, and never think that a PhD is there to pigeonhole you into some certain job. On the contrary it is there to open you up for the myriad of things that you can try.

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