7 ms·
Eh, there's a lot of good in academia too. It's just the people who have good experiences are busy with their lives for the most part. My experience was great.
by rubidium 11y ago
Eh, there's a lot of good in academia too. It's just the people who have good experiences are busy with their lives for the most part.
My experience was great. I got paid to do 6 years of learning and experimental work by the government (thank you DOD and NSF) on the coldest states of matter in the universe. I traveled the world for free and hang out with Nobel prize winners. I was surrounded by bright and a few world-class brilliant people. I didn't have any real deadlines. I got to write and publish papers trying to explain my work.
Now, the post-doc/professor rat race is only for those who are truly called to the field. My plan was PhD->industry the whole time.
- arjunrc 11y agoMind if you share the University you went to? I'm a Post Grad from Gatech myself, and from what I've seen this wasn't the norm. Also, I wonder how different the pay/career options are for a PhD in industry vs. having a Masters in the same field.
- arcanus 11y agoI had a similar experience to rubidium. (Texas Ph.d., here, although in computational science, not a vile experimentalist ;) ) I've seldom seen an argument suggesting that the pay between Ph.d. and masters is substantial, or even advantageous (on average). Ph.d. is about becoming an expert and leader in a research field. It is not about the $$ or ROI. On the other hand, in terms of career options, the differences are often quite substantial. Ph.d. is much more likely to be in a small research team than in the line of fire for a deliverable. Much more likely to be working in a laboratory somewhat independently/autonomously. Because of the predilection towards independent, high-risk/reward work, I have seen some recruiters and VP/engineering who are hesitant to add doctorates to typical engineering teams, as they gravitate towards different sorts of problems.