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Apply for jobs is way easier than candidacy and comps, not to mention a dissertation. I stopped after my masters, bought a house, and had 2 phd candidate frien

Apply for jobs is way easier than candidacy and comps, not to mention a dissertation. I stopped after my masters, bought a house, and had 2 phd candidate friends move in with me (we live in a city with a university). They tried to tell me that grad school was harder than the real world. I argued that its easier citing my experience in grad school and now the real world. I put in a solid 40 hours a week. In grad school, I was at the office roughly 50-60 but it was largely unproductive. I find that graduate labs encourage bad habits like staying up too late to fix a problem that could be easily fixed in the morning after a good night sleep. To prove to my friends that grad school was easier than the real world, I offered to drive them to university everyday and pick them up on my way home. I noticed that neither of them worked while at home. After the first week of a straight 40 hours, they were exhausted. After a month of this, they found another ride to school because they said working a straight 8 hour everyday was too much!

morgante 10y ago
> Apply for jobs is way easier than candidacy and comps, not to mention a dissertation. They're different skills. I certainly would find getting into a PhD problem much harder than getting a job. But I've spent most of my undergraduate career working and networking—and my GPA/research reflects that. On the other hand, many of my friends never realized that the real world isn't a series of hoops. They've done great academically (3.9+ GPA, serious research with professors) but neglected to develop any real hard skills or to learn about employability. So the job market is incredibly intimidating to them, while a PhD looks like another series of hoops, which is comforting. > I argued that its easier citing my experience in grad school and now the real world. I have no idea what grad school is like, but I do think that the "real world" is a lot easier than undergrad. With jobs, you have a defined amount of work to do each day and have loads of free time to do whatever you want with. Whereas academics have a limitless supply of potential things to do, without defined hours. But maybe that's just because I've always loved work a lot more than school.

morgante 10y ago

> Apply for jobs is way easier than candidacy and comps, not to mention a dissertation. They're different skills. I certainly would find getting into a PhD problem much harder than getting a job. But I've spent most of my undergraduate career working and networking—and my GPA/research reflects that. On the other hand, many of my friends never realized that the real world isn't a series of hoops. They've done great academically (3.9+ GPA, serious research with professors) but neglected to develop any real hard skills or to learn about employability. So the job market is incredibly intimidating to them, while a PhD looks like another series of hoops, which is comforting. > I argued that its easier citing my experience in grad school and now the real world. I have no idea what grad school is like, but I do think that the "real world" is a lot easier than undergrad. With jobs, you have a defined amount of work to do each day and have loads of free time to do whatever you want with. Whereas academics have a limitless supply of potential things to do, without defined hours. But maybe that's just because I've always loved work a lot more than school.