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> Go into grad school and pursue a PHD because you've got a burning desire to turn one of your good ideas into a breakthrough. I don't think many supervisors w
by anjc 6y ago
> Go into grad school and pursue a PHD because you've got a burning desire to turn one of your good ideas into a breakthrough.
I don't think many supervisors will let you do this. 1) you'll need to find someone who has funding and already works in the area of your good idea 2) people overestimate how much they can do during a PhD 3) you probably aren't aware of the field coming out of undergrad 4) not a lot of theses will ever be read outside of the examiners, let alone be a breakthrough.
I'd say do a PhD if you feel like it, you can work for years on mundane tasks that likely wont culminate in a breakthrough, aren't prone to depression/stress, and don't care about money.
- rapjr9 6y agoI second this. I worked for several professors over 20 years as a software programmer at an ivy league college, mostly working alongside grad students. The grad students had to fight to get to work on their own projects or do them in secret. Collaborating with someone without getting the approval of your advisor was often considered a betrayal and would get shut down as soon as discovered. If you weren't interested in the advisors projects they would not take you on. Post docs were treated even worse. This isn't true of all advisors, but many of them are like this because they are trying to build their own reputations using your work (their name goes on all your papers). If you really want to work on your own thing be up front about it; otherwise you'll spend the entire time doing things you're not interested in and which will define the kinds of jobs you can get afterwards.