3 ms·

Did you jump out of a PhD? I'm going into my fourth year now and just feel like I'm stagnating and not being challenged in my lab anymore. I've been thinking

by djaque 6y ago

Did you jump out of a PhD? I'm going into my fourth year now and just feel like I'm stagnating and not being challenged in my lab anymore. I've been thinking about the quote "If you're the smartest guy in the room then you're in the wrong room" lately. At this point both of my PIs and my lab manager have openly told me that I'm the strongest member of the lab. I know it's not just me anymore and I feel like I want to get out and move on to someplace where I can grow, but also don't want to waste the four years that I have invested towards a PhD. What was your experience?

lazyjones 6y ago
> Did you jump out of a PhD? Yes, sort of ... I was planning an academic career and had a 4 year contract teaching and researching at uni while doing my PhD, but failed to get the PhD in that time (because of lack of motivation / other interests and projects). Never really got the hang of focusing on churning out papers, enjoyed teaching and short-lived research more. Didn't get along too well with the (much older) colleagues at the dept. either. After that, I freelanced for a year, during that time I got a great job offer at an EA company for game development but decided not to move to the US for it. A few months later I got talked into accepting VC for one of my hobby projects, so the company was founded. The 4 years I "wasted" were at least somewhat formative and I would have regretted not getting a taste of academia. In the end, entrepreneurship was a good fit for my personality, the joy of doing exactly what I wanted and getting very positive feedback, validation and compensation just from making my work available to the public was the best reward. At hindsight, trying more things and getting more industry experience as an employee would have been useful, but I can't complain.

3 ms·

Did you jump out of a PhD? I'm going into my fourth year now and just feel like I'm stagnating and not being challenged in my lab anymore. I've been thinking

by djaque 6y ago

lazyjones 6y ago
> Did you jump out of a PhD? Yes, sort of ... I was planning an academic career and had a 4 year contract teaching and researching at uni while doing my PhD, but failed to get the PhD in that time (because of lack of motivation / other interests and projects). Never really got the hang of focusing on churning out papers, enjoyed teaching and short-lived research more. Didn't get along too well with the (much older) colleagues at the dept. either. After that, I freelanced for a year, during that time I got a great job offer at an EA company for game development but decided not to move to the US for it. A few months later I got talked into accepting VC for one of my hobby projects, so the company was founded. The 4 years I "wasted" were at least somewhat formative and I would have regretted not getting a taste of academia. In the end, entrepreneurship was a good fit for my personality, the joy of doing exactly what I wanted and getting very positive feedback, validation and compensation just from making my work available to the public was the best reward. At hindsight, trying more things and getting more industry experience as an employee would have been useful, but I can't complain.