7 ms·

This is really cool. I'm 30 right now, and only just recently finished my bachelors and have been looking to get a PhD, but it's really hard to find a program

• snake42 5y ago
  Where I work allows full-time employees to get their PHD and also gives some paid time to write your thesis. You can also propose research projects that align with your thesis topic. Edit: Also tuition is free. https://careers.gtri.gatech.edu/en-us/listing/ https://careers.gtri.gatech.edu/en-us/listing/
  • jrumbut 5y ago
    Wow I thought my employer (Massachusetts) had been generous just allowing it and paying for it, but time to write your thesis? That's a great opportunity and I hope someone goes for it.
    • snake42 5y ago
      Yeah it is a pretty nice place to work. Downside is that we are state employees, so salaries are lower than in industry (sometimes). I know several people I work with going this route right now, so some people do it!
• azhenley 5y ago
  Professor here. You definitely aren’t too old, but I would never take on a PhD student that wants to continue working elsewhere. A PhD is a full-time job. It took me 6.5 years and was hard enough with very little outside distractions.
  • lixtra 5y ago
    In many places of the world PhD candidates officially work 50% and more as teaching assistants, system admins or other vaguely related jobs. I see little scientific downside to work part time in a well paid related job instead.
  • dagw 5y ago
    I would never take on a PhD student that wants to continue working elsewhere We have several people at the company I work (in Sweden) doing their PhD part time. The company gets 'free' research in an area relevant to them and the university gets connections to industry and their research field tested on real world projects. Both se it as a win-win. This sort of arrangement seems quite common in Sweden I know several people who got their PhD this way.
  • soheil 5y ago
    Even if the work is related to the research?
    • kortilla 5y ago
      Yes. A phd has very little overlap with learning broad topics about a field (unlike masters and bachelors/associates). Unless your job is literally to do research on the subject of your dissertation, it will not help.
      • soheil 5y ago
        What about working harder than your peers? If you're 2x harder working than the avg phd student shouldn't you be able to dedicate half or a third of that time to work and still finish the phd in 5 years?
        • School-Cotton 5y ago
          How many PhD students have you known? The successful ones at least work extremely hard already; there is no such thing as working twice as hard as them.
• fortran77 5y ago
  He already had an MD and a Ph.D. in biochemestry....
• fouc 5y ago
  To me, 18-30 or even 18-35 is practically "young adult" these days.
• baby 5y ago
  Try France, it’s very common to do a PhD inside of a company.
  • skeeter2020 5y ago
    As stated above European PhD are not typically the same as North American PhDs. I've never seen a respected program here that allows for part-time let alone while holding down a full-time job.
    • chrisseaton 5y ago
      American PhD students spend half of their time doing irrelevant things like taught classes and teaching work. They only do three years of actual research like everyone else.
    • arpa 5y ago
      PhD is still a PhD in any continent. How academics organize their work is another question.
      • sytelus 5y ago
        It is actually not. Many 3 year PhD or part time ones are not recognized for immigration or jobs in USA.
        • arpa 5y ago
          It's immigration policy, not qualitative PhD difference.
        • JustFinishedBSG 5y ago
          1. PhD in the USAs are 3 years too if you count like europeans do (we don't include the masters) 2. Industrial PhDs are not part time PhDs, it's a different thing.
      • deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
• qxfys 5y ago
  A fellow PhD student here. Come to Sweden (or, rather, Nordic countries in general). There are a lot of opportunities as an industrial PhD student. There are at least 3 out of 10 PhD students in my group doing research while still working in the industry. Usually, the deal is 80% PhD and 20% industry, but I know someone doing 50:50.
  • boublepop 5y ago
    You don’t even need an industrial PhD. In Denmark at least, a PhD study is a paid position, essentially just a job that runs 3 years and results in handing in a PhD dissertation. It pays less than what you get in the industry, but very decently, so no need to balance multiple jobs, just focus on your research. The Industrial PhD pays the same here, so that’s mostly a position you would take if you specifically want to collaborate with a company on some research project, not something you do because of income considerations.
    • qxfys 5y ago
      Yup, that's correct. Maybe it depends on the field and the country, but I know some industrial PhD position pays a better salary than the one employed full time by the university. Not sure if it is considered to be "much", but at least around 20% more.
  • zmb_ 5y ago
    I would add a word of warning here. In the multiple research groups that I've worked in, the completion rate for industrial PhD students has been way less than 50%. The industry part (whether 20% or 50%) easily ends up being close to 100% in practice. And many industrial PhD positions only last a few years, after which you get a normal full-time position and are expected to finish the PhD on your free time. Realistically, this makes it practically impossible to conduct the kind of research that you need to get a PhD from top programs.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• eatYourFood 5y ago
  York University (UK) will let you do a part time distance PhD in computer science: https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/postgraduate/research-degrees/phd/?utm_source=prospectus&utm_medium=shortcut_link&utm_campaign=_pg_prospectus https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/postgraduate/research-degrees/phd/...
• qwerty456127 5y ago
  AFAIK at least on some European countries, especially in the east this is not so and used to be almost the opposite in the past. People are expected to upgrade from an engineer (~master) to a doctor (or a candidate of sciences first in some post-soviet countries) in parallel with their work as they gain real-life expertise and age. And in general I think it always is a great idea to study abroad (needless to say European universities are generally cheaper and easier to get in). So I think I would probably consider an European university if I were you.
• chmod775 5y ago
  > I'm 30 right now, and only just recently finished my bachelors and have been looking to get a PhD, but it's really hard to find a program that will let you work full time while doing it. I did a similar thing during my bachelor: working close to full time. I was essentially busy 14 hours a day, seven days a week. I was burned out within a year and switched to 20 hour weeks. Looking back I suspect that I suffered from somewhat severe lasting consequences for at least another two years and I don't think I've been quite the same person since. Be mindful of what you're doing. Your brain and body need downtime at some point.
• bumby 5y ago
  I know there are people pooh-pooh'ing the idea of pursuing a PhD while still working, but I think that's because they're just working from inflexible mental models. It can definitely be done, but you may have to think a bit outside traditional routes (which is seems like you're already doing). I started my program at an older age than you, so it can be done. One option is to look for a full-time job that does research but is also affiliated with a university. Think national laboratories or government positions. If you're smart about it, you may be able to make your full-time work count towards your thesis. Many of these affiliations also offer free/reduced tuition and you'll almost certainly be paid more than if you were a PhD student working for a university. Some will even pay your normal salary and allow you to take a year or more off to focus on school. The real difficulty is working a schedule that let's you take courses, but I suspect this is easier now with the amount of remote learning available. I'd also say to stay away from advisors who think there's only one way to skin this cat :-). It was my experience that they don't work as well with non-traditional students. To echo what was said elsewhere, advisors/programs that mandate a certain time commitment may be looking to burden you with ancillary duties that don't fit well with a non-traditional approach. Some programs would not admit me unless I was willing teach a certain number of classes, even though I was self funded through my employer. Some tried to force me into a resident status for the same reasons; there was an expectation of working on campus as a means of paying for my keep. I attribute most of these attitude's as a lazy way of thinking where they apply the same template to every student, but I think you can find an alternate path if you're willing to be a bit creative/resilient/persistent. Best of luck to you.
  • pge 5y ago
    When I worked at a DoD lab in the 90s, there were PhD students that were essentially employees. Their thesis work was directly tied to the lab’s work, and they were at the lab every day. I do not known the compensation arrangement, but it certainly appeared that they were paid as full-time employees (and may have been employed there before entering the PhD program). May be worth looking into something like that
    • nextos 5y ago
      Same is quite usual in some Cambridge University departments. Also worth mentioning Scandinavian and Swiss universities treat PhDs like a regular industry job (job contract, paid at an acceptable discount wrt industry, pension contribution & other perks). This is how it should be everywhere.
• liveoneggs 5y ago
  this is because PhD students are expected to be indentured servants to the tenured professors for, at least, five years
• throwaway6734 5y ago
  It's going to be incredibly difficult to do real research while working full time. Have you considered pursuing a research based master's first?
• jrumbut 5y ago
  I'm (counts on fingers) 33 now and am a few years into doing exactly what you're thinking of. I'm working full time and am probably going to finish within the next year and a half. My advice is to look at advisors who have a record of doing what you want to do or placing people where you want to go at schools that are a little bit down the rankings from the best possible place you could get into. My email is in my bio if you want to talk about it.
• jay3ss 5y ago
  I know of one person who worked part time in industry while obtaining a PhD (also part time) from a major university in the southern California region and another who is currently doing the same at a different major university in the same region. Both people were working for a very large, Fortune 200 company. At the time they were in their mid 20s but I was offered a similar path (I'm in my 30s), but I've since left the company
• whatsakandr 5y ago
  JHU has a "Doctrate of Engineering" program where you work full time. But you have to convince your employer to be able to work full time on a particular problem.
• miramardesign 5y ago
  im of the unpopular opinion that this is utterly stupid, the hard fact is our lives are time boxed and this guy is a waste of class room space and he will never put his skills to use since he'll die five minutes later.