How tricky is a career change to academia whilst/after starting a family?

[Cerulean60]

Hi all,

I'm 31 and intending to start a family in the next few years. I got my first degree a decade ago but studied for an MSc Psychology conversion course more recently, via part-time evening study (alongside full time work) and I got a Distinction. I now really miss academia. My current job is fine but when I look back over the last few years, it's the MSc I'm most proud of.

Every few weeks or so I think about doing another, more specialist MSc or even doing a PhD (in Psychology). The idea of working as an academic one day really appeals - I'd love to look back on my career and say 'I contributed to this body of research' or 'I inspired these students'.

An obvious challenge is the financial one - I'm used to earning a lot more than a PhD student/junior academic, and I know doing a PhD takes a lot of personal resilience, but I've heard there are other challenges too even after the PhD - fixed term job contracts, competition for funding, having to move around the country a lot depending where the opportunities are... I've no idea what the working hours are like, whether universities offer flexible working, whether you can take maternity leave during a PhD or early academic career, whether PhDs and post-doc roles are really designed for people in their 20s with no other commitments?

If anyone has any good insights I'd really appreciate hearing them.

Many thanks

I also wanted to add that I do only have a 2:2 in my first degree (completely unrelated subject, and it was at least a high 2:2!). I don't know how relevant that will be given it was so long ago, and I've achieved so much more since then.

The 'perfect' career path would be -
PhD at a Russell group uni (3 yrs + a bit)
postdoc at a different university (2-6 years)
lectureship in Psychology (phew, a permanent job) with a mix of teaching & research.

but only about 5% of people who start a science PhD end up with a permanent job. Most switch to something else at some point along that route.

In terms of family / maternity leave, in theory academic is very flexible. universities mostly have reasonable mat leave policies (for postdocs). For PhD students, you might not get any funding when you are off or you might get some depending on your funder. Once you have a lectureship, you can be very flexible with your working hours, which means that you are free to take Tuesday morning off to see your child's school play, but also that you'll probably be back at a laptop for the 9-11pm shift to reply to emails. I find it is much more family-friendly than my contemporaries in law/ finance / 9-5 office jobs, but that might not be saying much.

The 2:2 may make it difficult. I’m not sure about psychology, but in my field most PhD funding is dependent on a 2:1 or first.

This needs subject specific advice really. My area has lots of postdoc positions but almost no lectureship posts; others may be different. I love my job, and it fits brilliantly with the family, but I have little teaching. Is there a psychology lecturer or your msc supervisor you could approach for more discussion?