to ask how is life after a PhD?

[AteRiri]

Work prospects?

What's the reality of life after completing a PhD?

Science PhD here. As an idealistic 20 something I thought I wanted a career in academia but soon realised that I wasn't enough of a masochist. Now have a v specialised role in commercial sector which needed a PhD for a foot in the door but really the PhD was zero preparation for the real world. I do have colleagues who managed to get in with just a Masters and kind of wish I had done that and not lost two years I could have been earning proper money/ climbing the ladder in chosen industry pre kids.

Computer Science PhD here - but I'm an academic. That said, my PhD students have gone on to very good research positions (in UX) in multinationals where the role depended on them having a PhD.

Mine was essential to get me into my first job in academia, but after five years of struggling through post doc short term contracts I gave up. Much saner and happier now, although I do sometimes feel like I've wasted a lot of time and money and no one calls me 'doctor' anymore.

Mine was in modern languages and, to be honest, I wasn't totally sure what I wanted to do afterwards. After an MLitt, a funded PhD really seemed like the best option so I did it. I knew about halfway through that I didn't want to go into academia but was pretty stressed and worried about what I'd do afterwards, if maybe I'd been really stupid and shot myself in the foot.

I now work in student support at a RG university and I love it. It's a permanent, full time post. I could have been earning more by this age had I not done the PhD but doing the PhD was what got me the contacts that led me to this job, and I'm proud that I did it. So for me, life after a PhD is, in short, better than life during one!

My PhD is nothing more than pretty letters at the end of my name. I hated doing it.

I think it helped me get early promotions purely because it was impressive and not because the qualifications enabled me to perform better. It has the same effect (in my field) as an OBE or similar.

I don't work in academia and, as I said, don't use my academic expertise in any shape or form.

My PhD helped me gain experience in research & teaching which led to post doc research and a lectureship. But I knew I wanted to be an academic so never really considered or investigated the perceived commercial worth of a doctorate. If you plan to be academic then, certainly in my Uni, a PhD is essential.

Science PhD here. I was assured that to get any job in my scientific field, I would need a PhD. Not knowing what else to do, I did one, met DH and had DS not long after finishing. Now I can't land a job because I have no experience so no one is willing to employ me part time and I have a DS with SN who I can't put into after school care. So I'm a sahm. I would have been better off getting a job straight after my masters.

Not to hijack the thread completely, but Godstopper did you know that Two Ticks has been replaced? Found out when trying to figure out why I hadn't been shortlisted, despite having excellent teaching stats, a full REF 2020 submission with spares, plus lots of impact shite: very few universities are yet enrolled or whatever on the new scheme - and it turns out that, by and large, they would rather not have those with disabilities

OP - I'm socsci (economics) but I'd still recommend doctoral work only if you can't imagine not doing it: otherwise, it will be an even more gruesome experience than it already is (DPhil + 20/PhD DNC + 8)

I think I would much rather go into industry than academia. Also, I'll be almost 40 when I finish my masters.

I had a different career path before, which involved long studying too. Decided to do something else when I moved to another country. Got exposed to PhDs through my research internship and thought, hey this must be cool. But of course I'm aware that the people I work with are the creme dela creme so was wondering what's life for most PhD holders. Someone told me if you work in academia you need to be able to bring in money through grants, etc in order to have tenure.

Science PhD here, working in industry. Academia in my field is very much based on grant writing (and publication record, which depends on getting the grants in the first place). I would look at what you think you want to be doing in 5 years, would a PhD help it or would a masters be fine, but also think about whether the PhD is something you are interested in doing in itself rather than just a means to an end.

think about whether the PhD is something you are interested in doing in itself rather than just a means to an end.

Absolutely... thats probably easier when you're a freshly-minted graduate though. I did my PhD because I was able to choose an area I was interested in, during which I was able to branch into writing code sort of for fun and that was what lead to a job at 25 ... couldn't have predicted I'd still be doing it at 56!

If I had my time again I would have carried on as a post-doc, try to write every last scrap of work up as a paper, build up a bigger publication list and apply to every lectureship going. And think seriously about moving abroad (although I think me, DP and 3 DC dodged a bullet as we were on the point of moving to the USA but changed our minds at the last minute).
As it turned out I was able to make the change from academia to industry, and I could not have landed the job without a PhD, but it was a huge culture shock.
But make the choice between academia and industry sooner rather than later.

I have a life sciences PhD and every job I've had since (6 of them over 20 years - three academic and three industry) has required it. I am now a Director in a small biotech and it's brilliant.

Nearly all our staff have PhDs....

However, it sounds like Masters/MBA might be a great combination for OP.

Also, I have never had any publication.

Publications are important, aren't they? Or does that depend on the field of study? For law you need lots.

Publications are important, yes.

It has been really useful for my job but I would choose carefully.
Also if you don't get good publications as a result it is pretty bad in terms of selling yourself in the job market.
Subject, quality of research and uni reputation in the subject are critical.

I've just been reminded by another thread that the other tangential advantage of a PhD is it avoids the issue of your honorific revealing your sex and marital status