to ask if you have a PhD?

[Morgan12]

Looking for advice basically. I'm seriously considering applying for a PhD which hopefully will be funded by the uni as I can't afford the tuition fees (based in Scotland).

I was just wondering if you have one then do you think it was worth the hard work? Did it help your career?

Ideally I'd like a career in academia so would be great to hear from people in this field. If you would be willing to disclose what you earn then please do, even a ballpark figure. What are your day to day duties like etc?

Just really any experiences of PhD study welcome. I need to make a decision asap.

i dont but my DP does and he is a lecturer and earns 7 times what i do if you can go for it i would say yes do it hard work but worth it, i stopped at BA level and wish i had the chance to go further but circumstances stopped me

I do and I have a good job but I don’t think my PhD helped me get it. It’s in a scientific field but a very different one than my PhD.

If you can get if funded and are interested in academia then you would be crackers not to as you will struggle without it. Good luck!

I have a PhD and yes it's been very valuable (essential actually) for my career (I work in a quantitive field which isn't directly related to my PhD but which tends to hire people at PhD level). In scientific fields there are a number of careers for which a PhD is advantageous and in some cases essential.

I would be very aware if you're thinking about academia that many more people graduate with PhDs than can find postdocs and even fewer who will end up eventually with permanent positions so you certainly shouldn't bank on that career path. If you are successful it may well also involve many temporary two-year moves (possibly internationally).

I think you also need to be prepared mentally and emotionally that research, especially initially can be incredibly frustrating - you can work on what you think is a great idea for 3 months only to find it leads nowhere. You can bang your head against a problem for months without getting anyway and have to be incredibly persistent.

That said if it's a subject you're passionate about and you have realistic career aspirations (these will obviously depend massively on which PhD you do) I do think it's worth it.

I'm in the process of writing up my PhD. I've been offered a job for £36k in defence (Science degree + funded PhD).

BTW, would not have got anywhere near the seniority (or pay!) without a PhD.

I have one and so does DH. It was hard work, but personally I found my MSc harder. I found the time for quite a bit of fun and socialising during my PhD!
Both me and DH ended up in public sector jobs in related fields. 10 years later DH is still doing the same thing at a more senior level and earns around £35k. I moved into a more managerial side of things (but still in the same area) and earn £45k. So we're doing well now but we both racked up debts during our studies which I've only just paid off. I definitely think our qualifications helped us get the jobs we have, and they're still helping our careers to progress.

Has anyone done a PhD just because they were interested in a topic or wanted to do the work for the sake of the work?

Do all PhDs involve teaching?

I have a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry. I got it in 2009. I opted to do it partly cos I had wanted to do one since I was small, but also cos I loved doing practical lab work (or so I thought), and wasn't sure I was ready to enter the world of work.

Overall, mine was 4 years of depressing hard work in a competitive academic environment with lots of men who liked to postulate and compete for alpha roles. I considered quitting twice, but I soldiered through. It killed off any desires I had to work in research. At my interview I remember one of the Professors asking me how I dealt with stress, pressure and lack of progress in research... I never realised what she meant until a year later...

Despite the toll on my emotional health at the time (and it was a massive toll and I was VERY unhappy), I would say that it was worth it over all. Even if you end up hating your area of research, universities are great places to explore other skills, like teaching, technical writing, presenting, working autonomously, self motivation etc... With the wealth of unreliable information available to us now, simply knowing how to research a topic properly is a great skill for the future.

Universities are very different experience to the world of work. 10 years later I don't work in field related to chemistry at all anymore, but I have developed a lot of fundamental skills that started from those PhD days.... and I still know a lot about drugs!

I say do it. Just be brave, extract as much as you can from the opportunity and be prepared for it to be shit at points.

Academia is fiendishly hard to succeed in, especially if you’re not a white male. It’s also very unstable- short term contracts are the norm and you spend your life scrabbling for grants. The successful lecturer/professors are the lucky few- academia is essentially a giant pyramid scheme with lots of phds and postdocs who get spat out in their 40s (when they become too expensive for grants). Success is also driven by luck and who you know as much as innate talent. I would look into what the people who have completed phds with the same supervisor have gone on to do, and see if that appeals, but think really hard about whether you want to go into academia. It will be a slog with no guarantee of reward.

My experience is in the sciences btw

Do bear in mind that getting a job in academia is not easy and having a PhD is the bare minimum, not a guarantee. Obviously the availability of jobs depends on the exact field, but across the board there are far more good candidates than jobs available, and it's common for people to spend years in fixed term and poorly paid positions (often hourly paid or term-time only), or are expected to move cities/countries every year or two to find employment while waiting to get a break. This isn't meant to put you off PhD study itself, but I do think too many academics don't properly warn their students of the reality of an academic career. I'd say do it if you are passionate about the topic and want to do the research in its own right, but unless it's in a field with lots of industry spinoffs there's no guarantee it will necessarily lead to anything career-wise.

I do - I graduated in 2011, physical sciences.

It's really hard to say whether it's worth it without knowing more about your personal circumstances. If you want an academic position it's pretty essential, but it takes much more than a PhD to get your foot in the door (a combination of excellence and luck in terms of who you work for and how you make your name).

It's a pretty hard slog to be honest. I completed mine in a little over 3 years (from day 1 to submitted thesis), and that was only possible by making it pretty much the #1 priority. I think it would be much harder to work in the way that I did with the young family I now have. That wouldn't mean it was impossible though, just that I would expect 4+ years to be more realistic. But this depends on field quite a lot, i'm talking about a lab-based PhD here.

I left the lab in 2012, and have had a series of research support/management-type posts since. I wouldn't say I have a massively high salary as a result of my PhD - it's a good wage, but most of the roles I've done haven't required the PhD as an essential criteria. My personal qualities of being motivated, efficient, and organised have been far more useful to my career than anything else. Completing a PhD requires tenacity and resilience, and sometimes a thick skin, but it's also a time of enormous freedom with the right supervisor.

My BIL has an MSc, but no PhD, has a job in industry (same scientific field, broadly speaking) with a similar level of seniority (he's a little higher I suppose), but earns 2x my salary. DH is a senior academic and again earns 2x my salary.

I think you also need to be prepared mentally and emotionally that research, especially initially can be incredibly frustrating - you can work on what you think is a great idea for 3 months only to find it leads nowhere. You can bang your head against a problem for months without getting anyway and have to be incredibly persistent.

This. One thousand times over I agree with BigBagOfJelly. Its a long ride to the write up and viva...

Also, like Germ1360 I never would have gotten my first job without it. My first job was in scientific software, and not related to my research at all.

I've just started mine. Fully funded. Tbh my funding application (internal) was so incredibly hard and stressful that the PhD itself feels like a walk in the park. (I appreciate it's early days).

Make sure you have a fantastic supervisor and are insanely passionate about your subject. Although I would like to work in academia, doing mine was a no brainer, as it always me to be extremely flexible with childcare and yet still pays way more than jobs I could have got that would have afforded me similar school hour flexibility. Plus I love it. Plus at the end when people say 'is it Miss or Mrs?' I can say 'it's Dr actually'

*allows not always

If you definitely want a career in academia then you need one. Bear in mind academics need to publish well, best quality journals for any recognition and to not be essentially on performance improvement. You'll need to teach lots, do loads if research and admin and be good at all of it. You'll need to be successful at getting grants which is hard so you'll need to piggy back into a really good team and work your way up with their support, unless you're really good and have a very good flare for what you're doing.

It's not an easy option by far!

I have a PhD in medical research but after having babies I moved into university management which I love, but it's far less crazy on my time and life in general It don't need a PhD, but it helps as I understand the stuff I'm managing (many many research grants and people / students etc)

I've got one and I wouldn't be doing the job I do today without it. It was incredibly boring and frustrating though after the initial excitement wore off, and despite doing it because I wanted to be an academic, the whole experience put me off (it may have just been my department but I was surprised by how back stabby the place was and how many of the (mainly) men that worked there were arrogant mysogynists).

I didn't do any teaching whilst doing mine starry.

I'm a senior lecturer and don't have a PhD so you don't always need one. I know I'm unlikely to be promoted beyond current role but I'm ok with that. Top of my pay band is 52k a year, though I'm not at the top of my band yet.

I love my job, I'm on a teaching contract so no pressure for research/publishing. I teach a couple of hours most days and apart from that also meet students, do marking, reading, prepare for teaching, meetings, admin.

Based on US data but the pattern is similar here:
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/04/bad-job-market-phds/479205/

There are a lot more PhDs than academic jobs.
Science , tech, economics PhDs have much better prospects than humanities and arts

@Morgan12

What is your field and what are your aspirations?

Just to give a different perspective, I want to do doctoral study (I'm in education) and a few years ago was preferred candidate for a PhD which didn't get funded at the last step which worked out well as I secured a big promotion at the same time.

I don't want to be a pure researcher; I want to stretch myself to that level of study and build skills which I can use in research and practice/management so I'm about to start a professional doctorate this month.

It's the same level of study but the focus is for people working in their area and developing leadership coaching and critical thinking as well as being able to research. It's not for everyone but depending on your area and what you want to do it might be worth a look.

It's designed to work around full time work as well.

Has anyone done a PhD just because they were interested in a topic or wanted to do the work for the sake of the work?

Me. I thought I had something worth saying and so that's why I did it. Lost sight of that a bit in the middle. It was hard and it was hard to stay motivated for years, so do bear that in mind.

I did do a small amount of teaching at the beginning, and some other part-time work later on.

I don't but my husband does. Having seen him do it, I have no such ambitions! I don't have the self discipline to slog for 4 years on one topic.

If you haven't done any post-grad work before, you could consider a taught masters as a first step. They are still pretty full-on but only for a year (if full time) and you get to do a big dissertation at the end. They have a much smaller drop out rate than PhDs and they can open the door to careers in related fields. Careers that you might not even know exist, yet, but that might be a good match to you if you're interested in the field.