Age and PhD

[FreeNiki]

At what point does it become pointless to do a PhD?

Assuming you wanted to do something with it and use it towards a career is there a point on age at which it is literally pointless?

She does have an offer of funding but as said it's not huge. Works out about £1100 a month.

It's standard. She needs to adjust her perceptions of academia if she's bothered by the money.

BTW, most research councils in the UK give allow maternity - the clock stops on your candidature - but as far as I know, it's not paid maternity leave. Because it's a studentship or stipend, not a salary.

If your friend wants a job in management, has an MBA, but can't get work, I wouldn't trust to a PhD delivering the magic ... There is something else that's not quite right,looking from the outside and with the information you've given.

I agree, if she has qualifications but not great hands on work experience, then the solution is probably not another block out of employment to study!

Also, if she's only doing the phd as a means to an end she'll probably hate doing it, they're hard enough as it is!

TBH it sounds likes something I'ld do: study to avoid adult life, but as you get older you have to be careful with things like pension contributions and benefits etc

If her PhD is research council funded then she will be entitled to mat leave( I don't think it is much). It should come as part of other funding.

If it is a business type PhD and she has a MBA there could be good prospects of an academic career. However you need to be flexible in terms of location to get a job as academic jobs are very specialised. This is obviously harder to do with a small child.

Is her prior work experience in anyway relevant? Many of the people I know who did PhDs after 40 had previous work experience that if not directly relevant contributed to them getting a job that was not at the beginning. So if she has work experience in subject then a business for subject PhD could be very useful.

The one thing I will say about a pPhD is that it is emotionally hard and can be quite lonely as you do a lot of work by your self.

I finished my PhD at 30, but I did some lecturing while I researched to supplement my income and get work-experience. It is hard to find long-term, family-friendly contracts as a post-doc these days, and I was very miserable working in the ivory tower with bitchy back-stabbing academics after a while. A PhD is useful at any age if it is in a subject that the candidate finds intellectually challenging and achievable, but only if they have the stamina to finish it. I realised babies and short-term contracts were not compatible in my case, so I started my own business. I wouldn't be able to command the salary and demand from clients I do if I didn't have a PhD and teaching qualification. I don't think age is a factor with a PhD, but the PhD candidate has to be super-motivated to finish their studies and prepared for awful supervision which is common-place (the attrition rate in most subject-areas is terrible in the UK). I have personally turned down job applicants who are PhD drop-outs with otherwise rather attractive work history as I have wondered about their reliability, commitment etc. It is perhaps unfair, but a PhD should only be pursued by someone who really wants it, in a subject that interests them...it is just painful, lonely and soul-destroying otherwise. For some people looking for career enhancement, a professional doctorate is an alternative route.