In my mind it's far too easy to get onto a government funded PhD program.What do you mean? I might be being an idiot but I have no idea what you are on about.
Looking for career advice - PhD or job?
- Thread starter OpenToSuggestions
- Start date
In my mind it's far too easy to get onto a government funded PhD program.
Because there is a shortage of people qualified to even begin, let alone complete it.
Blergh, PhD
The thought of doing a PhD couldn't be less appealing to me. Essentially, you will be paid pittance to research something that anyone else could spend four years investigating. It's unlikely to be life changing. Furthermore, anyone else can use your knowledge in a practical sense after you have completed it.
The whole 'change the world' philosphy is a massive farce most of the time. When I studied biology I wanted to cure cancer. I then learned that if I took a PhD it would most likely be spending 4 years rearching one receptor on one protein out of a hundred that is produced in one stage of a life cycle of a fungus that nobody cares about and has no use.
Do you really want to spend four years of you life doing that? Really? Really really really?
Unless there are other factors influencing you and you are 100% sure it makes sense, avoid like the plague!
The thought of doing a PhD couldn't be less appealing to me. Essentially, you will be paid pittance to research something that anyone else could spend four years investigating. It's unlikely to be life changing. Furthermore, anyone else can use your knowledge in a practical sense after you have completed it.
The whole 'change the world' philosphy is a massive farce most of the time. When I studied biology I wanted to cure cancer. I then learned that if I took a PhD it would most likely be spending 4 years rearching one receptor on one protein out of a hundred that is produced in one stage of a life cycle of a fungus that nobody cares about and has no use.
Do you really want to spend four years of you life doing that? Really? Really really really?
Unless there are other factors influencing you and you are 100% sure it makes sense, avoid like the plague!
I don't know about that! There's plenty of people with degrees who got a 2:1 and above. The reason is largely a funding issue: departments, or groups within departments, often get funding contracts that stipulate that they take on X research students. If they don't fill the places, then most likely the funding will decrease in future years. If a department doesn't have a wealth of applications to fill the places, it's not in their interest to turn away people who might not be up to scratch.
However, this is just a personal gripe of mine and has nothing whatsoever to do with the OP. Well done to him for getting the PhD offer!
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Don't forget its tax free - so it's like earning what, 16-17k a year before tax?
[TW]Fox;18895963 said:
When you take into account that you're not paying council tax or making student loan payments it can look as high as around £24k before tax. Should say that probably involves some company top up on the basis stipend.
- Joined
- 3 May 2004
- Posts
- 17,723
- Location
- Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
If you're doing the PhD in a company, chances are you'll be there making a position for yourself later. The company almost certainly wants to move into that field in a few years and you're there laying the groundwork for it and you'll be the expert. Sustainability in engineering is such a new subject and industry is under so much pressure now to be sustainable they will lap up everything you do and you'll be the expert they go running to.
The flipside is it's not an EngD and you'll be doing academic research primarily. So to industry, the PhD is not quite as relevant out of the box. You can turn this around though by making sure what you're researching is on track with what the company wants to do in the future. It's also not paid as well. I don't know how old you are but have a think about whether you'll still want to be earning the equivalent of a 17K p/a job in three+ years.
That said, it is an opportunity you're not just given every day and it is a very rewarding process. Don't know what university w11tho is referring to but the University of Surrey EngD is massively in demand and they only take on the best of the best candidates. That's why I can't understand how I got on it
The flipside is it's not an EngD and you'll be doing academic research primarily. So to industry, the PhD is not quite as relevant out of the box. You can turn this around though by making sure what you're researching is on track with what the company wants to do in the future. It's also not paid as well. I don't know how old you are but have a think about whether you'll still want to be earning the equivalent of a 17K p/a job in three+ years.
That said, it is an opportunity you're not just given every day and it is a very rewarding process. Don't know what university w11tho is referring to but the University of Surrey EngD is massively in demand and they only take on the best of the best candidates. That's why I can't understand how I got on it
Associate
- Joined
- 17 Nov 2005
- Posts
- 931
Post Graduate work could not be anymore different from undergrad work to be honest, you are going to be mostly self-motivated in work, with an advisor who is there to make sure you are going in a good direction, pretty much like a boss, if you want to stretch the analogy researchers are pretty much employees doing their work, but the work is more open-ended and focused into a specific area.
If he was doing the PhD with the company I wouldn't have been quite so damning, but on what he said it looks like the company isn't involved.
- Joined
- 5 Aug 2006
- Posts
- 11,434
- Location
- Derbyshire
My placement company who sponsor me for my B Eng are not interested in the PhD.
The PhD would likely be working with a huge US manufacturer on the sustainability of manufacturing.
Whether my piece of research is what a company needs or not, I would still have deep knowledge on the sustainability as a whole and the world needs to ditch the make it, use it, burn/bury it philosophy as we are running out of everything, fast!
Do you think it is ok to accept the PhD then if a company offers me something good then I could pull out of it?
(not that I would accept it with the intention to pull out!).
Absolutely. Look out for your own interests and not the uni/company's. You might end up burning some bridges though so be aware of that.
This about sums up my PhD experience. I doubt very much my work on a particular aspect, of a particular model of dark energy will ever be looked at by anyone. However, the skills I learnt while doing it were worth it in the long run.
But surely you knew this when you chose the topic? I'm researching new multiphase-fluid dynamics models, which I'll implement into the departmental CFD code. This will hopefully help lots of people in the future as they will use the code to run their own simulations. I'm sure I'll balls up the coding somewhere though, so might be more of a hindrance
Yeah, I was more referring to when I was 11 and wanted to discover something new, maybe have a physical law named after me
When I got to the stage of applying for PhD positions I knew that the knowledge added would be minimal.Yeah, I was more referring to when I was 11 and wanted to discover something new, maybe have a physical law named after me
Ahaha
Seeing as you're a real physicist, do you never look at laws and think "if I was around 200 years ago, I would have derived that"? I used to think it was more worrying when the answer is "no", but I've accepted that Navier and Stokes were far greater fluid mechanists than myself I imagine I'll be in a similar predicament in two years time. Have you done any research before? I'm spending the much of this summer developing a model of graphene oxide, I plan to use my experience as a basis on whether to pursue a career in research or a job.
Yeah, I was more referring to when I was 11 and wanted to discover something new, maybe have a physical law named after me
doing a PhD is not about the subject or the specific knowledge you get - you won't discover anything amazing, its never going to happen. what you will do is learn how to do research properly, get the experience of your supervisor and colleagues - that is invaluable.