It's been nearly 12 years since I started my PhD. That makes it sound like I'm still doing it! Don't worry; I'm not. Reflecting upon my time as a PhD candidate and subsequent time as a researcher in academia and private industry led me to thinking about things that I wish I had known before I started my PhD. These are not necessarily negatives or positives of doctoral education; they are just things I have observed that no one really talks about much. Well, I'm going to talk about them here. Most of these things can be seen as positives or negatives, depending upon your viewpoint. Hopefully this post helps aspirant doctoral students go into their PhD programs with their eyes wide open. So, without further ado, here they are: seven observations that will change the way you see doctoral education.
- A PhD is the beginning of life-long learning, not the end of your training. It took me a while to realise this one. Chances are in your postdoctoral career you'll end up switching fields once or twice and this will involve learning a many new techniques. You can't learn everything you need to know for your research career before you become 'Dr', so prepare yourself for a life of learning new things.
Negative: learning new things can be daunting, frustrating and time-consuming.
Positive: learning new things can be fun, if you approach it with a 'growth mindset'. - Academia is one of the most competitive work environments I can imagine. Because there is only a limited pot of money available to fund research, everyone is trying to outcompete everyone else to get it. I think this system hampers collaboration, which is a shame, but we haven't devised a better system yet. One of the worst things about this competitiveness is that even your friends are your competitors. While you're doing your PhD, hopefully you'll form a tight network of friends who are also getting PhDs. It is a very strange feeling when your friends become competitors for grants and employment opportunities.
Negative: competitiveness can be stressful and sour friendships if you let it.
Positive: competitiveness brings out the best in all of us if we let it. - As a postdoctoral employee, you will spend a large portion of your early (and perhaps mid) career on short-term contracts. This was something that hit me like a ton of bricks in the 3rd year of my PhD. Until then I had been under the blissful delusion that spending eight years of my life getting a degree would lead to stable employment. Boy, was I wrong. Since graduating, I have been on short-term contracts (2-3 years) in academia. I was able to secure an ongoing position in private industry but I had to leave that role to further my career.
Negative: lack of ongoing employment can be stressful.
Positive: you'll most likely get to work in a bunch of different labs and build your professional network before settling into an ongoing position. - Publications are currency. There is an old adage among academics: "Publish or perish". I can confirm, it's absolutely true. If you want to stay an academic, you'll have to be churning out research and review papers at a pretty high rate. From my understanding, a junior 100 % research tenure-track faculty member is expected to produce about four papers per year. So to be a successful academic scientist, you not only have to love research and be good at that, but you also have to love writing about it or find yourself postdocs who love writing about it!
Negative: the pressure to constantly publish research to continue in academia can be extremely stressful. Also, sadly, this pressure can lead to the publication of 'bite-sized chunks' of research, rather than complete stories.
Positive: the pressure to publish forces you to sharpen your critical thinking, research, writing and time-management skills. - The salaries are comparatively low, considering the amount of training. It's going to be hard to find a positive for this one. If you complete a PhD you will have spent 8-10 years at university and you might be tempted to think that this will lead to an attractive salary package. Eventually it might, but as a postdoc you'll be making something like 85-95k per year in Australia and 55-65k in the USA. People should never get into this business for the money!
Negative: after a long time getting trained, entry level postdocs make less than average librarians, mail-carriers and garbage collectors.
Positive: this serves as somewhat of a filter so that people get into this game for reasons other than money. - A career in research for many of us will mean being an immigrant. The intense specialisation of a doctorate means that to continue research in your chosen field you will most likely have to move cities or even countries (unless you were fortunate enough to have already lived in a city with a research university that has a position open in your field when you graduate). This separation from the family you love and culture you understand can be very difficult, as I know from first-hand experience.
Negative: close relationships may suffer and you may have to live your life in an alien culture as a result of pursuing an academic career.
Positive: new close relationships can be formed and you'll get to see different parts of the world and experience and embrace new cultures. - Once you taste the freedom of academia, nothing else will satisfy. I know this from first-hand experience. My research career has been a mixture of academic and private industry. I loved the stability of private industry and the chance to do research that provided tangible benefits, but I missed the freedom of academia. The chance to do things that no one has ever done. The freedom to explore the world and make it better. The privilege of training the next generation of scientists and thinkers. The opportunity to let your brain run free; I don't think that can be found anywhere else. I certainly wasn't satisfied outside academia. Many will be. But for some, like me, job satisfaction can only be found here in the academy. It's like buying high thread-count bedsheets; once you try it, you can't go back to the old, harsh, scratchy ones.
Negative: a taste of academia may limit the satisfaction you get from any other type of employment.
Positive: a job in academia could be the most satisfying work you'll ever have.
