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How does grad student life compare to post-doc life anyways? The way I see it [correct it if I'm wrong] is that graduate students have to make some progress towards a dissertation, but don't have to work X number of hours, whereas postdocs do [and grad students seem proud to procrastinate on their dissertations]. Some people say that their grad student years are the best years of their lives.
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<p>Well, actually, yeah. I think most former PhD students would agree that the lifestyle is very enjoyable, because you are working on a topic that is highly interesting to you, and you have the complete freedom and security to work on it whenever you want. It's basically like being your own boss, but even better because you are on a stipend. Granted, it's a low stipend, but you don't have to worry about where your next paycheck is coming from, while working on something that you find extremely interesting. </p>
<p>I think essayist and entrepreneur Paul Graham (whose PhD is from Harvard) said it best: "...grad school is close to paradise. Many people remember it as the happiest time of their lives. And nearly all the rest, including me, remember it as a period that would have been, if they hadn't had to write a dissertation"</p>
<p><a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.paulgraham.com/college.html</a></p>
<p>In fact, I think the fact that it is so enjoyable and interesting is part of the problem. It's so interesting that it tends to pull in people who might be better off doing something else. And then after you're done, you don't want the enjoyment to stop, so you can't bear the thought of taking a regular job like (gasp) working as a high school teacher for the rest of your life, even though it's really a pretty decent lifestyle. </p>
<p>Personally, I agree with Paul Graham quite a lot and I would say that the best thing to do is pursue a PhD topic that is highly marketable, if possible. That way, if you ever get sick of the student lifestyle, you always have the option of just taking your research and turning it into a startup company. That's what the founders of Google did, and look at them now. Even certain fields that you don't think are marketable can be turned into marketable skills. For example, Charles Ferguson earned his PhD in political science at MIT. One might think that poli-sci has no market. Not so for him. His specialty was technology policy, specifically how the US should face the competition in the electronics industry from Japan (this was back in the 1980's when Japan was seen as an economic juggernaut poised to take over the world). Before he even finished his Phd, he became a fixture in Washington, serving on various Congressional subcommittees, writing op-ed pieces in newspapers, and helping to formulate government policy. After he graduated he became a very very well paid consultant to US tech companies - reportedly making a half-million dollars a year in the early 90's (and then he founded a company called Vermeer, sold it to Microsoft for $133 million in 1996, and you know it now as MS Frontpage). </p>
<p>But I think that hits on a major part of the problem - that a lot of graduate students and newly minted PhD's just don't know how to market their skills. For example, not to put her on the spot, but somebody like molliebatmit, right now, could quite graduate school right now and become a quite highly paid consultant to biotechs and pharmas, and after she graduates, she could * really * be a highly paid consultant. How do I know that? Simple. Plenty of her old classmates became highly paid consultants right after undergrad, and they didn't even have the benefit of any graduate school training. So if they could get that, I am quite certain that molliebatmit can get it anytime she wants, and certainly after she finished her PhD, she could nab a much better consulting job. {To her credit, I think she knows she can do this and she knows how to market herself, so I don't worry about her.} But it's these other PhD students who don't have this self-awareness and don't know how to market themselves - that's where the problem lies. Not all new Phd's can become well-paid consultants, but a lot more can do it than think they can do it. There are a LOT of consulting firms out there looking for sharp people.</p>
<p>Hence, I would say that if you try to become a scientist. If you find that you're not going to get a good academic job (and you should be able to tell within a few years whether you think you are going to make it), then screw it, turn your research around such that you can become a consultant. Or so you can form a startup company. Or, if you can't do that, then use your time at your school to network, find a good job, and then drop out. Treat it the way that many MBA students treat their time, as a networking opportunity. The difference is that MBA students * pay * to get 2 years of networking. But you, as a PhD student, are * getting paid *.</p>
<p>Think of it this way. Many MBA students pay a small fortune for the chance to find their plum consulting or investment banking job. However, a PhD student is getting paid to be there, and if he plays his cards right, can still get that same plum consulting/banking job. Granted, it's harder to do that for the Phd students than the MBA students, but far from impossible. I see plenty of newly minted PhDs getting jobs at McKinsey or Goldman Sachs that many MBA students would kill for.</p>