<p>The 80s may be over but one thing that has continued unchanged to this day is the continual cry that the sky is falling on the job market for PhDs.</p>
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<p>I think your friends relatives are seriously exaggerating. Putting in long hours and working weekends certainly was expected. And I did have to help clean out my professor’s fish aquarium from his office once every year or so, but shameful? No, I was never required to do anything shameful. Degrading work that costs you your identity? No, nothing of the sort. Some of it was menial and/or repetitive work to be sure. Grad students were certainly seen as cheap labor. But there is nothing degrading or shameful about doing menial labor. Millions of hardworking people do menial stuff for their careers every day. </p>
<p>Mostly I thought grad school was fun and interesting. I got to be on the cutting edge of research. I got to meet interesting people including Nobel laureates. I got the learn interesting stuff. And I got paid a research assistantship of about $7500. per year from my professor’s grants - enough at the time that I felt like I was rich.</p>
<p>^Yes. I know peoples’ experiences vary, but I loved grad school and enjoyed just about every minute spent earning my Ph.D. I finished on time, with only $10k in loans for my entire college education. I have a fascinating, well-paying career.
I’m not saying it’s easy–it wasn’t. </p>
<p>I have a clinical/research degree; the job prospects were (and remain) better than for many of the purely academic degrees.</p>
<p>^^I would too. A lot of people look back fondly on their college years as the best time of their lives, but I enjoyed my grad school time a hundred times more than I did college.</p>
<p>My impression that I have gathered from my friends and relatives – I myself have only an MBA – is that getting a PhD is years of grueling, grueling, thankless and sometimes shameful work that really tests the limits of your sanity and forces you into identity crisis after identity crisis.</p>
<p>Yes. But it can also be very enjoyable, enriching, and interesting. I’m a fifth-year doctoral student and I have had both. Many identity crises, but my PhD also helped me to understand who I am and what I love. I get to explore my own interests, my schedule is ridiculously flexible, I can basically do whatever I want within reason. I can work wherever there is a computer - sometimes I work at coffee shops or at home in my pjs. I get to interact with smart and curious undergraduates and help shape their lives and careers. I can go to the bank at 2 pm on a Tuesday if I need to. It’s a great field, and yes it’s stressful and grueling, but it’s also rewarding if you have the intrinsic motivation and obsessive curiosity you need as a scientist. I also think that graduate school has been way better than undergrad. I’m excited about a postdoc and the things to come.</p>
<p>With that said, I’m pretty optimistic about my job market chances. Part of it is that I’m in an area that’s actually pretty hot in my field, and I have valuable quantitative skills that are in high demand (mostly because I spent a lot of time developing those skills because I KNEW they were in demand). I also, however, sought out industry internships and other experiences, so I know that I could go into industry if I wanted to. And I’m in an interdisciplinary field, and could conceivably teach in two different kinds of departments. But I also think I’m pretty good at knowing when to jump ship and try something else…I won’t be on the market for the 6th year in the row hoping that this time someone will bite.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I would call getting my Ph.D. difficult if difficult means being paid to learn about cool things almost every day, meeting Nobel laureates, free coffee and cookies in the faculty lounge :), traveling to conferences on the school’s/advisor’s dime, etc… Most of all, my Ph.D opened up so many employment opportunities I did not even realize I would be considered for. If your only goal is to get a tenure track at an Ivy, chances are you will be disappointed. If your open to the unexpected benefits a Ph.D. will confer, then jump in.</p>
<p>BobWallace–where are you located? My son-in-law who has a PhD in ChemE (actually more specialized in Bio/Neuro) will be happy to hear this! Right now he’s doing research as a Fulbright scholar but in about 18 months he’ll be back looking for a position. ;)</p>