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How to Turn a Ph.D. Into a Nonacademic Career

By  Christopher Cornthwaite

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As my Ph.D. drew to a close in 2018, I had no plan. I had been living abroad with my spouse and our three children, completing a final fellowship that I was sure would make me a better candidate for academic positions.

Instead of heading off to a new post, our family moved back into my parents’ basement. It was an anticlimactic end to my academic career and, frankly, one of the hardest periods of my life. Many professors don’t appreciate how difficult leaving academe can be on their students who expected to be professors. It can be a devastating loss of purpose and identity.

From the darkness, we tried to put the pieces of our lives back together. We decided to move to the city of Ottawa, Canada’s capital, anticipating that it was probably the best option in the country for getting a nonacademic job with a Ph.D. (My spouse is a graphic designer and location independent.) I had been to the city once in my life and knew nobody there. We used the last of our cash to rent a small town house outside the city, with the pressure on me to find a job.

I’d never understood what I could do with my humanities Ph.D. outside academe. As I learned about the world of work, I was surprised by the options. I would email people with interesting careers or reach out to them on LinkedIn asking if I could talk to them. Sometimes I would connect through the networking app Shapr. Many of them were kind enough to take the time to talk to me.

All this networking led to a job running economic development projects for a think tank. It was a far cry from my religious studies Ph.D., but I watched my projects go through the Canadian news cycle and enter policy debates. My work was having an immediate and visible impact on my country. I eventually moved on from that job and worked for the government as a policy analyst, helping foreign countries explore and launch refugee programs.

When I left higher education, I imagined that things couldn't get much worse for my colleagues. Little did I know what the future had in store. These are especially difficult times -- many people have lost job or funding offers and need to explore what life outside academe looks like. Here’s the advice I have for building a career with your Ph.D.

Become the CEO of your life and career. I don’t know whom to attribute this idea to. I’ve heard versions of it from different sources but certainly something like it from Fordham University professor and author Leonard Cassuto in the academic space.

Personal agency is a powerful tool in building a career with any degree, but especially with a Ph.D. If you need to leave academe, you may not find anyone to tell you what to do or give you permission. (In fact, some departments or supervisors are actively hostile to alt-ac conversations.) You need to make the decision about what’s best for you and your life and can’t look to anyone else to make it for you. The onus is on you to learn how your skills apply in the marketplace and find somewhere you love applying them. So, stop waiting for permission and start building.

Recognize that networking is everything. Most Ph.D.s preparing to leave academe will start by working on their résumé and firing off job applications. For many, especially humanities grads like me, those applications disappear into a black hole. Why wouldn’t they? Unless your knowledge is in high demand -- as is the case for some STEM graduates -- employers can’t draw a line from your degree to being the employee they need.

The answer is networking. It’s the most transformational tool that Ph.D.s have at their disposal.

I know, you hate networking. Just about everybody does. But, unfortunately, the beautiful transformation that you are about to go through -- from grad student to career professional -- requires other people to help you make the transition. And if you don’t know anyone outside academe, it’s time to remedy that.

That doesn’t mean printing business cards and going to networking events. It just means contacting people who do things that intrigue you and asking them questions about their work, as well as for any advice they would have for someone in your position. Look for family and friends doing work that appeals to you. Check your alumni association. Ask your supervisor or committee if they know anyone doing interesting things outside academe and see if they’ll give you an introduction.

If you don’t have those options, you can do what I did and start messaging strangers on LinkedIn. (You’ll have the best chance of a response if you pick people it makes sense to connect to -- for example, those in your city, from your university or in a similar field.)

Be creative in meeting the people you need to meet. Recognize that each potential connection may lead to your career, and take the conversations seriously. This is far more valuable than sending résumés into the void. One of those people will inevitably change your life. They’ll tell you something you didn’t know or put in a good word for you somewhere that’s hiring. You just need one person to take a chance on you, and the rest will be history.

Create a brand for yourself. Developing a personal brand is especially vital for Ph.D.s. It may be an anathema for many students (and professors). But when paired with your degree, proper branding can transform you from looking like a grubby graduate student to looking like a leader.

Yes, Ph.D.s are perceived as leaders, even in the marketplace. But all too often, their command of their online presence and brand doesn't match the level of their skills. LinkedIn is a gift for Ph.D.s, an opportunity to present themselves to the world and control the narrative. If you’re not on there, I’d recommend creating a profile and sharing ideas. ( I wrote a guide on how to do that here .)

Your new goal is to be seen and taken seriously outside higher ed. Write op-eds. Engage with people on Twitter if you are comfortable doing that. Leverage the technology and media at your disposal to build your presence and reputation. The more positive visibility you have, the more employers will want to work with you.

Learn nonacademic language. Being in academe is a bit like living in a foreign country. Academics learn a language to talk about themselves and their skills. That language makes perfect sense inside the academy. But speaking it outside higher education can be the kiss of death in a job interview.

It's not to say that you can't have intelligent conversations outside academe. But overuse of jargon and buzzwords, or droning on about the complexities of your research, will mark you as an outsider in the nonacademic world.

Remember, an employer’s first question is “Can they solve X problem for me?” If you seem to only know academe, they might be uncertain of the answer to this.

Instead, try to learn the language of whatever workplace you are exploring. You can take note of key terms during your informational interviews or while looking at job postings. When I became a policy analyst, I had to learn a lot of new lingo that came with it. This included government-specific language, acronyms and other ways of wording things that helped me operate in that world.

Translate your CV into a résumé . Many people know this is necessary, especially in North America, where the résumé is the industry standard. While I don’t think it’s the most important thing, or the thing you should be spending most of your time on, we usually do need résumés at some point.

Translating your CV will require a brutal assessment about what actually fits in a résumé. I had to delete my publications in religious studies, totally irrelevant to my nonacademic work, and replace them with a single line: “Two peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals.” Ditto my fellowships, which I replaced with, “Grant writing and proposals won over $200k in funding.”

In fact, after reading hundreds of Ph.D. CVs and résumés over the past year, I’ve realized that a lot of the best stuff is often in the overlooked “Service” section at the end of the CV. It’s here that students have led committees, launched projects, worked on teams creating an edited volume or conference, and just generally done the sort of things that make sense outside higher ed.

Be creative with your career. The question I am asked most often is “What can I do with a Ph.D. in X field?” While there are lists out there (some of the best are at The Versatile Ph.D. ), they should be thought of as starting rather than ending points.

Be creative about how you apply your skills and think about your career. Your Ph.D. will probably not fit into a single career box -- and that is great! Focus on topics that interest you, causes you are passionate about, issues that move you. That’s the way to build a great career with a Ph.D. and not simply drop into the first organization that will have you.

Oh, I know in the Ph.D. hierarchy of needs a paycheck can be the most important thing. I’ve been there. To pay the bills, you might need to take the first job offer you receive. But in the long run, you should develop a vision that goes beyond what you can do with your Ph.D. to what you want to do with your Ph.D. Because the sky is the limit.

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What to do after getting your phd: 5 next steps, published by steve tippins on february 11, 2019 february 11, 2019.

Last Updated on: 5th June 2024, 03:08 am

What to do after finishing your PhD is a surprisingly common challenge for students who have recently graduated. So if you’re asking this question, you’re not alone.

After years of hard work and passing on enjoyable opportunities to get your writing done, you have finished your dissertation. This is quite an accomplishment. But what do you do now that you’ve finished?

This is something that few doctoral programs prepare you for. How do you take what you have learned and capitalize on it? How do you start your new career or use your PhD to take the next step in your existing one?

What to Do After Getting Your PhD

Based on my own experience and my experience coaching countless recent graduates, I’ve come up with an answer. Here is what to do after PhD is officially part of your title.

Step 1: Take a Breath

It may be tempting to rush right into the next thing. You finally have your PhD, now you get to use it! Apply for a thousand jobs, become a postdoctoral fellow, take a research trip to Indonesia with your favorite professor, launch a consulting firm, and publish a Nobel-Prize-worthy paper in an academic journal. All before breakfast.

Or not. In fact, my advice is to slow down. Not for too long–of course you have to take the next steps in your career. But once you start your career, it’s that much more difficult to take a break. Relax for a moment, and then take a good long deep breath. You are at the summit of one of the largest (proverbial) mountains you’ve ever climbed. Take a moment to appreciate the view. Then, get back to work.

Step 2: Set your Goals

After taking a break, the first thing you need to do is figure out what your goals are . You employed a great deal of discipline to get to this point. Use that skill to determine how you want to move forward. Your doctoral degree is an asset, so try to maximize the return that you get. Getting clear on your goals will determine your next steps and provide a map of what to do after completing your PhD.

When setting your career goals, it’s important to remember your life goals. Remember why you started this journey in the first place. How have you changed? How have your goals changed? What is most important in your life, and how will your next steps support this? Considering how your career fits into your life as a whole will help you make decisions about how to move forward.

Here are some of your options:

Do you want to publish? Think hard about this. You are now an expert on your topic, it would be great if you shared that expertise with the world. Think about your goal in publishing. Is your goal to see your name in print so that your mother can brag about her child being a published author? Do you want to spread the findings of your dissertation across the world to help humanity? Different goals will lead you in different publishing directions.

What a noble profession. Many people want to use their degree to help shape the future by teaching. If this is a path for you, think about the following questions: Do you want to teach full time or part time? Would you prefer to teach online or in a traditional classroom setting? Are you bound to one geographic location or are you willing to go anywhere? Do you want to prioritize teaching over research or vice-versa? Each choice offers various, but different, opportunities.

Outside of Academia

Are there non-academic alternatives available to you? Are you looking for a promotion at your current job? Do you want to speak at conferences? How about a new job? Maybe consulting is the path that you want to take. Your degree puts you in a very small group outside of academia; use it as best you can, remembering that you will be seen as the expert in most settings.

There are many things that you might want to do with your degree. Stop and take the time to determine your goals and then you can see how all of the hard work that you put in to get your degree can get you there. If you find yourself stuck, or want support realizing your full potential, career coaching can help.

Step 3: Prepare your Material

No matter what you choose to do after getting your PhD, you will have to put together a package of material that represents you. This is true whether you want to apply for academic jobs, work outside academia, or start your own business as a consultant. This is the first thing that most employers or potential clients will see of you, so make sure it represents the best of who you are.

You will need a resume and to be ready to answer all kinds of questions. It’s important to update your resume after finishing your PhD, adding relevant accomplishments and experience besides your new degree.

Prepare to answer common questions (for example, “Why did you get a PhD?” “Can you tell me about a situation where you worked well with others?” and “Can you tell me about a situation where you were able to work with someone who was difficult to work with?”).

Also, remember to highlight the unique strengths and skills that you have as a newly minted PhD. Having spent the past few years in the company of other people who either already have PhDs or are trying to get them, it’s easy to lose sight of your uniqueness. Remember the grit and persistence you’ve shown, the critical thinking skills you’ve had to cultivate, and the balanced ability to simultaneously take direction from committee members and forge your own unique research path.

Remember that you are a member of a small group of people with an exceptionally useful skill set, and a degree to prove it. You have proven your capacity to innovate, learn, and work with others. Take a look at Catherine Sorbara’s excellent article on this subject.

Inside of Academia

Work on creating a CV (curriculum vitae) that fits the standards of your discipline. You will probably need to submit documents that cover your teaching philosophy, a list of references, a research agenda, and copies of teaching evaluations, if available.

If you get a campus visit interview, you will need to prepare a presentation about your research and may be asked to teach a class or give a seminar to interested students. Do not take these two steps lightly, as the search committee will get feedback from everyone who participates in these sessions about your suitability for the position.

Find research interest connections at prospective universities. Look within the department you are applying for professors who share your research interests, but also look more widely — to the college and to other colleges within the university — for others doing related studies that may dovetail with your work. The potential for collaborative research and interdisciplinary studies will catch the attention of university administrators and may well give you an edge.

Seek advice. Make sure you are prepared for all of this and get well-acquainted with norms. Your professors and advisors are an excellent resource to help you prepare for this, as are my career coaching services .

Step 4: Search for a Job

When people ask what to do after PhD completion, they’re usually trying to skip ahead to this step–but it’s vital to take the time to set your goals and prepare your material before looking for a job . Now that you’ve done that, you can set your sights on your new (or improved) career. Many people use their PhD as a springboard to an exciting new career path. Here are some insights to help you do that.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a great place to start. The Chronicle posts jobs daily online for most disciplines. You can also look at HigherEdJobs which tends to have jobs that may not make it to the chronicle.

Conferences within your discipline are a very good place to find out about jobs. Also, the professors within your program may be a good source of contacts who may know about jobs. Remember, most academic jobs start in August/September and postings may come out as much as 11 months before a job starts.

Some professions specifically recruit PhDs. If you are in the sciences this may be the case. Consultancy firms also seek PhDs. Outside of these areas the job search may include networking, sending out resumes, and using the services of recruiters. Your committee chair may be able to connect you with former students in your field who would be willing to make introductions. Most universities have career centers that offer assistance with networking and other job-seeking skills.

Step 5: Stay on Track

Periodically reevaluate your goals–both whether you’re meeting them and whether the goals themselves need to change. Perhaps you started out wanting to pursue research but have fallen in love with teaching. Or maybe you started off teaching but found that consulting is much more enjoyable. Whatever your goals are, they’re subject to change as you learn and grow.

However, if your goal was to teach but you find yourself getting bogged down in research projects due to the pressure to publish, take some time to reflect on how you can better achieve the goals that are most fulfilling to you. Would you prefer an instructor’s position? Or perhaps looking at universities that emphasize teaching over research would be your solution.

What to Do After PhD Completion: A Summary

Getting your PhD is a huge accomplishment. However, if you’re wondering what to do after your PhD is complete, you’re not alone. Once you finish your PhD, take a breath and allow some space in your life. Next, determine your goals and create a plan for how to proceed. Once you are clear on your goals, prepare your materials and apply for jobs. Finally, periodically re-evaluate your goals to see whether you’re meeting them and whether they’re still relevant.

Many recent graduates use a career coach to help them in this process. If you are interested in this kind of coaching, feel free to take a look at my services page or get in touch.

Steve Tippins

Steve Tippins, PhD, has thrived in academia for over thirty years. He continues to love teaching in addition to coaching recent PhD graduates as well as students writing their dissertations. Learn more about his dissertation coaching and career coaching services. Book a Free Consultation with Steve Tippins

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What Can You Do With a PhD?

Why Do a PhD? Benefits and Career Directions

Are you thinking about a PhD as the next stage in your educational and professional development? It’s an exciting road to travel with many potential benefits and opportunities. But you have to earn it first so considering what’s involved is important.

Requirements for a PhD award vary greatly globally and from institution to institution. PhD applicants are expected to have gained at least an Honours degree and sometimes a Master’s degree to be eligible to apply for a PhD programme.

It’s best to find out as much as possible about not only what you can expect during the PhD process but also what will be expected of you. Will the commitments in terms of time, effort and money prove worthwhile? Identifying the pros and cons will help you to weigh up whether this is the right step for you.

The on-going impacts of COVID -19 have to be taken into account. Not only have teaching and learning practices altered in Higher Education but so have ways of working and connecting with each other as technological change advances more rapidly. Sudden shifts and uncertainties mean that flexibility must be factored into any PhD planning, such as supervision or research having to be carried out online.

This article will outline possible career paths and prospects that can follow on from having a PhD as well as the benefits during the process.

First of all ask yourself- Is a PhD right for me?

Do some self-assessment:.

• what your educational experiences and achievements are up to now
• identify what you liked and disliked
• what you were good/skilled at, what you found difficult

Talk to others

Whilst there is no ‘typical’ PhD experience as everyone’s paths differ, it’s helpful to talk to those who have done or are doing a PhD about what is involved. You can make contacts through networks and online forums and find out more about their experience. Read articles and other relevant documents including university publications plus online sources. There is a wide range of websites offering case studies of career stories from what people have done with their PhD.

What parts of doing a PhD appeal to you?

It could be spending time in libraries and archives, fieldwork and interviews, running experiments, analysing data, problem-solving, creative thinking, writing and communicating your findings to others. It’s just as important to ask yourself which parts of it don’t appeal and consider how you would handle those aspects.

Once you’ve done this assessment you can think more about what a PhD might lead to.

Benefits of the PhD experience

The skills you gain and improve during a PhD are transferable and applicable to a wide range of careers. Prospective employers look for those with experience of doing research and a PhD is a research-based degree. What you researched might be directly related to jobs you apply for but it doesn’t need to be: it’s the fact that you have research experience that counts.

Employers also look for those with good written and spoken communication skills (online and face to face) and who can plan and deliver presentations. These could be for team meetings, conferences or sales pitches. Whilst doing a PhD, you will be networking not just within your university but in other areas. In recent years, networking skills have become more important in the work environment. Having networking experience, whether it’s ‘working the room’ at a conference or meeting or attending an online event will boost your potential and help you stand out.

You can develop your networks by attending conferences, talks and other events apart from regular contact with other students and tutors. These may be online given COVID restrictions but opportunities for face- to- face events have increased in the second half of 2021. These contacts can provide useful support and also share work opportunities. There are many online study and research forums  that can help you through your PhD and also offer opportunities for  finding work whilst you are studying  and post-graduation. Some of these online forums may be arranging small-scale physical meet-ups.

Considering Career Possibilities

Whilst a PhD is often seen as professional training for academia, this is just one possibility. In the UK less than half of PhD graduates become academics and this figure can lower in other countries.

As with any career ambitions, assessment of all that is involved. Academics are expected to do much more than research, teach and supervise students.

If this is what you’re aiming for, start preparing by taking up opportunities for  part-time teaching  that might fit into your schedule. This is valuable work experience even if you later decide not to go into academia.

Outside Academia

There are many options in the professions, business and management, public sector and more. From small and local, to large and global, many companies and institutions seek highly qualified personnel. Think about the  types of organisations  you could work for: everything from large multinationals, NGOs, charities, local and national government, regulatory bodies and agencies, SMEs (small to medium enterprises with under 250 employees). The vast majority of companies in the UK are SMEs and offer excellent career progression opportunities.

Different employment sectors have their specific features but increasingly overlap as economic, technological and political changes come into play. Whilst we can distinguish the public and private sectors these have shown degrees of convergence in recent years.

The Professions

These typically involve prolonged training and formal qualifications such as accountancy, civil service, law and medicine. Having a PhD is considered to be  indicative of professional development  but additional training may be required for your chosen area.

Self-employment

This category encompasses all forms of working for yourself, whether setting up a small business by yourself or with others, doing consultancy work or a mix of these.

The self-employed account for around 15% of the labour force in the UK.

There are possibilities of freelance working within academia as well as in other areas, by packaging and selling your expertise and skills. The advantages include being ‘your own boss’, taking on work you choose and being free of the 9 to 5 routine.

There are also challenges, with responsibilities for legal compliance and taxation. There may be long working hours without the ‘cushion’ of secure monthly income and paid holidays.

In the past decade, digital entrepreneurship has rapidly expanded with new start-ups coming online all the time. This trend has increased over the past 18 months as more people lost jobs and decided to set up their own businesses from home.

It’s likely that the gig economy will continue to develop and you may consider if you want to enter this as a sole proprietor or as an employee if self-employment is not your preferred career route.

Not-For-Profit

This includes charities, NGOs and community interest companies. As in other sectors, some are small and local whilst others are global, eg. Oxfam. NGOs might focus on one area or multiple parts of the world but a specific theme such as human rights or the environment. There are openings at different levels and whilst they may rely on volunteers they do have paid positions in fund-raising, advocacy, administration, marketing and management.

The skills and experience gained by a PhD graduate can certainly be applied elsewhere, particularly if you keep an open mind and your eyes on the jobs market from the early days of your  doctoral journey . You can upgrade your employability profile by networking and taking advantage of your university’s employability support and opportunities including gaining some work experience. This is always a big bonus and increasingly required by employers.

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Dr. Ruth Cherrington

Ruth Cherrington has a long record as a higher education professional. She has been a lecturer, trainer and employability adviser both in the UK and abroad. Ruth has always been committed to maximizing the professional development of those she works with. Another strand to her career is as a writer, with a wide range of publications to her name. Ruth enjoys travelling to meet former students and colleagues across the world. LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthcherringtonnumber7/

Reader Interactions

You may also like:.

12th March 2021 at 11:16 pm

I am an environmental chemist working in the waste management industry. I have an MSci degree, and hope to stay in this industry. I am curious if pursuing a PhD will improve my job prospects later down the line, or would working towards a chartership be more valuable?

3rd February 2023 at 2:47 pm

Pursuing a Ph.D. doesn’t only polish your skills, But also gives you a new form of understanding the demand for knowledgeable people required by industries. If you look outside towards different companies offering you more money and benefits, Ph.D. works as fuel to reach higher posts. In the education sector, there is a demand for Ph.D. professors. If you have an industry experience with a Ph.D. your hourly wage varies from around £70 to £100 an hour. I wish you best of luck

16th June 2024 at 9:28 pm

I am already 46 and eager to pursue my PHD. Am I too old to start it?

10th July 2024 at 7:14 am

I’m 41 years having 15 years of experience in IT and bssed out in India.Im really interested to do PhD in either cybersecurity with AI or with some interesting topic with AI.As an organization, management is insisting all employees to use AI as a tool but I wanted to investigate more on it .. Please Advice…

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Your PhD, what next?

Those who've completed a Doctorate are finding more opportunities to work outside of academia than ever before - discover the types of jobs available and what other PhD graduates go on to do

What job opportunities are available for PhD graduates?

The most common roles for PhD graduates are:

• teaching professionals
• natural and social science professionals
• research and development (R&D) and other research professionals
• therapy professionals
• business, research and administrative professionals.

Although academic careers are a natural step for many PhD graduates, a greater number of opportunities exist outside of teaching and education .

For instance, a significant amount of PhD graduates work in healthcare (14.9%), and construction , engineering and research and development (11.1%). This has perhaps been helped by private sector companies becoming more research-orientated in recent years.

As well as the medical profession, research scientists can also specialise in life sciences , maths and physical sciences .

If you've aspirations to become a clinical or educational psychologist , you'll need to have studied a specific taught Doctorate in either clinical (DClinPsy or ClinPsyD) or educational (DEdPsy) psychology.

How do I get started in academia?

Those graduating with a PhD often struggle to secure a permanent academic job immediately. To give yourself the best chance, contact as many academics as possible in your specialist field.

You may then be presented with the opportunity to become a teaching or research fellow, though this is likely to be on a short-term contract with a view to permanent employment.

Jobs for PhD graduates are regularly advertised on university websites as well as specialist higher education recruitment sites such as Jobs.ac.uk or Academic Positions .

Visit getting an academic job for more information and advice.

Can I get a non-academic job?

There are many ways to boost your chances of landing non-academic PhD jobs. You should:

• build a network of contacts to help you unearth 'hidden' job vacancies
• gain relevant work experience in your chosen field
• search for graduate jobs
• use social media to join in discussions with like-minded academics and share your research and opinions.

It's also worth regularly checking sector-specific websites and publications for job adverts, such as:

• Nature Careers
• New Scientist Jobs
• Science Careers
• Technojobs - PhD jobs
• The British Psychological Society Jobs
• The Economist Jobs Board
• Times Higher Education - Unijobs

How do I sell my PhD to employers?

When applying for non-academic PhD jobs, you must demonstrate how your knowledge and expertise will benefit the employer. Focus on the transferable skills that the PhD has helped to enhance, such as:

• communication skills - you'll have given many presentations , lectures or seminars
• creative thinking - PhD students are often asked to think outside the box
• management ability - as well as managing your own time and workload, you may have managed a small team of research assistants or mentored undergraduate students
• problem-solving skills - during your PhD, you'll have tackled and solved numerous research problems.

For more guidance, see applying for jobs .

What do other PhD graduates do?

According to HESA's Graduate Outcomes data, of the PhD graduates in employment 15 months after graduation in 2020/21, just over a fifth (21.3%) found work in education - as higher and secondary education teaching professionals. The majority therefore chose to pursue non-academic careers.

PhD destinations data from HESA.

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8 Careers You Can Pursue With a Doctorate in Education

Industry Advice Education

By earning a Doctor of Education (EdD) degree, you’re preparing yourself for a career with lasting impact—on students, on the future of a college or university, on your community, or on the trajectory of a nonprofit trying to improve other communities locally and abroad.

You’re also positioning yourself for advancement. Professionals who earn an EdD are qualified for roles leading and operating schools at the elementary, high school, or college level. They learn to lead in a way that can be effective at the front of a classroom or at the ground level of an organization.

An EdD signals to employers that you’re a thought leader; that you’re someone who’s demonstrated the capacity to identify a problem, examine issues from multiple perspectives, and offer relevant insights for practical solutions. With your doctorate in hand, you’re prepared to take on a leadership role across a variety of industries.

Here’s a look at the types of positions EdD graduates pursue and eight of the top careers available in the field. 

Download our free guide to earning your EdD

Learn how an EdD can give you the skills to enact organizational change in any industry.

Download Now

What types of positions do EdD students pursue?

Northeastern’s EdD students cultivate their leadership skills in the program by integrating practice and insights from experienced faculty and high-achieving peers . They come from diverse fields, including business, criminal justice, healthcare, military, human services, and the nonprofit sector. Their job titles and careers are just as diverse, with students working as policymakers, systems analysts, and administrative leaders within higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, and governmental agencies.

Top careers for doctor of education graduates

1. college president.

Median annual salary: $332,655

Presidents are the top leaders of a college or university. They establish and execute their school’s strategic vision, spearhead fundraising, attend student events, and deliver speeches to a variety of constituents, such as donors, lawmakers, government, and faculty, to raise the profile of the institution both locally and abroad. They also collaborate with senior administrators, faculty, and staff to devise new ways to support students and improve their learning environment while maintaining high academic standards. Depending on the type of public or private institution they lead, college presidents can earn impressive seven-figure salaries . 

2. Chief learning officer

Median annual salary: $156,399

In education, top executive roles include positions like “chief learning officer”—a senior-level professional who develops and drives strategies that help their college or university meet critical business goals. Chief learning officers (CLOs) focus on creating strategies for training, learning, and development, and typically oversee an insitution’s latest technologies, such as its online learning platform.

Median annual salary: $169,093

A provost—or vice president, depending on the college or university—is a senior-level academic administrator who tends to be second in command after the president. Provosts work closely with deans and department heads and help determine their institution’s academic goals and priorities, as well as how to allocate the resources necessary to support those initiatives. They often oversee daily operations and work to hire and retain a diverse faculty. 

4. School superintendent

Median annual salary: $145,399

Superintendents are the top executives of a school district. They’re responsible for establishing and overseeing their district’s budget, staffing, infrastructure, and spending. Superintendents collaborate closely with a school board to develop and implement new policies and programs in line with the district’s short- and long-term goals, as well as allocate the financial and human resources necessary to achieve the district’s overarching vision.

5. Elementary, middle, or high school principal

Median annual salary: $104,360

Principals oversee the daily operations of an elementary, middle, or high school. They hire teachers and staff, manage the budget, and enforce disciplinary rules when necessary. Principals also develop and assess educational programming aimed at achieving student learning outcomes, all while striving to create and maintain a positive learning environment. More than 20,000 principal positions are expected to emerge each year between 2022 and 2032, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics .

A principal’s salary might differ depending on whether he or she works at an elementary, middle, or high school. According to PayScale, the median wages for principals at each level are:

• Elementary school : $90,571
• Middle school : $107,411
• High school : $96,733

6. Academic dean

Median annual salary: $101,707

Deans work at the senior administrative level of a college or university. The role varies depending on the institution, but deans often manage faculty and staff, set academic goals, implement strategic planning, oversee their department’s budget, help fundraise, support research initiatives, and foster student development. Some departments you might find them in are:

• Admissions : Those working in admissions develop and lead recruitment initiatives for a college or university. They evaluate applications, decide the number of students who should be admitted to the school, determine who those students should be, and communicate with prospects and their families.
• Research : A dean of research often oversees faculty and collaborates with them to create a strategy for developing short- and long-term research initiatives. They also work to secure research funding, oversee the research budget, and establish key industry partnerships.
• Student affairs : The student affairs office typically oversees a variety of different departments, such as residence life, athletics, student support services, and diversity and inclusion. A dean of student affairs typically establishes and evaluates nonacademic programs that foster and enrich the student student experience, handles disciplinary issues, and communicates with students’ parents or legal guardians.
• Advancement : The advancement office—also known as “development” or “alumni relations” depending on the school—is responsible for securing funding for the college or university from potential donors, including alumni, government policymakers, corporations, and foundations. They nurture and maintain those relationships, ensuring all gifts received are being used as intended.

7. Professor

Median annual salary: $87,380

Postsecondary teachers, or professors, work at the college or university level, developing course curricula, instructing students in a specific area of study, and assessing their progress. When they’re not teaching, professors are often conducting research, writing scholarly papers, or attending conferences.

Professors’ salaries vary based on where they are on the tenure track and their area of expertise. Below are the median salaries for professors based on rank, according to PayScale.:

• Instructor : $54,325
• Lecturer: $59,676
• Assistant professor : $75,696
• Associate professor : $86,123
• Professor : $92,393

Salaries range further depending on the professor’s focus. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , the top 10 highest-paying subjects—and what those subjects offer in terms of median annual wage—are:

• Law : $127,360
• Economics : $115,300
• Engineering : $106,910
• Architecture : $105,770
• Health specialties : $105,650
• Forestry and conservation science : $101,650
• Atmospheric, earth, marine, and space science : $100,690
• Physics : $98,020
• Business : $97,130
• Computer science : $96,430

8. Executive director of education

Median annual salary: $100,350

Executive directors are often the senior leaders of a nonprofit organization or business. They work closely with a board of directors but are the ones who make the daily operational decisions. Executive directors hire and manage staff, handle external relations, engage volunteers, oversee the budget—including all fundraising initiatives—and develop policies, programs, and strategies that guide the organization’s mission and purpose. 

What can you do with an EdD from Northeastern?

When you earn your EdD from Northeastern , you’re not only advancing your own work, you’re joining a top-tier university and pursuing a rigorous education with an entrepreneurial orientation toward making our world a better place. You’re joining a vast network of students and alumni of the EdD program, which spans more than 2,000 professionals across many domains of education. You’re gaining access to engaging faculty who understand the importance of professional experiences in a growing leadership capacity, and who are prepared to offer you personal attention to support your professional development.

With your EdD, you can make a difference in the lives of children, communities, and organizations as you transform your problem of practice into a plan for change and action.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in September 2017. It has since been updated for accuracy and relevance. 

Subscribe below to receive future content from the Graduate Programs Blog.

About shayna joubert, related articles.

EdD vs. PhD in Education: What’s the Difference?

6 Benefits of Online EdD Programs

How much do edd graduates make, did you know.

The median annual salary for professional degree holders is $97,000. (BLS, 2020)

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• What is a PhD?

Written by Mark Bennett

A PhD is a doctoral research degree and the highest level of academic qualification you can achieve. The degree normally takes between three and four years of full-time work towards a thesis offering an original contribution to your subject.

This page explains what a PhD is, what it involves and what you need to know if you’re considering applying for a PhD research project , or enrolling on a doctoral programme .

On this page

The meaning of a phd.

The PhD can take on something of a mythic status. Are they only for geniuses? Do you have to discover something incredible? Does the qualification make you an academic? And are higher research degrees just for people who want to be academics?

Even the full title, ‘Doctor of Philosophy’, has a somewhat mysterious ring to it. Do you become a doctor? Yes, but not that kind of doctor. Do you have to study Philosophy? No (not unless you want to) .

So, before going any further, let's explain what the term 'PhD' actually means and what defines a doctorate.

What does PhD stand for?

PhD stands for Doctor of Philosophy. This is one of the highest level academic degrees that can be awarded. PhD is an abbreviation of the Latin term (Ph)ilosophiae (D)octor. Traditionally the term ‘philosophy’ does not refer to the subject but its original Greek meaning which roughly translates to ‘lover of wisdom’.

What is a doctorate?

A doctorate is any qualification that awards a doctoral degree. In order to qualify for one you need to produce advanced work that makes a significant new contribution to knowledge in your field. Doing so earns you the title 'Doctor' – hence the name.

So, is a PhD different to a doctorate? No. A PhD is a type of doctorate .

The PhD is the most common type of doctorate and is awarded in almost all subjects at universities around the world. Other doctorates tend to be more specialised or for more practical and professional projects.

Essentially, all PhDs are doctorates, but not all doctorates are PhDs.

Do you need a Masters to get a PhD?

Not necessarily. It's common for students in Arts and the Humanities to complete an MA (Master of Arts) before starting a PhD in order to acquire research experience and techniques. Students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) don't always need an MS/MSc (Master of Science) to do a PhD as you'll gain training in lab techniques and other skills during your undergraduate degree.

Whether a Masters is a requirement for a PhD also varies by country. Australian PhDs may require a Masters as the equivalent of their own 'honours year' (where students work on research). US PhD programmes often include a Masters.

We have a whole guide dedicated to helping you decide whether a PhD without a Masters is the right route for you.

The origin of the PhD

Despite its name, the PhD isn't actually an Ancient Greek degree. Instead it's a much more recent development. The PhD as we know it was developed in nineteenth-century Germany, alongside the modern research university.

Higher education had traditionally focussed on mastery of an existing body of scholarship and the highest academic rank available was, appropriately enough, a Masters degree.

As the focus shifted more onto the production of new knowledge and ideas, the PhD degree was brought in to recognise those who demonstrated the necessary skills and expertise.

The PhD process – what's required to get a PhD?

The typical length of a PhD is three to four years full-time, or five to six years part-time.

Unlike most Masters courses (or all undergraduate programmes), a PhD is a pure research degree. But that doesn’t mean you’ll just spend years locked away in a library or laboratory. In fact, the modern PhD is a diverse and varied qualification with many different components.

Whereas the second or third year of a taught degree look quite a lot like the first (with more modules and coursework at a higher level) a PhD moves through a series of stages.

A typical PhD normally involves:

• Carrying out a literature review (a survey of current scholarship in your field).
• Conducting original research and collecting your results .
• Producing a thesis that presents your conclusions.
• Writing up your thesis and submitting it as a dissertation .
• Defending your thesis in an oral viva voce exam.

These stages vary a little between subjects and universities, but they tend to fall into the same sequence over the three years of a typical full-time PhD.

The first year of a PhD

The beginning of a PhD is all about finding your feet as a researcher and getting a solid grounding in the current scholarship that relates to your topic.

You’ll have initial meetings with your supervisor and discuss a plan of action based on your research proposal.

The first step in this will almost certainly be carrying out your literature review . With the guidance of your supervisor you’ll begin surveying and evaluating existing scholarship. This will help situate your research and ensure your work is original.

Your literature review will provide a logical jumping off point for the beginning of your own research and the gathering of results . This could involve designing and implementing experiments, or getting stuck into a pile of primary sources.

The year may end with an MPhil upgrade . This occurs when PhD students are initially registered for an MPhil degree and then ‘upgraded’ to PhD candidates upon making sufficient progress. You’ll submit material from your literature review, or a draft of your research findings and discuss these with members of your department in an upgrade exam . All being well, you’ll then continue with your research as a PhD student.

PhDs in other countries

The information on the page is based on the UK. Most countries follow a similar format, but there are some differences. In the USA , for example, PhD students complete reading assignments and examinations before beginning their research. You can find out more in our guides to PhD study around the world .

The second year of a PhD

Your second year will probably be when you do most of your core research. The process for this will vary depending on your field, but your main focus will be on gathering results from experiments, archival research, surveys or other means.

As your research develops, so will the thesis (or argument) you base upon it. You may even begin writing up chapters or other pieces that will eventually form part of your dissertation .

You’ll still be having regular meetings with your supervisor. They’ll check your progress, provide feedback on your ideas and probably read any drafts your produce.

The second year is also an important stage for your development as a scholar. You’ll be well versed in current research and have begun to collect some important data or develop insights of your own. But you won’t yet be faced with the demanding and time-intensive task of finalising your dissertation.

So, this part of your PhD is a perfect time to think about presenting your work at academic conferences , gaining teaching experience or perhaps even selecting some material for publication in an academic journal. You can read more about these kinds of activities below.

The third year of a PhD

The third year of a PhD is sometimes referred to as the writing up phase.

Traditionally, this is the final part of your doctorate, during which your main task will be pulling together your results and honing your thesis into a dissertation .

In reality, it’s not always as simple as that.

It’s not uncommon for final year PhD students to still be fine-tuning experiments, collecting results or chasing up a few extra sources. This is particularly likely if you spend part of your second year focussing on professional development.

In fact, some students actually take all or part of a fourth year to finalise their dissertation. Whether you are able to do this will depend on the terms of your enrolment – and perhaps your PhD funding .

Eventually though, you are going to be faced with writing up your thesis and submitting your dissertation.

Your supervisor will be very involved in this process. They’ll read through your final draft and let you know when they think your PhD is ready for submission.

All that’s left then is your final viva voce oral exam. This is a formal discussion and defence of your thesis involving at least one internal and external examiner. It’s normally the only assessment procedure for a PhD. Once you’ve passed, you’ve done it!

Looking for more information about the stages of a PhD?

How do you go about completing a literature review? What's it like to do PhD research? And what actually happens at an MPhil upgrade? You can find out more in our detailed guide to the PhD journey .

Doing a PhD – what's it actually like?

You can think of the ‘stages’ outlined above as the basic ‘roadmap’ for a PhD, but the actual ‘journey’ you’ll take as a research student involves a lot of other sights, a few optional destinations and at least one very important fellow passenger.

Carrying out research

Unsurprisingly, you’ll spend most of your time as a PhD researcher… researching your PhD. But this can involve a surprisingly wide range of activities.

The classic image of a student working away in the lab, or sitting with a pile of books in the library is true some of the time – particularly when you’re monitoring experiments or conducting your literature review.

Your PhD can take you much further afield though. You may find yourself visiting archives or facilities to examine their data or look at rare source materials. You could even have the opportunity to spend an extended period ‘in residence’ at a research centre or other institution beyond your university.

Research is also far from being a solitary activity. You’ll have regular discussions with your supervisor (see below) but you may also work with other students from time to time.

This is particularly likely if you’re part of a larger laboratory or workshop group studying the same broad area. But it’s also common to collaborate with students whose projects are more individual. You might work on shorter projects of joint interest, or be part of teams organising events and presentations.

Many universities also run regular internal presentation and discussion groups – a perfect way to get to know other PhD students in your department and offer feedback on each other’s work in progress.

Working with your supervisor

All PhD projects are completed with the guidance of at least one academic supervisor . They will be your main point of contact and support throughout the PhD.

Your supervisor will be an expert in your general area of research, but they won’t have researched on your exact topic before (if they had, your project wouldn’t be original enough for a PhD).

As such, it’s better to think of your supervisor as a mentor, rather than a teacher.

As a PhD student you’re now an independent and original scholar, pushing the boundaries of your field beyond what is currently known (and taught) about it. You’re doing all of this for the first time, of course. But your supervisor isn’t.

They’ll know what’s involved in managing an advanced research project over three years (or more). They’ll know how best to succeed, but they’ll also know what can go wrong and how to spot the warning signs before it does.

Perhaps most importantly, they’ll be someone with the time and expertise to listen to your ideas and help provide feedback and encouragement as you develop your thesis.

Exact supervision arrangements vary between universities and between projects:

• In Science and Technology projects it’s common for a supervisor to be the lead investigator on a wider research project, with responsibility for a laboratory or workshop that includes several PhD students and other researchers.
• In Arts and Humanities subjects, a supervisor’s research is more separate from their students’. They may supervise more than one PhD at a time, but each project is essentially separate.

It’s also becoming increasingly common for PhD students to have two (or more) supervisors. The first is usually responsible for guiding your academic research whilst the second is more concerned with the administration of your PhD – ensuring you complete any necessary training and stay on track with your project’s timetable.

However you’re supervised, you’ll have regular meetings to discuss work and check your progress. Your supervisor will also provide feedback on work during your PhD and will play an important role as you near completion: reading your final dissertation draft, helping you select an external examiner and (hopefully) taking you out for a celebratory drink afterwards!

Professional development, networking and communication

Traditionally, the PhD has been viewed as a training process, preparing students for careers in academic research.

As such, it often includes opportunities to pick up additional skills and experiences that are an important part of a scholarly CV. Academics don’t just do research after all. They also teach students, administrate departments – and supervise PhDs.

The modern PhD is also viewed as a more flexible qualification. Not all doctoral graduates end up working in higher education. Many follow alternative careers that are either related to their subject of specialism or draw upon the advanced research skills their PhD has developed.

PhD programmes have begun to reflect this. Many now emphasise transferrable skills or include specific training units designed to help students communicate and apply their research beyond the university.

What all of this means is that very few PhD experiences are just about researching and writing up a thesis.

The likelihood is that you’ll also do some (or all) of the following during your PhD:

The work is usually paid and is increasingly accompanied by formal training and evaluation.

Conference presentation

As a PhD student you’ll be at the cutting edge of your field, doing original research and producing new results. This means that your work will be interest to other scholars and that your results could be worth presenting at academic conferences .

Doing this is very worthwhile, whatever your career plans. You’ll develop transferrable skills in public speaking and presenting, gain feedback on your results and begin to be recognised as an expert in your area.

Conferences are also great places to network with other students and academics.

Publication

As well as presenting your research, you may also have the opportunity to publish work in academic journals, books, or other media. This can be a challenging process.

Your work will be judged according to the same high standards as any other scholar’s and will normally go through extensive peer review processes. But it’s also highly rewarding. Seeing your work ‘in print’ is an incredible validation of your PhD research and a definite boost to your academic CV.

Public engagement and communication

Academic work may be associated with the myth of the ‘ivory tower’ – an insular community of experts focussing on obscure topics of little interest outside the university. But this is far from the case. More and more emphasis is being placed on the ‘impact’ of research and its wider benefits to the public – with funding decisions being made accordingly.

Thankfully, there are plenty of opportunities to try your hand at public engagement as a PhD student. Universities are often involved in local events and initiatives to communicate the benefits of their research, ranging from workshops in local schools to public lectures and presentations.

Some PhD programmes include structured training in order to help students with activities such as the above. Your supervisor may also be able to help by identifying suitable conferences and public engagement opportunities, or by involving you in appropriate university events and public engagement initiatives.

These experiences will be an important part of your development as a researchers - and will enhance the value of your PhD regardless of your career plans.

What is a PhD for – and who should study one?

So, you know what a PhD actually is, what’s involved in completing one and what you might get up to whilst you do. That just leaves one final question: should you do a PhD?

Unfortunately, it’s not a question we can answer for you.

A PhD is difficult and uniquely challenging. It requires at least three years of hard work and dedication after you’ve already completed an undergraduate degree (and probably a Masters degree too).

You’ll need to support yourself during those years and, whilst you will be building up an impressive set of skills, you won’t be directly progressing in a career.

But a PhD is also immensely rewarding. It’s your chance to make a genuine contribution to the sum of human knowledge and produce work that other researchers can (and will) build on in future. However obscure your topic feels, there’s really no such thing as a useless PhD.

A PhD is also something to be incredibly proud of. A proportionately tiny number of people go on to do academic work at this level. Whatever you end up doing after your doctorate you’ll have an impressive qualification – and a title to match. What’s more, non-academic careers and professions are increasingly recognising the unique skills and experience a PhD brings.

Other PhDs - do degree titles matter?

The PhD is the oldest and most common form of higher research degree, but a few alternatives are available. Some, such as the DPhil are essentially identical to a PhD. Others, such as the Professional Doctorate or DBA are slightly different. You can find out more in our guide to types of PhD .

Is a PhD for me?

There’s more advice on the value of a PhD – and good reasons for studying one – elsewhere in this section. But the following are some quick tips if you’re just beginning to consider a PhD.

Speak to your lecturers / tutors

The best people to ask about PhD study are people who’ve earned one. Ask staff at your current or previous university about their experience of doctoral research – what they enjoyed, what they didn’t and what their tips might be.

If you’re considering a PhD for an academic career, ask about that too. Are job prospects good in your field? And what’s it really like to work at a university?

Speak to current PhD students

Want to know what it’s like studying a PhD right now? Or what it’s like doing research at a particular university? Ask someone who knows.

Current PhD students were just like you a year or two ago and most will be happy to answer questions.

If you can’t get in touch with any students ‘face to face’, pop over to the Postgraduate Forum – you’ll find plenty of students there who are happy to chat about postgraduate research.

Take a look at advertised projects and programmes

This may seem like a strange suggestion. After all, you’re only going to study one PhD, so what’s the point of reading about lots of others?

Well, looking at the details of different PhD projects is a great way to get a general sense of what PhD research is like. You’ll see what different PhDs tend to have in common and what kinds of unique opportunity might be available to you.

And, with thousands of PhDs in our database , you’re already in a great place to start.

Read our other advice articles

Finally, you can also check out some of the other advice on the FindAPhD website. We’ve looked at some good (and bad) reasons for studying a PhD as well as the value of a doctorate to different career paths.

More generally, you can read our in-depth look at a typical PhD journey , or find out more about specific aspects of doctoral study such as working with a supervisor or writing your dissertation .

We add new articles all the time – the best way to stay up to date is by signing up for our free PhD opportunity newsletter .

Ready to find your PhD?

Head on over to our PhD search listings to learn what opportunities are on offer within your discipline.

Our postgrad newsletter shares courses, funding news, stories and advice

Mark bennett.

Mark joined FindAPhD to develop our first ever advice articles in 2013 and now serves as our Director of Audience & Editorial, making sure our websites and information are as useful as possible for people thinking about Masters and PhD study. He has a PhD in English Literature from the University of Sheffield, as well as Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Kent and the University of South Wales.

You may also like...

What happens during a typical PhD, and when? We've summarised the main milestones of your PhD journey to show you how to get a PhD.

The PhD thesis is the most important part of a doctoral degree. This page will introduce you to what you need to know about the PhD dissertation.

This page will give you an idea of what to expect from your routine as a PhD student, explaining how your daily life will look at you progress through a doctoral degree.

PhD fees can vary based on subject, university and location. Use our guide to find out the PhD fees in the UK and other destinations, as well as doctoral living costs.

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9 things you should consider before embarking on a PhD

June 23, 2021 | 15 min read

By Andy Greenspon

The ideal research program you envision is not what it appears to be

Editor's Note:  When Andy Greenspon wrote this article, he was a first-year student in Applied Physics at Harvard. Now he has completed his PhD. — Alison Bert, June 23, 2021

If you are planning to apply for a PhD program, you're probably getting advice from dozens of students, professors, administrators your parents and the Internet. Sometimes it's hard to know which advice to focus on and what will make the biggest difference in the long-run. So before you go back to daydreaming about the day you accept that Nobel Prize, here are nine things you should give serious thought to. One or more of these tips may save you from anguish and help you make better decisions as you embark on that path to a PhD.

1. Actively seek out information about PhD programs.

Depending on your undergraduate institution, there may be more or less support to guide you in selecting a PhD program – but there is generally much less than when you applied to college.

On the website of my physics department, I found a page written by one of my professors, which listed graduate school options in physics and engineering along with resources to consult. As far as I know, my career center did not send out much information about PhD programs. Only after applying to programs did I find out that my undergraduate website had a link providing general information applicable to most PhD programs. This is the kind of information that is available all over the Internet.

So don't wait for your career center or department to lay out a plan for you. Actively seek it out from your career center counselors, your professors, the Internet — and especially from alumni from your department who are in or graduated from your desired PhD program. First-hand experiences will almost always trump the knowledge you get second-hand.

2. A PhD program is not simply a continuation of your undergraduate program.

Many students don't internalize this idea until they have jumped head-first into a PhD program. The goal is not to complete an assigned set of courses as in an undergraduate program, but to develop significant and original research in your area of expertise. You will have required courses to take, especially if you do not have a master's degree yet, but these are designed merely to compliment your research and provide a broad and deep knowledge base to support you in your research endeavors.

At the end of your PhD program, you will be judged on your research, not on how well you did in your courses. Grades are not critical as long as you maintain the minimum GPA requirement, and you should not spend too much time on courses at the expense of research projects. Graduate courses tend to be designed to allow you to take away what you will find useful to your research more than to drill a rigid set of facts and techniques into your brain.

3. Take a break between your undergraduate education and a PhD program.

You are beginning your senior year of college, and your classmates are asking you if you are applying to graduate school. You think to yourself, "Well, I like studying this topic and the associated research, and I am going to need a PhD if I want to be a professor or do independent research, so I might as well get it done as soon as possible." But are you certain about the type of research you want to do? Do you know where you want to live for the next five years? Are you prepared to stay in an academic environment for nine years straight?

Many people burn out or end up trudging through their PhD program without a thought about what lies outside of or beyond it. A break of a year or two or even more may be necessary to gain perspective. If all you know is an academic environment, how can you compare it to anything else? Many people take a job for five or more years before going back to get their PhD. It is true though that the longer you stay out of school, the harder it is to go back to an academic environment with lower pay and a lack of set work hours. A one-year break will give you six months or so after graduation before PhD applications are due. A two-year gap might be ideal to provide time to identify your priorities in life and explore different areas of research without having school work or a thesis competing for your attention.

Getting research experience outside of a degree program can help focus your interests and give you a leg up on the competition when you finally decide to apply. It can also help you determine whether you will enjoy full-time research or if you might prefer an alternative career path that still incorporates science, for example, in policy, consulting or business — or a hybrid research job that combines scientific and non-scientific skills.

I will be forever grateful that I chose to do research in a non-academic environment for a year between my undergraduate and PhD programs. It gave me the chance to get a feel for doing nothing but research for a full year. Working at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the Space Division, I was the manager of an optics lab, performing spectroscopic experiments on rocks and minerals placed in a vacuum chamber. While my boss determined the overall experimental design, I was able to make my own suggestions for experiments and use my own discretion in how to perform them. I presented this research at two national conferences as well — a first for me. I was also able to learn about other research being performed there, determine which projects excited me the most, and thus narrow down my criteria for a PhD program.

4. Your current area of study does not dictate what you have to study in graduate school.

You might be studying the function and regulation of membrane proteins or doing a computational analysis of the conductivity of different battery designs, but that doesn't mean your PhD project must revolve around similar projects. The transition between college or another research job to a PhD program is one of the main transitions in your life when it is perfectly acceptable to completely change research areas.

If you are doing computation, you may want to switch to lab-based work or vice versa. If you are working in biology but have always had an interest in photonics research, now is the time to try it out. You may find that you love the alternative research and devote your PhD to it, you might hate it and fall back on your previous area of study — or you may even discover a unique topic that incorporates both subjects.

One of the best aspects of the PhD program is that you can make the research your own. Remember, the answer to the question "Why are you doing this research?" should not be "Well, because it's what I've been working on for the past few years already."While my undergraduate research was in atomic physics, I easily transitioned into applied physics and materials science for my PhD program and was able to apply much of what I learned as an undergraduate to my current research. If you are moving from the sciences to a non-STEM field such as social sciences or humanities, this advice can still apply, though the transition is a bit more difficult and more of a permanent commitment.

5. Make sure the PhD program has a variety of research options, and learn about as many research groups as possible in your first year.

Even if you believe you are committed to one research area, you may find that five years of such work is not quite what you expected. As such, you should find a PhD program where the professors are not all working in the same narrowly focused research area. Make sure there are at least three professors working on an array of topics you could imagine yourself working on.

In many graduate programs, you are supposed to pick a research advisor before even starting. But such arrangements often do not work out, and you may be seeking a new advisor before you know it. That's why many programs give students one or two semesters to explore different research areas before choosing a permanent research advisor.

In your first year, you should explore the research of a diverse set of groups. After touring their labs, talking to the students, or sitting in on group meetings, you may find that this group is the right one for you.

In addition, consider the importance of who your research advisor will be. This will be the person you interact with regularly for five straight years and who will have a crucial influence on your research. Do you like their advising style? Does their personality mesh with yours? Can you get along? Of course, the research your advisor works on is critical, but if you have large disagreements at every meeting or do not get helpful advice on how to proceed with your research, you may not be able to succeed. At the very least, you must be able to handle your advisor's management of the lab and advising style if you are going to be productive in your work. The Harvard program I enrolled in has professors working on research spanning from nanophotonics to energy materials and biophysics, covering my wide range of interests. By spending time in labs and offices informally chatting with graduate students, I found an advisor whose personality and research interests meshed very well with me. Their genuine enthusiasm for this advisor and their excitement when talking about their research was the best input I could have received.

6. Location is more important than you think — but name recognition is not.

The first consideration in choosing a PhD program should be, "Is there research at this university that I am passionate about?" After all, you will have to study this topic in detail for four or more years. But when considering the location of a university, your first thought should not be, "I'm going to be in the lab all the time, so what does it matter if I'm by the beach, in a city, or in the middle of nowhere." Contrary to popular belief, you will have a life outside of the lab, and you will have to be able to live with it for four or more years. Unlike when you were an undergraduate, your social and extracurricular life will revolve less around the university community, so the environment of the surrounding area is important. Do you need a city atmosphere to be productive? Or is your ideal location surrounded by forests and mountains or by a beach? Is being close to your family important? Imagine what it will be like living in the area during the times you are not doing research; consider what activities will you do and how often will you want to visit family.

While many of the PhD programs that accepted me had research that truly excited me, the only place I could envision living for five or more years was Boston, as the city I grew up near and whose environment and culture I love, and to be close to my family.

While location is more important than you think, the reputation and prestige of the university is not. In graduate school, the reputation of the individual department you are joining — and sometimes even the specific research group you work in — are more important. There, you will develop research collaborations and professional connections that will be crucial during your program and beyond. When searching for a job after graduation, other scientists will look at your specific department, the people you have worked with and the research you have done.

At the Asgard Irish Pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Andy Greenspon talks with fellow graduate students from Harvard and MIT at an Ask for Evidence workshop organized by Sense About Science. He grew up near Boston and chose to go to graduate school there.

7. Those time management skills you developed in college? Develop them further.

After surviving college, you may think you have mastered the ability to squeeze in your coursework, extracurricular activities and even some sleep. In a PhD program, time management reaches a whole new level. You will not only have lectures to attend and homework to do. You will have to make time for your research, which will include spending extended periods of time in the lab, analyzing data, and scheduling time with other students to collaborate on research.

Also, you will most likely have to teach for a number of semesters, and you will want to attend any seminar that may be related to your research or that just peaks your interest. To top it all off, you will still want to do many of those extracurricular activities you did as an undergraduate. While in the abstract, it may seem simple enough to put this all into your calendar and stay organized, you will find quickly enough that the one hour you scheduled for a task might take two or three hours, putting you behind on everything else for the rest of the day or forcing you to cut other planned events. Be prepared for schedules to go awry, and be willing to sacrifice certain activities. For some, this might be sleep; for others, it might be an extracurricular activity or a few seminars they were hoping to attend. In short, don't panic when things don't go according to plan; anticipate possible delays and be ready to adapt.

8. Expect to learn research skills on the fly – or take advantage of the training your department or career center offers.

This may be the first time you will have to write fellowship or grant proposals, write scientific papers, attend conferences, present your research to others, or even peer-review scientific manuscripts. From my experience, very few college students or even PhD students receive formal training on how to perform any of these tasks. Usually people follow by example. But this is not always easy and can be quite aggravating sometimes. So seek out talks or interactive programs offered by your department or career center. The effort will be well worth it when you realize you've become quite adept at quickly and clearly explaining your research to others and at outlining scientific papers and grant proposals. Alternatively, ask a more experienced graduate student or your advisor for advice on these topics. In addition, be prepared for a learning curve when learning all the procedures and processes of the group you end up working in. There may be many new protocols to master, whether they involve synthesizing chemicals, growing bacterial cells, or aligning mirrors on an optical table. In addition, the group may use programming languages or data analysis software you are unfamiliar with. Don't get discouraged but plan to spend extra effort getting used to these procedures and systems. After working with them regularly, they will soon become second nature. When I first started my job at Johns Hopkins, I felt overwhelmed by all the intricacies of the experiment and definitely made a few mistakes, including breaking a number of optical elements. But by the end of my year there, I had written an updated protocol manual for the modifications I had made to the experimental procedures and was the "master" passing on my knowledge to the next person taking the job.

9. There are no real breaks.

In a stereotypical "9-to-5" job, when the workday is over or the weekend arrives, you can generally forget about your work. And a vacation provides an even longer respite. But in a PhD program, your schedule becomes "whenever you find time to get your work done." You might be in the lab during regular work hours or you might be working until 10 p.m. or later to finish an experiment. And the only time you might have available to analyze data might be at 1 a.m. Expect to work during part of the weekend, too. Graduate students do go on vacations but might still have to do some data analysis or a literature search while away.

As a PhD student, it might be hard to stop thinking about the next step in an experiment or that data sitting on your computer or that paper you were meaning to start. While I imagine some students can bifurcate their mind between graduate school life and everything else, that's quite hard for many of us to do. No matter what, my research lies somewhere in the back of my head. In short, your schedule is much more flexible as a PhD student, but as a result, you never truly take a break from your work.

While this may seem like a downer, remember that you should have passion for the research you work on (most of the time), so you should be excited to think up new experiments or different ways to consider that data you have collected. Even when I'm lying in bed about to fall asleep, I am sometimes ruminating about aspects of my experiment I could modify or what information I could do a literature search on to gain new insights. A PhD program is quite the commitment and rarely lives up to expectations – but it is well worth the time and effort you will spend for something that truly excites you.

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Andy greenspon.

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10 things you need to know before starting a PhD degree

So you want to do a PhD degree, huh? Here we've got everything you need to know about getting started.

So you want to do a PhD degree, huh? Are you sure about that? It’s not going to be an easy decision, so I’ve put together a list of 10 things you need to know before starting a PhD degree. Oh, and don’t panic!

I have recently graduated from the University of Manchester with a PhD in Plant Sciences after four difficult, but enjoyable, years. During those four years, I often felt slightly lost – and there was more than one occasion on which I didn’t even want to imagine writing up my thesis in fear of delving into fits of panic.

On reflection, I realise that – to quote a colleague – commencing my PhD was like “jumping in the deep end with your eyes closed.” If only I’d known to take a deep breath.

1. Are you sure you want to do a PhD degree?

Let’s be under no false impressions, completing a PhD isn’t easy. There will be times when you feel like Wile E Coyote chasing after the Roadrunner – a little bit out of your depth a lot of the time. It’s four years of your life, so make sure it is what you really want to do.

If you want to pursue a career in science, a PhD isn’t always necessary.

It is possible to make great inroads into industry without a doctoral degree. That said, a PhD can also be a very useful qualification with many transferable skills to add to your CV.

By the time you’ll have finished, you can include essentials such as time management, organisational skills, prioritising workloads, attention to detail, writing skills, presenting to an audience – and most importantly – resilience, to name but a few.

2. Choose your project, and supervisor, wisely.

This is  very  important.

Time after time, our experienced scientists at EI, including Erik Van-Den-Bergh (and I agree) say, “ make sure you’re extremely passionate about exactly that subject. ” When I saw the PhD opening that I eventually was offered, I remember being demonstrably ecstatic about the project before I’d even started it.

I was always interested in calcium signalling and organised a meeting with my potential supervisor immediately, which (to quote Billy Connolly) I leapt into in a mood of gay abandon.

Not only does this help you to keep engaged with your project even through the painstakingly slow times, it also greatly enhances your ability to sell yourself in an interview. If you can show passion and enthusiasm about the project and the science then you’ll be that one step ahead of other candidates – which is all the more important now that many studentships are competitive.

You have to  be the best  out of many, often exceptional candidates.

However, as important as it is to be passionate about your project, make sure that the person who will be supervising you is worthy.

Does your potential supervisor have a prolific track record of publishing work? What is the community of scientists like in the lab you may be working in? Are there experienced post-doctoral scientists working in the lab? Who will your advisor be? Is your supervisor an expert in the field you are interested in? Is the work you will be doing ground-breaking and novel, or is it quite niche?

There is nothing more frustrating – and I know many PhD degree students with this problem – than having a supervisor who is rarely there to talk to, shows little interest in your work, and cannot help when you are struggling in the third year of your project and some guidance would be much appreciated.

Personally, and I was very lucky to have this, I think it’s incredibly useful to have two supervisors. My PhD degree was split between the University of Manchester and the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. Between my supervisors, I had two people with expertise in different fields, who could give me some fantastic advice from different perspectives. This also meant that I had two people to check through my thesis chapters and provide useful comments on my drafts.

Interested in doing a PhD?

If you're interested in applying for a PhD, applications normally open around October. Visit the page below to see our latest opportunities.

You can also read our other PhD blogs from current and past PhD researchers.

3. Treat it like a job.

In an academic environment, it is highly likely that you will define your own schedule; there won’t necessarily be someone clocking you in and out of the office. Granted, you are still a student – and a PhD degree still offers many of the perks of a student lifestyle.

However, while you may have breezed through your undergraduate degree with the occasional all-nighter at the library and three weeks of frantic reading towards the end of each term, there is no room for cramming during a PhD.

Make sure you are passionate about your subject before taking it to PhD level. And by passionate I mean  really  passionate.

For a start, you will most likely have to write a literature review in your first three months, which if done well will form the main bulk of your thesis introduction and will save you a lot of stress and strain when it comes to writing up.

At the end of your first year, you will have to write a continuation report, which is your proof that you deserve to carry on to the end of your three or four years. This doesn’t leave much time for lab work, which means time management is incredibly important. If you think you’ll be able to swan in at 11 and leave at 3, think again.

Fundamentally, never, ever rest on your laurels! As tempting as it may be to slack-off slightly in the second year of your four year PhD, don’t.

4. Be organised.

This is a no-brainer but still, it’s worth a mention. Take an hour on a Monday morning to come up with a list of short-term and long-term goals. You’ll probably have to present your work at regular lab meetings, so it’s always worth knowing what has to be done (lest you look a pillock in front of the lab when there’s nothing to show for your last two weeks.)

It’s always good to have a timeline of what will be done when. If you have a PCR, maybe you can squeeze in another experiment, read a few papers, start writing the introduction to your thesis, or even start collecting the data you already have into figures.

The more good use you make of your time, the easier it’ll be to finish your PhD in the long run. Plus, it’s lovely to sit back and look at actual graphs, rather than worry about having enough to put into a paper. Once you’ve typed up your data, you’ll realise you’ve done far more than you had anticipated and the next step forward will be entirely more apparent.

5. Embrace change – don’t get bogged down in the details.

Felix Shaw – one of our bioinformatics researchers at EI – put it best when he said, “ it felt like I was running into brick walls all the way through [my PhD]… you’d run into a brick wall, surmount it, only to run straight into another. ”

You’ll find that, often, experiments don’t work. What might seem like a great idea could turn out to be as bad as choosing to bat first on a fresh wicket on the first day of the third Ashes test at Edgbaston. (Yeah, we don't know what that means either - Ed).

Resilience is key while completing your PhD. Be open to change and embrace the chance to experiment in different ways. You might even end up with a thesis chapter including all of your failures, which at the very least is something interesting to discuss during your  viva voce .

6. Learn how to build, and use, your network.

As a PhD student, you are a complete novice in the world of science and most things in the lab will be – if not new to you – not exquisitely familiar. This matters not, if you take advantage of the people around you.

Firstly, there are lab technicians and research assistants, who have probably been using the technique you are learning for years and years. They are incredibly experienced at a number of techniques and are often very happy to help show you how things are done.

There are postdocs and other PhD students, too. Not only can they help you with day-to-day experiments, they can offer a unique perspective on how something is done and will probably have a handy back-catalogue of fancy new techniques to try.

There are also a bunch of PIs, not limited to your own, who are great to talk to. These people run labs of their own, have different ideas, and might even give you a job once you’ve completed your PhD.

Don’t limit yourself to the labs directly around you, however. There are a massive number of science conferences going on all around the world. Some of them, such as the Society of Biology Conference, take place every year at a similar time in different locations, attracting many of the leaders in their respective fields.

If you are terrified by the prospect of speaking at a full-blown science conference and having your work questioned by genuine skeptics, there are also many student-led conferences which will help you dangle your fresh toes in the murky waters of presenting your work.

One such conference, the Second Student Bioinformatics Symposium, which took place at Earlham Institute in October 2016, was a great place for candidates to share their projects with peers, who are often much more friendly than veteran researchers with 30 year careers to their name when it comes to the questions at the end of your talk.

Another great reason to attend conferences, of course, is the social-side too – make the most of this. You never know who you might meet and connect with over a few drinks once the talks are over and the party commences.

7. Keep your options open.

You should be aware that for every 200 PhD students,  only 7  will get a permanent academic post , so it’s  incredibly unlikely that you’ll become a Professor  – and even if you make PI, it probably won’t be until your mid-forties.

You may also, despite having commenced along the academic path, decide that actually, working in a lab environment isn’t for you. Most PhD graduates, eventually, will not pursue an academic career, but move on to a wide range of other vocations.

It might be that Science Communication is more up your street. This was certainly the case for me – and I made sure that I took part in as many public engagement events as possible while completing my PhD. Most Universities have an active public engagement profile, while organisations such as STEM can provide you with ample opportunities to interact with schools and the general public.

You might also consider entrepreneurship as a route away from academia, which might still allow you to use your expert scientific knowledge. There are a variety of competitions and workshops available to those with a business mind, a strong example being Biotechnology YES.

I, for example, took part in the Thought for Food Challenge, through which I have been able to attend events around the world and meet a vast array of like-minded individuals. Many of the participants from the challenge have gone on to set up successful businesses and have even found jobs as a result of the competition.

8. Balance.

Remember that you still have a life outside of your PhD degree – and that this can be one of the greatest opportunities to make amazing friends from around the world.

A science institute is usually home to the brightest students from a variety of countries and can provide a chance to experience a delightful range of different people and cultures. Don’t just stick to the people in your lab, go to events for postgraduate students and meet people from all over campus.

There are usually academic happy hours happening on Fridays after work where you can buy cheap beer, or some lucky institutions even have their own bar. At Norwich Research Park, we not only have the Rec Centre, along with bar, swimming pool, calcetto, samba classes, archery, and a range of other activities, but there are also biweekly “Postdoc pub clubs” which are very fun to join on a Tuesday evening.

Maintain your hobbies and keep up with friends outside of your PhD and you’ll probably find it’s not that gruelling a process after all.

Plus, the people you meet and become friends with might be able to help you out – or at least be able to offer a sympathetic shoulder.

9. Practical advice.

If, after reading all of this, you’re still going to march forth and claim your doctorhood, then this section should be rather useful.

Firstly, make sure your data is backed up. It’s amazing how many people don’t do this and you’d be bonkers not to. Keep your work saved on a shared drive, so that if your computer decides to spontaneously combust upon pressing the return key, you won’t have lost all of your precious work – or have to go through every one of your lab books and type it all up again.

Secondly, don’t leave your bag in the pub with your half-written thesis in it. I did this, the bag was fine, I was in a state of terror for at least half an hour before the kind person at Weatherspoons located said bag.

Thirdly, read. Read broadly, read anything and everything that’s closely related to your project – or completely unrelated. It’s sometimes amazing where you might find a stroke of inspiration, a new technique you hadn’t thought of … or even in idea of where you might like to go next.

Finally, ask questions – all of the time. No matter how stupid it might sound in your head, everyone’s probably been asked it before, and if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

You’ll probably look far less stupid if you just ask the person standing next to you how the gradient PCR function works on your thermal cycler rather than standing there randomly prodding buttons and looking flustered, anyway.

10. Savour the positives.

At the end of all of this, it has to be said that doing a PhD is absolutely brilliant. There’s no other time in your life that you’ll be this free to pursue your very own project and work almost completely independently. By the time you come to the end of your PhD, you will be the leading expert in the world on something. A real expert! Until the next PhD student comes along …

Related reading.

A PhD, is it worth it? Just ask our students

The realities of doing a PhD

My advice for PhD students? See what bites

COVID and my PhD: to lockdown and back

How does a PhD work and how to find the right one

Building the confidence to take on a PhD

PhD life, 10 things we learned in our first six months

What’s the third year of a PhD like? Tips for navigating your PhD

PhD by experience

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I wasted six years of my life getting a PhD degree. What should I do, and how will I survive?

I struggled with low self confidence throughout my bachelors, masters and PhD in chemical engineering. After spending two years in Masters and six years in getting a PhD degree, I am lost at what I can do with my life.

Initially, my plan was to be in academia. Though I love doing research, I don't see that as a possibility anymore.

I did not do well in my PhD. I have only two first-author journal publications in ~2.5 impact factor journals. I did not acquire significant skills. I am bad at programming, and I have a 3.7 GPA. I did not learn to drive or learn any foreign language. I did not improve my health or developed a new hobby. I even did not spend time on having a relationship. In short, I have done nothing over the past six years.

My PhD supervisor has given me a postdoc position. And I feel extremely inadequate. I feel that I won't be able to do anything after my postdoc year, and I will just be a burden and disappointment to my parents.

I am an international student living in the US.

I don't know what I should do. What should I do?

• career-path
• academic-life
• early-career
• emotional-responses

• 190 I think your only issue is one of self esteem. I suggest you find a counsellor and discuss where you are and how you feel. Don't let imposter syndrome lead to depression. Your advisor can give you professional advice, but you should also seek personal advice. The future is brighter than you think. –  Buffy Commented Dec 7, 2019 at 16:30
• 7 Is the work fun though? –  smcs Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 9:52
• 1 Is there anything in your past that is unresolved? I suspect your low self confidence stems from something else and not the PhD itself. For example you mention lack of relationship, so I suspect you have a non-existent sex life. Are you exercising and eating right? All of those things need to be in order for you to be happy doing a PhD. Otherwise all you'll have is a PhD which is empty and meaningless. –  sashang Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 23:45
• 3 ‘I have only two publications …’ to me, who has a grand total of zero from both the PhD project that fell short of its desired outcome and my first two years of postdoc in which the ‘basically already finished, just this’ project turned out almost impossible, this is quite a violet slap in the face. –  Jan Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 2:33
• 1 Seek counselling! The problems you describe have very little to do with academia, but very much with you. This website cannot provide adequate counselling in that regard (although some of the answers of course hit very relevant points). –  user2705196 Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 18:21

9 Answers 9

It looks to me like you did not do so badly as you think. Two publications and 3.7 GPA are not so bad. It might depend on the field, it might not be the best ever, but I have seen much worse. If your supervisor offered you a postdoc position after having you for 6 years as a PhD student, it means that they consider your work useful.

You might be suffering from impostor syndrome . Do read the question and the answers in that link and see if you identify.

If you are not sure now, you have plenty of time during your postdoc year to decide whether you want to continue in academia or get a job in industry. The pros and cons of both options have been discussed extensively, as a quick Google search for "industry vs academia" shows. I personally agree with this source .

And, in most cases, the answer to "I have wasted X years of my life because I did not do Y and Z" is "do not look at the past and do Y and Z now". Especially when, as in your case, Y and Z can be done at any stage in your career life, such as learning languages, programming or driving.

• 27 Also, the field is chemistry, where the PhD is basically required for an entry level position in industry, so that is certainly not a waste of time. –  Simon Richter Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 13:29
• 13 @SimonRichter Actually, the field is engineering (chemical engineering) where a BSc is enough for entry level jobs industry. –  Cell Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 16:52
• 2 Get a job in industry. The great part is, that at the end of the project/delivery/month, work is done and completed. At least for me, I never considered the results in science 'done'; also pace is probably faster, so you will get getting quite a few achievements under your belt quickly (since you are smart). –  lalala Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 19:03
• 3 @Cell Where I've worked, a PhD is automatically hired into a position that it would take ~5 years to get promoted to from entry-level with BSc, and the PhD can offer more job opportunities and security in the right industry. If OP goes into industry, the last six years could be well worth it! –  Sam Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 19:45
• 1 @Sam That's nice, but I never said getting a PhD is a bad idea. I was only correcting the previous poster. With that being said, unless you plan on doing novel research, a PhD may make you overqualified for many jobs that can be done by a BASc, or MEng. You also didn't say what your field is. –  Cell Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 20:20

To be honest, I'm tempted to agree with Buffy. It sounds like the biggest issue you have might actually be the one you identified at the start of your post - low self-confidence. Studying for a PhD, and working in academia in general, has a tendency to have that effect on people - you're far from alone.

If I were you, I'd be tempted to take stock of my overall life situation at this point, perhaps with some input from the people around me, and try to get an objective view of how things really are - they may not actually be as bad as you think.

For example, here are some plus points:

You finished a PhD. That's already a huge deal - lots of people don't even start a PhD, and of those who do, a proportion never finish. Of those who finish, lots of people feel like they didn't change the world with their PhD, and that's fine - most people don't, and that's not required. You've got the rest of your life to worry about that, if you want to, and it's not required even then. It's ok to just live and be happy sometimes.

You've got a postdoc position lined up, if you want to stay in academia. Your supervisor wants you to stay, which means you probably did something right during your PhD. Maybe your PhD didn't actually go as badly as you think.

If you've just finished your PhD, it's quite likely (in the absence of other evidence to the contrary, which I don't have) that you're still relatively young. That means you've got time on your side - there's still a whole lot of life ahead of you in which to do all the things you want to do (learning to drive, learning a foreign language, improving your health, developing your hobbies, having a relationship, ...). It sounds like you're unhappy that you haven't been doing those things, which means you'd probably be happier if you started doing them. Pick one and go start on it right now - hopefully you'll feel better (it's generally worked for me, when I've been feeling down). Starting on one of them sounds like much more fun than carrying on feeling fed up about not doing them, at any rate.

Best of luck!

p.s. For what it's worth, the fact that you've got a list of things you wish you'd been doing, and are unhappy that you haven't been doing them, is a good sign - there's an easy fix for that, which is go do some of them. That's much better than not having a list of things, and sitting there having existential angst and wondering whether life is pointless :)

• The postdoc is with my PhD advisor. I don't think that's an achievement. Probably my advisor felt pity on me and gave me the position. –  Abhik Tandon Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 0:57
• 45 @AbhikTandon: Bear in mind that your advisor has something to lose from keeping you if you're truly not delivering (there's an opportunity cost - they could look for someone better). If they're keeping you, it's safe to assume you're at least above bar. Some advisors are kind, but few are so kind that they'll use their scarce funding to renew someone who has no possibility of being useful to them in any way. Advisors who pity you buy you a beer, gently tell you the truth, and help you find a job elsewhere; they don't generally commit £30k or more just to cheer you up. –  Stuart Golodetz Commented Dec 8, 2019 at 1:45
• 4 @AbhikTandon Do consider that a PostDoc position often involves mentoring or teaching junior students, grading work, running tutorials, et cetera. Given that your PhD advisor is judged and graded not just on their research, but also on their teaching methods/standards, it's a role they quite literally cannot afford to give out of pity. You not being "up to standard" would put their job on the line! (That said, finding a hobby - preferably something more physically active than mentally, such as a martial art, to contrast with work - for a couple of evenings a week is a good idea.) –  Chronocidal Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 8:41
• the highest possible academic degree that one can achieve
• a job in the field
• a life in a developed country

You're faring really well.

This is not to say that what you're feeling isn't real. It is real, and there is a problem. It's just that the problem is not what you have, but who you are. What you have is a highly successful life, at the same time, you are depressed and miserable.

You don't need more things, you have it all. No Nature publication will take you out of your dark place. You need to learn to enjoy life and accept yourself.

I know the last sentence is useless in itself, because it only tells you what you need, but not how to do it. Unfortunately, that's about as far as a stranger on the internet can get you. Speak to friends, speak to a psychologist, speak to anyone willing to listen, speak to yourself and try to figure out where does this need for accomplishments comes from, so you can move on.

• Technically I believe a DSc is a higher academic degree - but that usually comes at the end of a distinguished academic degree. –  Martin Bonner supports Monica Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 16:06
• 1 @MartinBonnersupportsMonica DSc is not universally higher than PhD. In some countries DSc is just what a PhD in biology/physics is called, while in other countries DSc is just honorary, while other countries don't use PhD at all and have only DSc, which are seen as the equivalent of PhD, in countries that have PhD. –  Andrei Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 17:51

You need to talk to someone – be that a counsellor (as @Buffy has suggested in the comments), a family member, a friend, or even (depending on your relationship) your supervisor. It does sound like a good part (if not most!) of the problem you describe may stem from impostor syndrome, and if that's the case, then it will be crucial to have others as a sounding board, to help put things into perspective. I have never known anyone in academia who didn't struggle at some point, somehow. Academia is tough, research is hard and failures are inevitable.

You mention you love doing research. Considering that you have also successfully turned that research into publications, it rather sounds like you do have what it takes to succeed. (Again, to put things into perspective, in my field it is normal for PhD students to graduate with 0–1 publications, and the impact factor of what's considered the leading journal is about 2.3. Different fields are different, yes. But you have definitely not failed.)

The other things you mention seem more minor to me. You say you are bad at programming. But you can always improve – programming, if anything, is one of those things where practice makes perfect. You mention you have neglected your health, hobbies and interpersonal relationships. But this is not uncommon: these things happen to many people who pursue a PhD, in various ways, and it is not too late to do something about them now. You say you have done nothing over the past 6 years. This cannot be literally true (you have earned a PhD, an enormous undertaking), but even if it were, the thing to do now would be to start doing those things you have neglected in the past.

But please do consider talking to someone. Having to verbalize your own thoughts and feelings is an excellent way of beginning to understand your thoughts and feelings, and of starting to see a solution.

Get your frame of reference right.

Achieving a PhD puts you in the 5% highest educated part of the population. That's quite significant. But you're comparing yourself to the smartest people in your direct environment - an environment set up try to get together all the smartest people.

If you don't manage to be in the top 1%, surely being in the top 5% is still something to feel pretty happy with?

They are marathon runners on arrival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSZlSaPJAdQ

Do they look well? Can you imagine, how bad feeling could it be, being there, after 42km of running?

But believe me: it is uncomparably better to be there, than for us, watching them on the youtube .

Don't do any irrecoverable mistake now! Wait, at least some months, more ideally some years! Take some longer leave, if you can (probably you can), and do nothing! Only think.

For example, now you can learn to drive. Ask anybody having a driving license, but no Phd, would they switch to the other.

I know what it's like to feel like you "haven't been living" for years. Six years of my life disappeared by my being extremely sick.

I have 5 years of unemployment in my résumé, an unfinished PhD, a tiny professional network, and ongoing health problems which make many things impossible. But I'm living again.

Some people have been in prison for 10 years. Some have escaped war-torn countries. Some have recovered from drugs or alcoholism. It's very hard when you suddenly awaken from a world of constraints into a world of choices, seemingly at a huge disadvantage from others within it. (I am not saying you've got it easier than they do. I'm saying you have this in common.)

Some of them go on to do amazing things. They have a moment that will define their life, and they work and work and work and work to a level that others can't imagine, and do something great for the benefit of their fellow man.

Others are just happy to be alive, happy to have gotten away from a bad place. Nothing wrong with that.

The most important thing in life is not success or respect or glory. It is to make choices that keep you out of misery. Anything more is a bonus.

But asking the question you're asking proves you are ready to change your life.

Maybe you could go to your home country or a country in poverty, where your skills and knowledge could make a bigger difference. Remember you don't need to use your degree at all; you could enter a completely different field. It's better to do it by choice than by necessity. Doing a variety of menial jobs of different sorts can be really enriching, since you see life from so many angles.

Doing a PhD doesn't just teach you about your topic; it teaches you about being thorough, exploring the state of the art, problem-solving, organisational skills, and so on. These make you very valuable if you use them well.

I know what I want to create. And I know what's stopping me is not my 6 missing years; it's my unwillingness to confront my weaknesses (like networking and time management.) Now I'm confronting these things, and I'm surprised at my success.

Go get 'em.

Two first-authored papers is not bad, I seen a lot of people getting phd for way less and still being full of themselves. You are doing good.

You don't think you did well during your PhD, but you stuck with it anyways. That sounds like a lot of PhD students. But, it also sounds like students that stuck with something, b/c their parents were back-seat driving their futures.

As others have said, your self-esteem issues stem from something. Something makes you feel inadequate all the time, and makes you compare yourself to others all the time.

Usually, that starts from overbearing parents constantly comparing you to other kids, chastising you for not being as good as some top-tier, stellar performer in your same grade or field, etc.

My dad did that to me my whole life. I was expected to get good grades. When I got them, I didn't get a "good job!" or anything. But, if I got bad grades, I got punished. As I got older, my dad would constantly compare me and my siblings against each other and to other kids his coworkers had. "So-n-so's kid is doing XYZ." (to insinuate it's better then what I was planning on doing, or was doing).

Even when I was an adult, my dad was trying to back-seat drive my career with "advice" that wasn't so much him trying to do what was best for me, but what was best for my career. He never took me, as a person, into consideration when giving advice.

What I realized over time (chatting with my dad extensively) was that he made decisions in his career... he gave up moving up the ladder or managerial positions, because he decided to start a family. He took a back-seat position at his job where he kept his head down and kept his mouth shut so he could keep earning an income and not rock the boat while supporting his family. He made one major career shift up the ladder to get more money, and in retrospect it was an awful decision that uprooted the family and set in motion events that pretty much tore the family apart.

What I realized as I got older was that he was trying to coach me to have the career he wished he could have; he was trying to guide his dream job vicariously through me.

He would push it in ways by either telling me exactly things he thought I should do, or package it as "I was chatting with kids at the gym and giving them advice, and this one kids doing XYZ" (again, to insinuate this "one kid" was doing something better then I was).

I got sick of it.

So, I stopped chatting with him about work, school, etc. When he'd ask or press, I simply told him that I was only going to speak with him like a member of the family, not someone I was seeking career counseling from.

I eventually had a blow-up with him, because I was tired of him trying to back-seat drive my life while I was watching his life implode around him with issues he wasn't staying on top of during a situation that basically forced me to take control of his responsibilities when he ended up in the hospital.

What I learned was ... just ignore him.

In 20 years time, my dad won't be around any more. But, god-willing.. I will.

In 20 years time, will I be happy if I had followed my dad's advice and done this and that? No. I'd be miserable, because he was pushing me to go in directions that were making me miserable.

So, why bother listening to him? Why bother trying to please him?

In 20 years time I can follow his advice and be miserable while he's dead, or I can ignore it and be happy while he's also dead.

Ultimately, I have to figure out what makes me happy, though.

But, when you have someone constantly telling you that you're not doing good enough, you need to do better, you're not doing as well as so-n-so over there, you should be heading in a certain direction, you need to do it all before a certain BS time limit... you know what, you eventually turn into a hot mess that thinks very little of yourself b/c you constantly have a devil on your shoulder that never thinks what you're doing is good enough.

Tell that person (or those people) to go screw off.

Since you're international.. and you're in a STEM field.. and you went through a PhD even though it sounds like you didn't really want to .. I'm going to assume you're Indian.

You need to have a moment of clarity where you decide to be your own person and stop having your family tell you what you need to do and where you need to go in life.

That can be hard if your family is paying the bills.

But, I may be making assumptions, but your story sounds almost identical to a ton of other folks I rubbed elbows with in college... all of them Indian. They were taking STEM when really they wanted to do liberal arts or whatever they were passionate about. Their family pushed them into an "lucrative career", b/c it's all about the money and status with them.

I had a couple of Indian folks tell me they had a massive weight lifted off their shoulders when they told their family to stuff themselves. They were dating people locally, and one was wanting to marry the girl he was dating. One guy dropped his STEM and went into art which is what he really wanted to do (and he was an AMAZING artist).

Ultimately, you have to figure out what makes you happy, and stop listening to folks constantly running you down and telling you you're not good enough.

I rented a room from a gay couple, and one of the guys had a degree in aeronautic engineering. You know what he did for a living? He was the director of a high school band. His parents pushed him to do engineering, b/c he was in the closet and just kept his nose down and did what they said. When he finally got older, he got tired of them, and came out of the closet and pursued what really made him happy: music.

People have to have that moment.

So, you're asking how you'll survive over here? I think you really need to ask yourself what will make you happy. And, you need to start ignoring folks that are running you down.

With a PhD in Chemistry, you don't have to be a great programmer. There are companies that will hire you to figure out some chemistry, and team you up with Comp Sci or Info Sys folks that will do all the coding and stuff for reports, data science, etc.

If you don't like what you have a PhD in, then go figure out what you do like. Maybe you like working on motorcycles or scuba diving or whatever.. find a way to make a career out of it.

It's better to live a modest life that makes you happy, even at the expense of others, then to be rich and f'ing miserable b/c you decided to make everyone else happy.. usually folks that won't be alive in 20 years time.. which just leaves you miserable while they're dead.

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• 9 . 06 . 20
• Career , Entrepreneur

What Can You Do with a PhD? 5 Cool Options (2023)

• Posted by: Chris

Updated March 10, 2023

I did a PhD, and it pretty much felt useless. Honestly, what can you do with a PhD?

For some of us (I’m looking at you, fellow humanities grads ) it feels like a waste of a degree.

But the real question is, how can you commodify knowledge? Especially esoteric, abstract knowledge that you get during a PhD.

Most people think of a three-letter word, J-O-B , but that’s not always the best way to turn your knowledge into money. After all, usually, it turns you into a cog in someone else’s machine, and unless you get the right machine, your specific knowledge may be worth little.

So here are five ways to make money off of your knowledge that don’t involve working for someone else. Who knows, with a little creativity those brains may pay big bucks!

This post contains affiliate links. These pay us a small commission if you choose to buy something, at no cost to you. This helps support the work we do here at Roostervane. Thanks!

1. Create a patent/IP

• 2. Build a non-profit research or advocacy organization

3. Start a consulting business 

• So what can you do with a PhD? The final analysis

In the year 2000, Yahoo had a problem. It was being overwhelmed with spam and didn’t know how to fix it. Even though users were limited to 500 emails a day, spam programs were created to send millions of messages to users.

PhD student Luis Von Ahn heard a talk by the chief scientist at Yahoo that identified this problem, and he immediately started working on a solution. His answer, a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart—CAPTCHA for short.

And he gave it to Yahoo, for free.

He later started another little platform with 300 million users called Duolingo. ( You can hear him tel l his story here .)

There might be something in your research that the world wants, or that can be converted into a patent or some other form of intellectual property (IP).

If you have to research that is in demand outside of academia, it might be worth trying to take an idea to market. And you don’t have to give it away for free.

This is easier said than done, but there are new grads who are creating tech startups with their research.

At the very basic, even if you don’t have a company, if you have a provisional idea that seems promising you could take out a provisional patent for it while you explore it.

If you can own your research as an asset, as in, turning it into a patent or a trademark, you might be able to sell it. This might not even mean that you have to manufacture something if that’s not your thing. You might just license it to a company that would create it.

This process does have some red tape and is not for the faint of heart.

The good news is that your university may have an office dedicated to helping you. If you want to explore this idea with your research, talk to your university’s technology transfer office .

More and more universities also have incubators attached to them, whose job it is to help build baby companies out of research that happens there. You could also consider an independent incubator for PhDs like Tandem Launch or ConceptionX .

Do start learning about business and Intellectual Property (IP) basics as well.

An initial conversation with a patent or trademark lawyer is usually free at first to get a sense of what it would be like to work together, but even if it’s not, it would be worth getting professional advice dealing with intellectual property.

It’s definitely one of the coolest things you can do with a PhD.

2. Build a non-profit

I’m differentiating not-for-profit here because non-profits are funded differently (at least in North America).

If you have a research area that focuses on some social good, like solving world hunger, building diverse workplaces, or affordable housing, you can establish a non-profit to support it and apply for funding.

There are differences between non-profit and for-profit enterprises, but one of the most important things about a non-profit is that it doesn’t make shareholders or owners money in a conventional sense (if you have the cash flow, you can still draw a good salary—non-profit doesn’t inherently mean “poor”).

Being a non-profit opens up a whole bunch of funding you can apply for, for example, a lot of foundations fund non-profits exclusively. And in case you’ve never noticed, even a lot of national agency grants are open for non-profits to apply.

If you’re driven by a desire to see change in the world, to create a social good, this might be the path for you. 

You can read more about how funding works in this post.

The future belongs to consulting, with more and more companies hiring consultants all the time. If you have finished a degree or have a research specialty, there may be a place where you can make money consulting off of it.

This will require defining a clear value proposition to a customer—what do you bring to the table that they need. This is vital! Since consulting is customer-focused, you need to know what it is you do that people will pay for.

In another post, I’ve advocated working a job first, since many of us may not immediately know what value proposition we bring. ( Here are some great research jobs .)

I meet a lot of humanities people whose go-to consulting gig is writing or editing—while there’s not anything wrong with this, some time in a workplace can help you clarify and develop new areas of expertise.

Read this post on what you need to know about consulting with a PhD .

Read my guide on the 7 easy steps to launch your consulting business this week!

Pro Tip: Another great way to get into consulting is to join a consulting firm. You won’t be an entrepreneur per se, but you will get a fantastic introduction to the wide world of consulting. Check out McKinsey , Bain , or Boston Consulting Group (BCG). There’s a great overview that compares these firms here.

4. Build a blog or social media platform

I was interviewing for a senior position when I told the interviewer that I had a blog.

“That’s nice,” she said. “We all need a hobby.”

I’ve realized since doing this that most of the world has no idea what blogging is. And almost nobody realizes how powerful it is. This blog reaches around the world—in under a year, it’s generated hundreds of thousands of views.

People think blogging is cute, and a nice hobby.

Tell that to Brian Clark, the founder of Copyblogger which made $35.1 million last year.

If you can create something that turns your knowledge into an internet-based venture, either as entertainment, education, or to sell a product that helps people in some way, you can create a valuable asset .

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, there are a whole bunch of mediums you can use (oh yeah, Medium!). Build something great, and it can change your life!

For inspiration, check out It’s Okay to Be Smart, with Joe Hanson.

Check out the post I wrote about how to build a blog people can’t stop reading.

Check out my guide to making money blogging.

5. Start an E-commerce shop

E-commerce is huge right now and for the foreseeable future. Amazon has shot to new levels during the pandemic, unfortunately erasing a lot of local businesses.

So what if you created an E-commerce shop?

What’s the difference between this and a blog or social media platform?

Well, there will be a lot of crossovers. But the main difference is that an E-commerce shop exists to sell a product, while a blog usually exists to share knowledge or information. Now, a blog can have a store and sell information products. An E-commerce site can have blogs explaining the benefits of their products.

This is not a perfect science.

So, let’s say you did a degree that involved lab work. You know all the best lab equipment. So what if you opened an online store selling it?

It takes work to learn how to do all this plus operate a digital platform, but it’s actually never been easier, especially with the ready-made platform of Amazon.

Or, you can use Shopify to build your own space !

Why not try it?

You can monetize your knowledge.

What can you do with a PhD?

You get to decide the best way to make money off the stuff you know. But be really creative about doing this. If you are able to think bigger than just a job, you might end up in one of the above pursuits. Let me know if you do!

Now Read: Why I Don’t Regret Leaving Academia After a PhD

Consulting Secrets 3 – Landing Clients

Photo by Christian Sterk on Unsplash There’s a new type of post buzzing around LinkedIn. I confess, I’ve even made a few.  The post is

You’re Not Good Enough… Yet

Last year, I spent $7k on a business coach. She was fantastic. She helped me through sessions of crafting my ideas to become a “thought

$200/hr Expert? Here’s the Secret!

Photo by David Monje on Unsplash I was listening to Tony Robbins this week. He was talking about being the best.  Tony asks the audience,

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5 Careers to Pursue With Your PhD in Physics

Often the first and sometimes only career that comes to mind when students consider pursuing their Ph.D. in Physics is a job in academia. Teaching at a college or university can be a noble and rewarding career – but your professional options are not limited exclusively to the realm of a classroom or lab.

Keep reading for data about the fields in which physicists end up working and for a detailed look at the potential career paths that are open to people with an advanced degree in physics.

The Data Shows Career Diversity

One study performed by the American Institute of Physics (AIP), surveyed 503 physicists about their careers working in the private sector, 10-15 years after earning their Ph.D. The data collected revealed a several commonalities. First, the vast majority of mid-career Ph.D. physicists were working in the STEM fields. The most common fields were physics and engineering , followed by education, computer software, and business. Other fields included education (non-physics), non-STEM, other STEM, computer hardware, and medicine.

Additionally, the study found that physicists' careers in the private sector relied heavily on skills such as solving complex problems, managing projects, and writing for a technical audience. Across the board, the study found that the physicists felt their work was rewarding, as they found the work intellectually stimulating and challenging, and enjoyed collaborating with smart professional colleagues.

While the possibilities are vast and varied for those graduating from physics Ph.D. programs , the following are examples meant to demonstrate the range of fields and careers that are available to you.

Research and Development Engineer (Physics)

Job Description: According to AIP, about half of Research and Development Engineers work in the private sector (51 percent) , with 31 percent working in government, 16 percent the academic sector, and 2 percent in other areas. These engineers are responsible for overseeing, conducting, and applying research activities and experiments for organizations . They also will take the results, summarize them and disseminate their findings. They might also be responsible for developing technical documentation for projects.

• Skills Highlighted : Ability to work on a team, project management, technical problem solving, programming, basic physics principles
• Average Salary: $103,140 (as of July 2018)

Data Scientist (Non-STEM)

Job Description : AIP found that the vast majority of Data Scientists work in private industry (82 percent), a smaller portion working for the government (15 percent), and only 2 percent in the academic and 1 percent in other sectors. Data Scientists are responsible for taking large amounts of data and mining for patterns and information hidden within the data sets. They use statistical analysis to review the data, learn about how a business performs, and to build AI tools that automate certain processes within the company. They might also be responsible for creating various machine learning-based tools or processes , including recommendation engines and automated lead scoring systems.

• Skills Highlighted : Ability to work on a team, technical writing, technical problem solving, programming, design and development, specialized equipment.
• Average Salary : $131,847 (as of August 2018)

Quantitative Developer (Business)

Job Description : Virtually all Quantitative Developers (often referred to as quants) are working in private industry (95 percent) . AIP found that 5 percent found employment in other sectors. A job as a Quantitative Developer will require an interest in working in finance, math, and technology. You will also need experience with computer programming languages such as Matlab, C++, Java, C#, Q, Perl, Python and others. The majority of the work is creating, implementing, and analyzing mathematical models that are used to drive trading decisions. Developers also analyze risk models, create and develop new software for automated trading, and work alongside traders and other financial analysts in the company.

• Skills Highlighted : Ability to work on a team, technical problem solving, project management, programming, advanced math, simulation and modeling, perform quality control.
• Average Salary : $124,552 (as of August 2018)

Systems Engineer (Computer Software)

Job Description: According to AIP, almost all Systems Engineers work in the private sector (94 percent) , with small portions working in hospital or medical facilities (3 percent), academic settings (3 percent), or government (1 percent). Systems Engineers work alongside a team of highly technical engineers to ensure the quality, performance, and security of software infrustructures. The are responsible for installing, configuring, testing, and maintaining operating systems , application software, and system management tools. They monitor and test the systems, working to identify potential problems and creating and implementing solutions.

• Skills Highlighted : Ability to work on a team, technical writing and problem solving, programing, advanced math, simulation and modeling, perform technical support.
• Average Salary: ( $92,586 as of August 2018)

Medical Physicist (Medicine)

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• Published: 12 September 2024

Tap the potential of PhD students

Nature Physics volume  20 ,  page 1361 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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PhD students can face many challenges, such as a lack of confidence in their newly acquired skills or the uncertainty about which career path to choose. We highlight some ways to empower students in their doctoral journey.

The overall development of PhD students during their doctoral studies is important for their personal and professional growth, as well as for the success of their project. However, they are often encouraged to focus on their research project, with other aspects of academic and professional training receiving less attention. As a result, many students face difficulties in moving forward after finishing their doctoral studies. Thus, a well-rounded approach is necessary to empower PhD students with the abilities to confidently choose their career path.

A lack of research autonomy can stifle creativity and hold PhD students back in their development. By granting them control over certain aspects of their research — for example, by allowing them to steer parts of their projects or by encouraging independent exploration within the broader scope of their work — students will learn to become more self-reliant researchers.

Supervisors can further promote their students’ independence by encouraging them to propose their own hypotheses or conduct additional simulations or laboratory-based experiments. In this way, PhD students learn how to develop a research problem and how to tackle it — an invaluable skill not just in academia but in all walks of life.

In addition to conducting research, students must also learn to communicate their findings and develop presentation skills. Universities can facilitate training programmes on soft skills, such as writing research articles and presenting research to a broader audience. This will enhance students' ability to convey their ideas with confidence. It is particularly important when they present posters or give oral presentations in larger forums, such as conferences or seminars, or when they engage with their peers in the research field.

Networking is a vital component of a successful academic and professional career. It allows students to find collaborators, seek advice, and discover new research and job opportunities. However, many PhD students struggle to build and maintain professional relationships, often because of a lack of guidance on how to approach networking effectively. It is not uncommon for PhD students to be unaware of the research activities of their colleagues, whether from other departments or even the same department.

Institutions can help in this regard by organizing frequent workshops or seminars in which students can engage with peers and experts in their field. Conferences and summer schools also offer invaluable networking opportunities, while commonly providing students with the chance to present their research, which in turn enhances their presentation skills. Universities should actively support their students' participation in such events through travel grants. In addition, organizers of conferences and schools should also provide funding opportunities, especially for PhD students from developing countries where principal investigators may not have enough resources to support their students’ travel.

Another crucial aspect of a PhD student’s journey is the process of publishing their work. However, many students feel ill-equipped to handle the steps of academic publishing. They often rely on their supervisors to lead the process, which can leave them unprepared for the demands of publishing as they transition to more independent roles.

To address this, supervisors should actively involve students in every step of the publication process, from the discussion of a suitable target journal to the writing of a manuscript’s first draft and cover letter, to the actual submission and preparation of the response to reviewers' comments. Although this may require additional back-and-forth, it is an invaluable learning experience that prepares the students for future academic challenges and enhances the quality of their research output. These skills are also transferable and will undoubtedly benefit students in any future career path, whether in academia, industry or other sectors.

Uncertainty about future career paths is a common concern among PhD students. Many are unsure whether to pursue research positions or explore opportunities outside academia. Unfortunately, students often lack access to adequate career training, which hinders their ability to prepare for future employment. For example, many students don’t know how to tailor CVs for future employment options or are unsure for which non-academic positions their skills make them suitable applicants.

By facilitating career-oriented workshops, seminars and mentoring programmes, institutions could help guide PhD students on their career path. For example, students would benefit from the interaction with alumni, sharing their career stories. Career counselling and interactions with industry panels can provide insights into possible career choices, helping students understand the range of opportunities available to them. Additionally, workshops on CV writing, interview preparation, and transferable skills, such as project management and data analysis, can boost students' confidence in their abilities and prepare them for diverse career options.

Although the majority of the suggestions discussed above are well known within the academic community, they have not always been given the attention they deserve. By providing the necessary tools and opportunities to PhD students, we can tap their full potential and put them in a better position to contribute to the advancement of knowledge, to drive innovation and to make meaningful contributions to society.

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Tap the potential of PhD students. Nat. Phys. 20 , 1361 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02654-2

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Study delays, longer completion times, high attrition rates and low research training capacity are “impairing” students across Africa from completing their PhDs, researchers say.

A review of studies exploring the barriers facing PhD candidates in countries including Ethiopia, Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania found that a lack of funding is holding back “the depth, scope, and quality of the research produced” by academics across the continent.

The paper, published in  Higher Education , says PhD programmes at many universities across Africa are characterised by high attrition and low completion rates, even as the number of programmes has grown.

Completion rates in Ethiopia have not risen consistently despite an increase in the number of programmes, one study analysed found, while institutions in Kenya report attrition rates varying between 5 per cent and 50 per cent at different institutions.

Oluwatomilayo Omoya, associate lecturer at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University and co-author of the report, said high attrition rates “undermine the ability to increase the number of PhD holders, which is critical for building academic knowledge, economic growth and scientific advancement in Africa”.

This leads to “lower completion rates and a waste of resources invested in the students who drop out of the programmes”, she said, warning that a low level of PhD graduates “hinders” the production of high-quality research and innovation across the continent.

“Africa currently accounts for only 2 per cent of the global research output, reflecting the continent’s limited research capacity compared to Western countries. Low PhD completion rates further impede efforts to address gaps in key sectors like education, healthcare and economic development,” Dr Omoya said.

Previous research by the Association of Commonwealth Universities found that 17 per cent of African institutions reported receiving no government funding at all for research, and John Owusu Gyapong, secretary general of the African Research Universities Alliance, has previously told Times Higher Education that a lack of government funding has left universities “shooting in the dark” .

PhD students in the continent are typically older and more likely to have family and caring responsibilities, which can “impact their ability to devote the time needed for their PhD studies”, and most of those analysed had been “left with no choice” but to seek additional work because of the economic climate, the report highlights. Women were also found to face additional challenges in completing their PhDs – especially in former apartheid countries.

Dr Omoya said universities needed to introduce scholarships, fee waivers and research grants to allow PhD candidates to complete their studies “without needing full-time employment”, adding that targeted training in grant writing alongside greater international collaboration could boost PhD provision.

“Collaboration and exchange programmes with developed countries could help in training future African researchers and to develop research capacity, thereby driving research excellence,” she said.

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Theresa Joseph-Thekkudan Ph.D. and M.S., Toxicologist

-Theresa Joseph-Thekkudan Ph.D. and M.S., Toxicologist

How did your career begin at FDA?

Prior to coming to the FDA, I was working as a research scientist in Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). One of my research projects was to study the cell and molecular changes due to nicotine exposure in in vitro systems, and in animal models. It was during this time that I heard about the ongoing work in the Center for Tobacco products (CTP) at the FDA. I applied for open positions, and I was hired as a scientific reviewer. In this capacity, I have had the opportunity to review various tobacco product applications. In addition, I have developed research projects to understand the harms of newer classes of tobacco products (e.g, electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) or e-cigarettes). Over the years, I have diversified my interests to other areas such diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). One of my recent efforts was the creation of the first ever employee resource group (ERG) in my Center. I dedicated it to the amazing work that women have done to develop CTP over the years, and hence the name, WOMEN (Women Organized to Motivate, Empower, and Nurture) in CTP. 

What do you value most about working at FDA?

I value the opportunities for scientific collaborations. In the process of these collaborative efforts, I’ve been able to interact with colleagues in other fields to share ideas, build camaraderie, and develop friendships. I’m grateful for the nurturing environment that FDA offers for daily work support, and advocacy for work-life balance, which are important to me. I’m thankful and appreciative of this support, especially through the uncertainties of the tough times like those during the pandemic.    

What are you most proud of in terms of your work at FDA?

FDA plays an important role in advancing public health and protecting the American consumer. I am proud of the work I do at the FDA because it gives me the unique opportunity to be directly involved in how science is used to meet the ever-changing needs of the 21st century consumers. I also enjoy the many opportunities that challenge me to learn and stay well-informed on the latest developments in science and technology to promote public health. I am proud of that fact that I can contribute towards critical decisions, many of which could have historical significance and a lasting impact on public health.

What advice would you give to an FDA job seeker?

FDA is an amazing place to work where staff have many opportunities for growth and development, both professionally and personally. If you’re interested in joining the FDA, please check USAjobs.gov, which is the official government hiring website. FDA also frequently hosts recruitment and hiring events that are open to the public. These sessions provide valuable information about the federal hiring process including resume writing tips. Additional information can be found on the FDA’s external website ( https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/jobs-and-training-fda ), and some announcements are also posted on social media platforms such as “LinkedIn”.

When you're not at work, what is your favorite way to unwind?

Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my family doing outdoor activities and exploring nature. I’m also actively involved in my local school and church communities where I educate teens and young adults about the harms of tobacco products (e.g., electronic cigarettes). I feel this is my own little way of giving back and ensuring a healthier future for everyone.