what should I do after a phd and staying at home for two years? Advice needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i honestly cannot imagine investing all this time in getting a PhD in a field like genetics and then throwing it all away. You say that you don't like research. Would you consider teaching?

Have you ever worked 80 hour weeks for 30K a year? Screamed at by your boss? Hard work stolen by a competitor? Yeah science is a real fun roller coaster.

No, I got a PhD from a top school in a field that I still love (economics) and make over 300k. But my sister got a PhD in bioinformatics and slaved as a post-doc for an insane advisor for 3 years. That said, she loves her work (cancer research) and just started her first job in a start-up. So I do know a thing or two about perseverance.

Econ PhDs are in a different universe; no comparison. Anyway as an economist you are no doubt familiar with the idea of a "sunk cost." If you've already spent N years getting a PhD in a field you no longer like...what's the point in "perseverance" and throwing more good years away in order to make the N years useful?

I was a science PhD too. I made it to being a professor, only to find that it sucked. The longer I went on the more I hated it. It got to the point where I hated getting up in the morning knowing that--if I got "lucky" and got tenure, there were decades of this ahead of me.

A ton of my friends felt the same way. They sucked it up and invested a few years in retraining--law school, whatever, and now are quite happy doing other things. I myself switched into policy. I don't like it that much, but it enabled me to marry, have a family, and live near civilization, and all of that is worth a whole lot more to me than putting my PhD to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello,

I am at the age of 28 and is about to finish my PhD in genetics from a top 10 university. I genuinely need advice on life and career. Many thanks in advance.

Okay, here come the details of our current situation. My husband and I had our son during the middle of my PhD and this has not been easy as my husband is also doing his PhD in Economics. We hope to relocate to DC once my husband graduates but that will be in 2017. We have agreed upon the idea of me staying at home for two years after graduation. Meanwhile, I can actually spend more time with our son and have another kid so that their age gap will be no more than four years. As a side note, we don't have any financial problems and my husband is supportive and understanding.

The problem is what should I do when the younger kid is two or three year old and in school! I am definitely switching career and no more postdoc (too many reasons that I don't want to delve into)

Options that I am contemplating on include

1. Apply to law school and become a patent attorney.
Is the two or three year break from work going to hurt my law school application and future job hunt?
By the time I finish law school and start working, my kids will probably be 8 and 4 year old, how doable will it be? I might be naïve and assume kids at that age need less time and attention compared to babies/toddlers.
Are opportunities other than big law common, such as in house counsel? I am okay with taking on a less time demanding job with a pay cut.

2. Public health work in one of those DC NGOs (world bank, WHO, etc..) This route is very much less clear to me, like what positions should I apply for. I don’t have actual experience in public health although I could get a doctoral certificate in global health before I graduate but no idea how useful that’s gonna be.

3. Healthcare consulting. Are there any consulting work that requires minimal travel and a PhD in life sciences around DC? Traveling 4 days a week is a huge no no for us.

4. Get a master in accounting and work as a CPA. What’s the work life balance like? How is the pay/hours?

Thanks in advance!

After all the above education, you feel you only have 4 options, and, 2 of them involve further education?? How about getting a job?! Ya know, one that pays $$

[Anonymous]

After all the above education, you feel you only have 4 options, and, 2 of them involve further education?? How about getting a job?! Ya know, one that pays $$

Of course she has other options. She could wait tables or nanny or become a secretary--but that would make even less use of her education than the ones outlined above. If you think that getting a PhD means that you can easily get a job without further training, then you know nothing about how science works right now. For many jobs, it would require doing a postdoc (which if you are really unhappy at the bench would seem like a miserable option), which is basically like being a graduate student just for slightly more pay and no degree and no guarantee of anything afterwards (and while it used to be 2 or so years, I have seen people do postdocs that are now 5-7 years in the biological sciences these days). Given the way the job market is, for biologists in particular, to land a job in industry (or sometimes even things like being an editor for a journal), counterintuitively you need more training in the form of a postdoc post-PhD. To transition into law, healthcare policy, certain sorts of business roles, further education post PhD is either necessary or helpful for getting your foot in the door.

You could say, "oh you shouldn't have gotten a PhD." That's not really helpful, that's the "buy a time machine" advice. Given that 10% of PhDs in the scientists have the career that they are trained for (becoming an academic), it's pretty common to have a lot of issues figuring out how to pivot to a new career later on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

After all the above education, you feel you only have 4 options, and, 2 of them involve further education?? How about getting a job?! Ya know, one that pays $$

Of course she has other options. She could wait tables or nanny or become a secretary--but that would make even less use of her education than the ones outlined above. If you think that getting a PhD means that you can easily get a job without further training, then you know nothing about how science works right now. For many jobs, it would require doing a postdoc (which if you are really unhappy at the bench would seem like a miserable option), which is basically like being a graduate student just for slightly more pay and no degree and no guarantee of anything afterwards (and while it used to be 2 or so years, I have seen people do postdocs that are now 5-7 years in the biological sciences these days). Given the way the job market is, for biologists in particular, to land a job in industry (or sometimes even things like being an editor for a journal), counterintuitively you need more training in the form of a postdoc post-PhD. To transition into law, healthcare policy, certain sorts of business roles, further education post PhD is either necessary or helpful for getting your foot in the door.

You could say, "oh you shouldn't have gotten a PhD." That's not really helpful, that's the "buy a time machine" advice. Given that 10% of PhDs in the scientists have the career that they are trained for (becoming an academic), it's pretty common to have a lot of issues figuring out how to pivot to a new career later on.

+1
It's pretty clear a lot of the posters have no clue about the biomedical PhD process and current job prospects.

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, I was in your position 15 years ago when I was finishing up a PhD in biotech. I hated research but had no idea what to do next. What helped me was to go to my university's career center and work with a career counselor. I took personality tests and did a lot of informational interviews (and that was back in the day of cold-calling people from the phone book). I eventually got a job in patent law and I have enjoyed it very much. I suggest you take some time to figure out what you might like doing and then find some people to talk to in person about their jobs. Your career center can help you with this. Also, I recall a book called alternative careers in science that still might be around. Don't let anyone make you feel bad for changing your career. I know lots of PhDs who have gone into other careers. Only the ones who stay in science tend to regret it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

After all the above education, you feel you only have 4 options, and, 2 of them involve further education?? How about getting a job?! Ya know, one that pays $$

Of course she has other options. She could wait tables or nanny or become a secretary--but that would make even less use of her education than the ones outlined above. If you think that getting a PhD means that you can easily get a job without further training, then you know nothing about how science works right now. For many jobs, it would require doing a postdoc (which if you are really unhappy at the bench would seem like a miserable option), which is basically like being a graduate student just for slightly more pay and no degree and no guarantee of anything afterwards (and while it used to be 2 or so years, I have seen people do postdocs that are now 5-7 years in the biological sciences these days). Given the way the job market is, for biologists in particular, to land a job in industry (or sometimes even things like being an editor for a journal), counterintuitively you need more training in the form of a postdoc post-PhD. To transition into law, healthcare policy, certain sorts of business roles, further education post PhD is either necessary or helpful for getting your foot in the door.

You could say, "oh you shouldn't have gotten a PhD." That's not really helpful, that's the "buy a time machine" advice. Given that 10% of PhDs in the scientists have the career that they are trained for (becoming an academic), it's pretty common to have a lot of issues figuring out how to pivot to a new career later on.

+1
It's pretty clear a lot of the posters have no clue about the biomedical PhD process and current job prospects.

Yeah, but the posters do have a clue about the other paths she is looking into. So yeah, maybe we don't understand what she needs to do to get a job in the sciences. According to you, she needs a post doc. But she says she doesn't want to do a postdoc, so that path is pretty moot. She's looking at other paths that are a jump in a total different direction. But since we know what those other directions require (like law), we're telling her she needs to think long and hard about spending $150k and busting her butt to do well in law school, only to have a job that requires tons of hours competing against a bunch of 26 year olds who don't have kids at home. So it doesn't really matter whether the people advising OP understand what it takes to get a job in her field - since she doesn't want to be in her field.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea about your field or job prospects but the sooner you get a job the better I imagine. Switching from your field into international development work will be hard without the skills they look for in HQ type roles, but the bio medical angle will be a way in, like in the WHO or the NGOs that have big public health programs in building labs, diagnosis and testing. Research the big fat USAID grants that are out there around your field and see who got the contracts.

As someone said, data skills are very much in demand, so stats, and skills in epidemiology and programs such as SPSS are important to have, so maybe a MPH with a focus on this area would work well for you. Or not even a MPH, a certificate or something.

The bigger the gap between graduating and work, the harder it gets.

[Anonymous]

I have a PhD in public policy and a good job. I took a couple of years off when my kids were little. I would recommend that you take the crappy, low paying adjunct job and teach online, doing the work at night when your kids are asleep. THat's what I did. See if you can get any of the DC area schools to let you teach in the public health field even though your degree is in genetics. My sense is that you might be able to dispense with the extra MA in the policy part of your field if you can demonstrate that you have taught the courses that you would have taken. You sound smart and you can make your way through a textbook and put together a syllabus for a course that's related to your field even if you never took it. Also, try to write a couple of articles about public health issues while you're home with little ones. THen you can apply for jobs with teaching experience and a couple of publications. Also, try to publish your dissertation and any other conference papers that you never got around to publishing.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, but the posters do have a clue about the other paths she is looking into. So yeah, maybe we don't understand what she needs to do to get a job in the sciences. According to you, she needs a post doc. But she says she doesn't want to do a postdoc, so that path is pretty moot. She's looking at other paths that are a jump in a total different direction. But since we know what those other directions require (like law), we're telling her she needs to think long and hard about spending $150k and busting her butt to do well in law school, only to have a job that requires tons of hours competing against a bunch of 26 year olds who don't have kids at home. So it doesn't really matter whether the people advising OP understand what it takes to get a job in her field - since she doesn't want to be in her field.

Sure you know about most fields of law. But certain sorts of patent law (patent prosecution) de facto require a PhD in a hard science these days, especially if you are working in the biotechnology area. So in that case, yes she should think long and hard about incurring debt (although a lot of people go at night and have their firm pay), but competing against 26 year olds without kids is just not true. Anyone who has a JD and PhD is at a minimum in their early 30s (and many are older because they worked in industry or as a postdoc for a few years before switching, or because they went part time which takes 5 years instead of 3), and most people have lives by that point. While work-life balance is still an issue, your experiences are not necessarily what her experiences may be. You still don't know anything about the specific areas she is pivoting into

[Anonymous]

Just don't stay at home. A science PhD expires really quickly. AT least work part time. There are a lot of government science or science policy jobs in DC. Are you a citizen of the US?