Reddit reviews A PhD Is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science
We found 15 Reddit comments about A PhD Is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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We found 15 Reddit comments about A PhD Is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Entry level "PhD-level jobs" outside of academia are few and far between in Neuroscience, but consistency and planning will land you something eventually:
Start here: [Versatile PhD] (http://versatilephd.com/), [SfN Neurojobs] (http://neurojobs.sfn.org/jobs), ["So what are you gonna do with that?" Book] (http://www.amazon.com/What-Are-Going-With-That/dp/0374526214), [A PhD is not enough! Book] (http://www.amazon.com/PhD-Is-Not-Enough-Survival/dp/0465022227).
Also [www.indeed.com] is probably the best job hunting site I have found out there.
My first piece of advice:
Start job hunting and making connections now. "PhD-level jobs" are hard to find and you will have to lower your expectations a bit, especially on your first job. While long term, the degree can be a huge advantage, that is not the case immediately after grad school and you will need to be flexible.
As you explore, you will see some immediate career options are:
Adjuncting with the hope to land a faculty position at a Community College, academic scientist, medical scientist (at a hospital lab), medical devices, teaching high-school, government (NIH, NIMH etc.), science writing (grants, journals, editing etc.), learning code/stat programs (R, Python, SAS, SQL, MATLAB etc.) and taking those quant skills into 'big data', or going the more typical pharma industry route.
Consulting is another popular option, but they typically like people with some industry experience (I've seen on average 10-15 years).
The pay varies wildly on all of these, but if you are looking for the biggest bang for your buck that lines up with your (hopefully still present) passion for Neuroscience...
The pharmaceutical industry would be a great place where a Neuro PhD could thrive. From my colleagues in Neuroscience who eventually got some type of industry job, two truths rang through before they made the transition:
Unfortunately, a post-doc is almost unavoidable based on today's job market. I've seen people taking industry post-docs, which are competitive, but lead to the nice jobs and salaries you believe your degree entitles you to.
However, there are several who took academic post-docs and bought themselves time, experience, and a bloodlust for a good job, which eventually landed them something that was 70k+ in industry and they can work up from there.
Point is, there are options out there. The key is persistence, research, flexibility, and of course: networking.
A Ph.D. is not Enough-Peter J. Feibelman
Getting What You Came For-Robert Peters
Not to be too much of a downer, but the path to being a professor is very hard, and most people won't make it. Just being smart is not enough alone. I would highly recommend you read the book A PhD is not Enough as it contains a lot of very useful advice on how to be one of the few people who makes it. It mostly is useful for grad school and afterwards, but if you know that this is the path you want to take, it might be useful for undergrad too. I read it in my last year of undergrad, and it made me ultimately realize that a high level academic career was not for me.
Also make sure you learn some technical skills as well as math. Having good skills along with a strong background in math will set you up well if you decide against pursuing an academic career. There are lots of good recommendations in this thread on useful things to learn.
Two suggested books for people thinking about or currently pursuing a (science) PhD:
Make Your Mark in Science: Creativity, Presenting, Publishing, and Patents, a Guide for Young Scientists
A PhD is Not Enough! A Guide to Survival in Science
lol
someone already did it, but they only want $12.88
why would someone pay so much money to someone who obviously doesn't believe they can make it, so they're trying to make this their side hustle?
There are some books that give good insights into navigating the grad school process, including useful advice about how to map out important milestones (e.g. how to publish, navigating conferences, and most importantly setting yourself up early to be successful on the job market.)
1
2
3
[4] (http://www.amazon.com/Getting-What-You-Came-For/dp/0374524777/ref=pd_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=41H6-kRMd5L&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=07NB1JFQT1BE3E6NARD9)
Not a direct answer to your question, but a must read for anyone looking towards getting a PHD in STEM:
https://smile.amazon.com/PhD-Not-Enough-Survival-Science/dp/0465022227/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g2923230482?_encoding=UTF8&%2AVersion%2A=1&%2Aentries%2A=0&ie=UTF8
A Ph.D. is Not Enough
Academia is basically full. Unless you work your ass off for a decade, in which case you might have a chance. Networking is critical, and even that might only network you into a dead-end path. Even getting into academia isn't all that you might have expected. There are some amazingly smart physicists (i.e., clearly smarter than some Nobel prize winners) that nobody has ever heard of.
After reading the other posters, I have a couple more thoughts:
I'm sure I have more tips, just ask if you'd like.
I highly recommend books A PhD is not enough, and PhD grind, they answer a lot of questions and I wish I've read it before starting my PhD.
Depending on your field, it might be the case that you would get a good position right after your defense, especially since you already have a lot of industry experience and willing to teach. Furthermore, a lot of universities practice 'equal opportunity' policies which forces them to not discriminate based on gender, age, or race. So this might be a good part that by your defense you would be in your early 40's.
It might be a good idea to find someone from your target field and talk to them about their path to their current position, how many postdocs they had to do and so on. Maybe you will find out that some of them don't even have a PhD degree, I don't know. A lot of these things depend on your field.
If I were you, though, I would consider other ways to scratch that teaching itch. Getting a PhD is a daunting and not that rewarding. But then again, it's a nice change of pace and might be your 3-5 years vacation.
So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport of Study Hacks was a great read. I've been looking for more books that are similar.
A PhD Is Not Enough! is a good book for those in the sciences, as well as Letters to a Young Scientist by EO Wilson.
I've always heard the basic advice of "think of where you want to be, and try to figure out how others got there" (educational requrements et c.). However, for my personal journey, I'm just as lost as the next guy.
I agree.. that is a blessing and a curse. If you talk to established R&D managers looking to hire, they hate "generalists", they want very specialized people. Even academics say things like this (e.g. http://www.amazon.com/PhD-Is-Not-Enough-Survival/dp/0465022227)
If you specialize in the wrong area that goes out of focus though, you are left in the middle of nowhere. (e.g. fuel cells come and go, conducting polymers--synthetic metals, etc.)
Definitely am aware of that -- recently finished reading "A PhD is Not Enough!"
https://www.amazon.com/PhD-Not-Enough-Survival-Science/dp/0465022227
Even choosing a field that's in demand and attending a good university isn't enough. There's a good book titled "A Ph.D. is not enough" that explains all of the other things that need to be done during school and afterwards to establish a career in post-grad scientific research. The book was recommended to me by a tenured professor of mine who I was consulting regarding possible Ph.D. career paths.