======= Date Modified 11 Feb 2012 12:49:36 =======
Hi there,

I've been offered funding for a PhD at an excellent University, but I'm not sure if the project is quite right for me. It's in Biology, which is what I'm interested in, but it's focused on genomics and bioinformatics and I'm more interested in ecology and environmental change.

My concern is that if I take this PhD then it will be very difficult to get a post-doc posistion in ecology and conservation because I've specialised in genomics and bioinformatics. I find genomics incredibly interesting, but I'm not sure if I'm as passionate about it as I am about ecology.

It's a great opportunity that I've been offered and I think I'd be stupid to turn it down, but it's not 100% what I'm after. Can I have some advice please? Can I do a PhD that I'm interested in but not 100% passionate about? Will I be able to go into the area that I am interested in afterwards or will it be be too competitive with the PhD students from that area? I suppose one summary question, aimed at post-docs and academics, is do you generally specialised in the topic your PhD was in for your research and lecturing career?

Many thanks.

Sorry I'm not sure why some of the message is repeated...

Hi there,

From MY experience equally important factors to consider are

1) if you like working with the supervisor and the team in the lab. You will spend 3 years with these chaps!
2) if it is a well structured PhD that you know what you are doing. You should have a rough idea of the methodology and the research question from day one. BUT you should still develop the project yourself -do not end up running around like a headless slave.
3) that you will find all the support you need. Support means mainly available equipment, enough money for expenses to run the experiments.

Ooh, and finally (at least in my area) no, you are not stuck in the same field for ever. My supervisor did his PhD in a different topic than his post-doc. Lots of the thesis he supervises come from wide backgrounds.

Also, when I started the PhD I was mildly interested in my topic, but the more I read the more I loved it.

Good luck with your decision

Thanks for your response. Yes from meeting the supervisor I think we'll get on well and I'd definitely say that the PhD is well structured with a lot of support, so in that respect it's a very good option. Thanks for the info of topics too, that is my main concern. I'm sure I'll be very interested in the topic throughout, it's just not quite what I want to specialise in for my future career in academia (although, like you said, that might change as I conduct my project.)