The age doesn't bother me at all.
What can be "tough" is the feeling of "reentering" on the job market aftera PhD, with an age in which people are trying to settle and start building their own independent lives.
I intend to overcome that by doing as much graduations as possible in order to have enough relevant skills to jump into the market as fast as possible.

Just to make things clear: the idea of enrolling in a PhD is to remain having a regular income, whilst studying at the same time.

At this very moment, I don't have much time nor money to graduate in a specific master/post-grad (i've been doing online courses, but that may not be enough).

That would be a great idea. However, not many companies accept to do that in Portugal. A particular company that I've been following did something similar in the past, but they are now seeking for specific graduates as there are specific Master degrees in the area, answering their specific needs. Because of that, I'm seeing low possibilities of entering as a non-grad on the field of data analysis.

However, some other companies have been hiring specifically PhD students. And since I like academia, and the funding in Portugal is more than enough for you to have a nice way of living, it seemed to me as a great opportunity.
Also, the idea would be to do some post-graduations during the PhD.

Hey, @tru. Thanks for the advice!

Yes, i've been checking and talking to people on linkedin. Most did some online courses (to learn Python, for example, SQL,...). Their backgrounds were varied, going from Sociology to Biology (most of them started as researchers and then jumped into Data Science positions by learning specific coding languages).

So, I can totally understand your point. The years invested in the PhD are my primary concern.
However, it holds some advantages:
1) I'd earn 40% more than I do;
2) I'd have time to get specific qualifications (while also developing the Data Scientist rationale).

There is also the possibility of enrolling for a 8month project (starting in January). This is an interesting opportunity, since it would allow me to study while working at the university, as well as see if research in a more academic setting would suit me well.

The PhD is also an interest of mine, by itself.




Yes, I don't think I'd be that old as well. The age doesn't seem to be a problem to me, specially considering that I have already worked and gathered some great professional experience in the past years.

Hello there!

First of all, let me introduce myself: i'm a 25y portuguese guy, with a master in Social and Organizational Psychology (or Industrial, as it is also known).
During my licenciate and master of science degrees, I've been trained for two things: being an HR guy or being a researcher.
At this very moment, I work in a small ~ medium marketing and advertising agency in Lisbon. I'm a People & Culture assistant (cool name, boring job), which means that I mostly take care of HR stuff (evaluation processes, recruitment and selection, cultural issues between departments,...). From time to time, I'm recruited to participate in research and data analysis activities (inferential analysis, desk research for brands,...). I've also been working on a multidisciplinary team with machine learning (I was "consulting" as a psychologist/data analyst, while programmers were working with the machine and its algorithms). Unfortunately, this is not as frequent as I'd like.
As someone who loves data, numbers and research, my job gets me frustrated most of the time, as I don't really have the chance to to such things on a daily basis (it happens twice a month, or less).
Therefore, I've been thinking about enrolling in a PhD (if I get a scholarship), which would allow me to go deeper into Data Science, Research techniques and, eventually, I could also find enough time to do some training in Programming/Computer Science/Data Science/Algebra to be able to work as a Data Scientist in the future. Before you ask, I've already started learning Code on my own and it is awesome!

TL;DR: I don't like my job, but I do love research and data.
I'm thinking about quitting for a PhD, while doing parallel training in ComputerScience/Algebra/DataScience.

Does this path make sense to you? I'd be around 29~30y once I finished the PhD, but hopefully with a lot of training in other subjects. How hard would it be for me to find a job at the time?