Overview of shimmer28 on PostgraduateForum.com

Overview of shimmer28

Signup date: 29 May 2015 at 3:07am

Last login: 29 May 2015 at 8:55pm

Post count: 3

Recent Posts

Escape from the ivory tower?

shimmer28 3 posts
9 years ago

Thanks for your reply.
After reading your post, I realized that industry is not heaven. There are also things we don't like and things we have to worry about.
I guess it really depends on personal choice. If I am more happy staying in academia, I probably should stay. If I am not, I probably should think about leaving.

For my case, I just know that I probably would be an OKAY scientist. But I won't be a GREAT scientist. If I am no better than my competitors, I don't think I can find a job in this field.

Quote From KimWipes:
You are not alone. I am also towards the end of my second postdoc and I am not sure which direction I should take next. Getting a tenure track position is ideal but rarely comes true. My university has recently hired a new assistant professor and he also has 3-4 years of postdocs after his PhD. When I asked how he got the job, he said he'd applied over 100 positions and finally this came along. That's insane to me. On the other hand, I am not sure if going back to "real world" is always a good solution as now we have tasted the forbidden fruit, it is just much more difficult to be happy with a daily dose of goddamn oatmeal for breakfast everyday. I know some of my former PhD friends who ended up working for industry and they are extremely bored with the work. One of the lucky ones who is currently doing an industrial R&D for a big Pharma company did some excellent postdocs at big name university on top research topics. He jokingly sums up his new industrial R&D job as improving adsorption of a bum rash cream on babies dippers (apparently he is not lying and that's what he really does for the research). The rest of my former PhD student friends that gone to industry are simply developing MS excel spreadsheets!

Escape from the ivory tower?

shimmer28 3 posts
9 years ago

Tarina, your website looks awesome!!! I hope more people can see your website and read your ebook.
Thanks for participating my survey!

I just want to see how many phds are out there struggling. I want to help myself and of course other phds. But I just don't know how...Your website is a really good example though.

Also, I realized that it takes a lot of courage to leave comfortable zone. To be honest, I don't think many people have this courage. They may just stay where they are, even though they don't really like what they are doing.

Quote From Tarina:
I've just completed your survey - I found your questions useful in answering some of my own unspoken thoughts.

It's interesting that you are now struggling with the questions I was struggling with two years ago: should I stay in academia, despite having difficulties finding a decent academic job, or should I enter the corporate sector. I chose the latter for financial reasons.

I'm currently writing an ebook on my experiences as a PhD candidate working full-time in the 'real world'. You can check it out at www.survivingyourphd.strikingly.com .

Good look with the decision-making process!

Escape from the ivory tower?

shimmer28 3 posts
9 years ago

Hi everyone,

I am a PhD student in computational chemistry. I am going to start my 5th year soon. I probably would graduate next year sometime. But I don't know what's next after the Ph.D.?

I've seen many talented and hard-working postdocs get stuck in post-doc positions. They shift from one postdoc to another. They move from one state to another. They publish good papers, but they can't land on an idea position (i.e. tenure track profess).I can't help wondering I am not as smart as they are, can I find a position a few years later? What if I can not find a academic job after 10 years.

Second, I feel like this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I work on projects, I publish papers, I do what a phd should do, but I have this feeling that this is NOT what I want to do for the rest of my life. I feel like I don't have strong motivation inside. I saw my advisors working extremely hard to write proposals to get fundings. They don't even have time to do the real research, which they are really interested in. This is not the life I want.

So, I start thinking finding a job outside of academia. But I don't know what I can do. I've spent 7 years in graduate school (3 years M.S + 4 years Ph.D.) and I have none experience working for a company.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. I created a survey about this topic. If you are interested, here is the link

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YVXYXPH

You also can comment on this thread.

Thanks!