Im in my 1st year of a PhD and have already become disillusioned by the academic pathway. Will I be able to get a decent job in an area unrelated to science after my PhD or should I cut my losses now, quit and get on with a job?

Why are you disillusioned with academia?

Maybe you should ask yourself why you're doing a PhD. You'll never get this opportunity again to better yourself mentally by carrying out your own research. I'm sure you could get a job outside academia. Nowadays, everyone has a degree. A PhD shows you're intelligent and hard-working. If you don't find your PhD interesting or you're not 'into it', maybe you chose one that wasn't really for you. With a PhD, it would mean you could also do research and/or lecturing in Higher education.

I've got the impression that people having their PhD will end up in doing other things, such as managerial stuff, more than science, that is in industry though. If you stay in academic, you will do only science for the rest of your life...

I am glad I left my PhD and went for some professional courses. I have a good job, a nice house and will buy a new luxury car next month.

Biochem, do you not think that having a first degree shows you to be intelligent and hard-working? Or is it that first degrees are so widely taken for granted now that people really have to pursue further studies to show that they're not an idiot? Are there really *that* many unintelligent people doing first degrees?

Stephen, it sounds like you're amongst the many who are merely doing a PhD in order to improve their job prospects. Maybe the thing to do is have a long think about if it's really necessary. If it's not, you're most probably wasting your time. You might also be preventing someone else who passionately wants to do a PhD from doing so (this would be especially sad if that person wanted a career in academia!).