posted about 2 months ago
I have just started my second year of an EPSRC funded PhD.
Passed my confirmation review last week and have a conference paper from my first year (the conference was quite niche and unheard of). But I feel quite unhappy and lost at the moment.
I feel like my research proposal is rubbish, and I don't feel particularly proud or interested in the work I am doing.
My PhD is an interdisciplinary one, based in engineering, but also doing some machine learning. I would prefer to have a PhD based in machine learning but my confirmation examiners told me I won't be progressing the field of ML but instead it has to be an engineering PhD (it is based between two departments).
I constantly worry about whether I'll be able to get a job at the end of the PhD as I am unsure I want to stay in academia, and I wonder if the next two years could be better spent by gaining industry experience (I want to be a data scientist) and earning a decent salary - if I can even get a job.
I am doubting whether I thought carefully enough about my decision to go and do a PhD in the first place, and maybe wish I chose to do one at a different university to my undergraduate degree.
There are some aspects of doing a PhD I enjoy:
Teaching
Coding in Python and learning new skills
Don't really know what I'm hoping for, is this second year blues/imposter syndrome? Or is this a gut instinct that I should look for jobs and quit?