PhDs Leaving Academia

PhD in economics here from a top 15 uni, completed a couple of years ago. No regrets, even though I realized, after a few years, that I would probably not enjoy a career as an economist (in academia or policy). I successfully 'converted' into data science. Most of my cohort found jobs they love. Some, though, had to settle for post-docs (sometimes for terrible pay) and are still in academic limbo.There is always the question of the opportunity cost, of the road not taken. What would I have do

> And after that I could get a job, become a professor, turn my research into a startup etc.chances of getting professor-ship, tenure, or even a post-doc is close to nil, due to extreme competition and limited seats. academia is the most slowly moving enterprise, some folks in their 80s still around, when young grads kicked out.getting a job after PhD may also be very hard. you would be very over-qualified, likely huge ego, and very narrow skillset in your domain, that is likely lagging

I used to worship institutions such as Bell Labs. But I guess when you learn how the sausage is made, it takes the luster off of things.The book, My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance, talks about why he left Bell Labs to be a quant on wall street.I remember after graduating college. I was unsure what to do next. My profs wanted me to do PhD. My fiancee, a PhD candidate, was against it. The company I worked at was willing to pay for my masters in electrical engineering bu

When you spend ten years of your life pursuing something, and you feel you have few prospects then it's likely that you'll continue down the same path. The attitude is better the devil you know than the devil you don't. I left academia after my PhD because I felt that I couldn't do another ten years in academia scraping by on $35k/year postdoc salary... Instead I went through a couple of startups, and here I am seven years later making what I probably would have been mak

Here's another perspective from a physicist in one of the less popular sub-fields (IE not quantum computing, high energy, etc.).I am currently coming to the end of my PhD and want to end up in industry later. However, I am going to do a postdoc for at least a year for a few reasons.Firstly, it is with a scientist that I work well with and is doing work that I believe in. They are a great boss and I take time off when I need it and without guilt. Second, the location is right and in an

Sad but true.I once had dreams of a career in academia and research. I'm a molecular biologist turned computer scientist turned software engineer in industry. I now have a very good salary, interesting challenges, plenty of work-life balance and good prospects for the future, and that's pretty much directly out of university.In my opinion, I would have to give up on all of the aforementioned benefits (sans interesting challenges) for at least the next 10 years if I wanted to stay

I spent 4 + 1 (extra year) going for the PhD. Getting funding for anything was nothing short of nightmare and the workload was (obviously) very high.Eventually I decided to scrap those 5 years for a triple salary as a junior developer and had a successful career since.Is casual coding more interesting than research/teaching - no, but staying in academia requires way more altruism than I could find in me.I also still find how to get some of the joys of academia in industry, namely,

Go for the PhD. It's where your heart is. Otherwise you'll be more likely to regret at least not trying, you'll always wonder what would have happened if you did. You have plenty of dev experience if it goes wrong to go back into another job. And you can always do it part time?

I am currently about a year away from my PhD in computational physics and chemistry and looking out towards the future I have very similar sentiments to this professor. Finding a decent job in academia is very very difficult. Even when you do get one it really won't be worth the work and time you have to put into it. At least in my field it is much better to develop your skills elsewhere and use that to enter into industry. I just wish someone had told me this 4 years ago.

Thank you very much! Sorry to hear that your PhD wasn't what you wanted. These days it's much easier to provide value outside of academia than inside it.