Why am I doing a PhD? What are the reasons why you want to do a PhD?
If you're watching this,
it's most likely that you are currently in graduate school in a master's degree
and you're thinking about doing a PhD,
or maybe you're an undergrad student and you're wondering
about a potential future in graduate school.
Most popular questions that I remember, people,
my peers asking was "should I do a PhD?" And it didn't matter where they were in
their master's degrees.
Sometimes they just started or they were halfway through and just being prepared
for their dissertation and their final defense.
And one of the things that is kind of
drilled into you in academia is that if you're doing your master's degree,
then why not go all the way through? Why not go the full nine yards?
Because they feel that a master's degree is not as competitive as a PhD student.
And trust me, I mean,
undergraduates know this quite well as when you're in an undergraduate,
you see these PhD students go by and when you're graduating you see these PhD
robes, it kind of feels like, does my degree really mean anything?
Do I need to do a PhD? Should I do a PhD in order to be successful in my career?
So during my PhD I did my fair share of talking to career counselors,
go into the graduate office and go into any free career advice or career coaches
that I could get that were offered by my department.
And one of the things that they frequently talked about was
career and graduation preparedness.
And this is something that I found that students don't really think about
when they consider going the full nine yards in doing their PhD.
They're not thinking about career preparedness.
So one of the questions that is really important to ask if you're considering,
should I do a PhD?
And one of the most important questions that you should ask yourself is "Why do
I want to do a PhD?"
"Why am I doing a PhD?" What are the reasons why you want to do a PhD?
I mean is it that you want a higher status?
Is it that you want that recognition,
the title as a doctor that would give you the respect that you're looking for,
or is it that you feel that having a
PhD would allow you to compete for jobs that pay more?
Or is it because you feel that having a PhD
after your name would give you a higher pay for the same job title?
Like what is it, what are your true reasons for doing a PhD?
A PhD is a very long commitment.
I mean depending on which country and which university that
you will be going to, we're looking at a minimum three years,
and a maximum seven year commitment.
So I would urge you to consider why are you doing a PhD and and what are the
reasons and make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons.
Because the last thing you want is to do it for a reason and in the
middle of your PhD that you feel stuck in this,
and slogging along for the seven years in something
that you realized that the reasons weren't good reasons for doing a PhD.
Once you're brutally honest with yourself about the real reasons why you're
doing a PhD, it's time to ask yourself, do you need one?
Do you really need a PhD for the career that you want?
In order to answer that question,
you have to have clarity on what it is that you want in your career.
So I would urge you go back and watch my video on how to decide on a career that
suits you. And once you have that clarity, then ask yourself,
do I need a PhD to get to where I want?
Because sometimes in many career paths actually you can have the impact and the
satisfaction you want
in a career without having a PhD and you can still be paid for the value that
you bring in the marketplace without a PhD. Granted, of course,
if it is academia, tenured track, academic positions that you want,
then of course it is a strongly advisable, and required in many instances,
to get a PhD,
but depending on what you really want in your career,
it's not always necessary.
Are you familiar with the PhD landscape?
Getting a PhD, in terms of getting a PhD at any university,
there are certain logistical expectations. I mean, do your research,
look at all the universities you're thinking
about getting your PhD from and what's involved in getting that PhD.
What are the expectations that the department has,
the university has for students who are successful and admitted into the program,
how they progress to the program, what milestones that they're looking for?
Do your research on that and of course ask yourself what are some expectations
you have of yourself? What kind of success level are you looking for?
How ambitious do you want to be with this PhD?
How do you want to compete for scholarships for recognition throughout your
program? I mean these things are very important to understand the PhD landscape.
What are both the benefits and the drawbacks of spending the next several years
getting a PhD?
And look in terms of the benefits and drawbacks in the industry that you're
interested in going into after graduation and in the marketplace.
The value that you want to bring, is it in academia? Is it in private?
Is it in industry? Start thinking about this and look at,
and do brainstorming of
the benefits and the drawbacks of both the industry and the marketplace.
You also want to look at your own preparedness to handle it. No doubt,
getting a PhD is not easy. It doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile,
but it's definitely not easy. So talk to other graduates,
talk to current PhD students,
recent graduates or PhDs who have graduated years ago and
ask them about their experience in their degree program,
especially if there were in a degree program
that is similar or related to the one that you're interested in getting into and
ask yourself with brutal honesty,
"can I handle it?" Because what you're looking for is,
is this the right fit for you? The PhD Landscape?
Is that the right fit for you in terms of handling the number of hours you have
to put in, handling the expectation,
your expectations and the university's expectations for it?
Can you handle all of that?
Can you handle the PhD landscape that is inevitably to come if you were to
commit to that path?
The last question that I would urge you to ask if you were thinking about doing
a PhD is,
"are you passionate about research?" Because if you think about what a PhD
really is, it is your ability to generate new knowledge.
This is not about rehashing years of knowledge that is out there.
It's not about reading a textbook and being able to analyze or regurgitate facts
and figures that currently exist.
As a PhD you have to generate new knowledge that is authentic and that isn't
currently out there.
So are you okay with research and are you passionate about it?
Is this something that you can commit to and do well in as well?
Another thing to consider is that basically at the end of a PhD,
you are going to have an intellectual masterpiece.
They call it a dissertation, a thesis, right? But rather what it really is,
is your intellectual masterpiece and it takes a lot of time,
a lot of intellectual creativity,
a lot of innovation to put together this masterpiece.
So are you truly passionate about that?
Another thing to consider is that a PhD,
the currency for success is publication.
It's not just number of publication,
but they also look at things like the impact factor of
the journal that you're publishing in, how often are you publishing,
how creative are your ideas?
How revolutionary are they? You have to be okay,
and you have to be very passionate about this
type of currency and having that level of success defined for you.
A doctorate was created a long time ago as an apprenticeship where you're
working under
a supervisor who has a lot of experience and knowledge in that domain and you're
really in there like an apprentice working for them,
gaining knowledge from them and growing and expanding your area of expertise.
So it is vital that you are passionate about that research,
that structure and having publications as a measure of success.
So put in the comments below, are you considering a PhD?
Is that one of the questions you've been having about, should I do a PhD?
Put in the comments below. What PhD are you interested in pursuing, in what area,
what university? Put in the comments below.
And of course if you'd like what you heard,
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and I look forward to hanging out with you in my next video.