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I am 31 years old. I have a BSc in Molecular Biology and MSc in Forensic Science. After graduating I was head hunted and employed by a major Forensic DNA testing company in the UK, and during the 5 years that I worked there worked on many important cases such as the London Bombings and Asian Tsunami. However, as you can imagine, the pay was terrible and I ended up leaving my job for a better pay.

I am now employed as a Scientific Consultant for a Biotech company based in the US. I am their UK contact, and my role is to provide technical/product advise to life science researchers in the UK interested in the products that the company I work for creates. I often refered to as a sales rep, and I can understand why, but I am under no pressure to sell. I am employed as a UK point of contact for scientists interested in or using our products, and only a small part of my job involves selling. I am currently earning £31k with bonuses. I was very lucky to get the job, I applied and impressed them at the interview and they gave it to me!

One of my biggest regrets is that I never studied for a PhD. Its not that I did not want to, at the time I just could not find a project that interests me and then when I got the Forensics job I just put this dream on the back burner. Now, its become even more difficult since due to family commitments I can not quit this job to go back to being a student and earn around 16-20k - i have a bills ect to pay

I have enquired about part-time PhD options but there are no many supervisors who want to commit to someone for 6-8yrs for a lab based PhD. In addition, the personal costs would be insane and I can not afford it!

This leaves the only option a non lab based PhD but these are very difficult to find within the Science sector, if they even exist! One option would be a qualitative social science approach and do a PhD on an important issue within science eg ethical problems with DNA database. However, is this realistic?

Yes, I do not actually need a PhD but it is just a dream and ambition. If I dont do it now I would regret it always. So what PhD options do I have? Any advise in regards to topics - not actual thesis titles, Im not that cheeky, but advise in terms areas or fields I can look into would be helpfull. Or are my dreams over? 

I would not say that your dream of a PhD should be over, your situation just means that your PhD project would have to fulfil certain requirements. I am doing a PhD in science, and although my own project has a practical component, I know of several people who have done no data collection of their own, but used other people's data and computer modelling. So, I would think it should be perfectly possible to find a project that you could do part time, that does not require you doing lab work and where you could work from home even. I reckon the best approach is to find a research group/department/university who do the kind of research you are interested in (because in the long run it helps if you love your topic) and then contact people/profs there and see whether they have a suitable project. I know from my previous job as an assistant to a prof that many topics and analyses of datasets are put on a backburner (especially big, fragmented datasets?) and would really need someone like you to work them up. I dont know anything about the Forensic Science world, but I would hazard a guess that it's not too dissimilar from other science areas?! Dont give up the dream just yet, I wish you best of luck finding a suitable project.:-)

Thank you for taking the time to read my long post and reply.

You are not the first person to mention the possibility of doing a PhD were you analyse data that has already been collected. However, I have found difficulty convincing PIs to make a long terms commitment that a part time PhD would require.

May I ask the field of Science that your colleagues who are doing such PhDs are working in?

It's atmospheric science. (you see, it's easy to collect a lot of data in this field, especially with all the automatic 24/7 logging that is going on these days, at least for some things :-)

I understand what the concerns could be about committment, and I think the key is to convince potential supervisors of your motivation and deep interest. Also, is there a possibility of linking your current work activities with research aims? In this way, you could help uni supervisors link up with industry, and that might be another incentive for them (sups) to take you on. You say you give technical/product advice - is there a way in which your PhD could link into the instrumentation side of things? I am just brainstorming here, just ideas, I dont know whether it's realistic.. maybe you get some more useful comments from other forumites...:-)

I used to work for the FSS years ago - I know full well about the derisory pay and frankly disgusting attitudes to their staff, well done for getting out and to the US. It sounds like you were at LGC? Well, the idea of analysing existing data certainly would solve a lot of your issues, and could be done remotely with only a few supervision meetings along the way. Secondary data analysis is not as unexciting as it sounds. It did it for my PhD, in epidemiology. It's easy to be creative with what you have to work with.

If you still have contacts with the FSS then using the NDNADB to do statistical analysis would be quite interesting as it's getting to be quite sizeable these days. You'd never need step into a lab.

There must be literary topics on the use of DNA the legal system etc... it doesn't have to be about the technology. It can be review of what has happened and what direction it needs to go in next - on a moral/legal point of view, rather than from your tech backgroud. Your MSc must have provided a broad background in other forensic disciplines - how about re-visiting them for ideas?

Have a look through the forensic science academic journals and see what the hot topics are these days.

You talk about "finding" a PhD and how difficult it is. Well, it's your PhD, so how about having an idea, finding an appropriate suppervisor, write the proposal, submit to a funding research council and there you have it - your own PhD, and one where you are not a glorified research assistant because you devised it. You are at an advanatge in applying for these as you already have an MSc and don;t need to apply for the 1+3 awards. Just go straight in at +3 and your experiences sound like you'll be an outstanding candidate.

Is there any chance you could do it by publication? I know this is a route some lecturers here take, but I'm sure it isn't exclusive to them, you could perhaps base it on some area that interests you. Might be a possibility.

hi mystic guru
I have some friends who did non-lab based phds (from lab-based masters!). You could even switch fields, doesn't have to be about DNA anymore. It definitely works.

Some crazy ideas: topics within research governance, management (which type!), health issues, psychology (lots of branches!), you could even go into Criminology and Deviance studies... yes I know I am crazy crazy

What do you want to do? Its a matter of looking for and finding it.
You do have a lot of options! You just need to sort out your finances, time, payments etc.etc.

btw, 31 years old is a good age :-)
satchi

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Hi mystic_guru
I know what you mean! I'm 32, an engineer, with 10yrs good experience, a good job, 1st class hons etc, but I would also love the chance to climb 'mountain PhD' - because it's there, as they say.

I've had a pretty similar career to you, in that I've done good work, but the scope to do 'advanced' work in industry or government is so limited - even when the problems are there, management are risk-averse, and unwilling to see exploraton as desirable. To add insult to injury, I am involved in meetings where we scope projects for PhD students to do (usually only moderately well), but there's little/no route for staff members to do some work themselves. I am simply considering leaving my job (or career break), simply to get on with it, do the work, enjoy the challenge, and write that thick report.

I am quite intrigued by the idea that I could scope my own PhD - I can think of lots of topics, so will look into that!

Goood luck!