To cut a long story short. I graduated with a first class honours degree last year, and went in to employment almost immediately in the construction industry, which relates to my degree. Due to limited opportunities in the current climate within construction I began looking for other opportunities.

I spoke with my final year dissertation mentor, who I enjoyed working with, who mentioned that a funded opportunity was coming up in the subject my dissertation concentrated on. I am very interested in the subject and my final year dissertation got the university award for best piece of research in my year group. So I applied and got word that I have been offered the post.

My dilemma is that the PHD is in a different subject than my degree, so I have to decide which avenue to pursue, and I am finding the decision so difficult! Because there is some much negative feedback about PHD's when I research about life after your studies. I would only do a PHD if it would guarantee me more/better job opportunities (possibly in lecturing). Some people have actually thought of them to have been a disqualification when going for jobs, as companies classed them as to highly educated and not gained enough real work experience.

I am in a reasonably good job at the moment, I dont know whether to give it up and risk doing the PHD and the prospect of 3 years hard work, and be in a situation with no good prospects or opportunities after the PHD. Or just stick with my current construction job and get a few years of experience and see where it takes me.

Any feed back would be greatly appreciated as I have to make my decision by mid week :-(

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Hi Rk1985,

It's a difficult choice and I don't think anyone can tell you what the best choice is except for you!

I'm not sure I understood what you said above about your dilemma - was your dissertation (and now your proposed PhD topic) in a subject/discipline different to that of your degree? Did/Do you enjoy the subject of your dissertation/proposed PhD? If yes, then don't focus on this aspect too much since the most important thing about PhD research (my personal opinion, though others may disagree) is that it's in something that you enjoy or think is very valuable/important - either way, this will provide you with the motivation to learn, research, work, and hang-in there through the ups and down during the three-year period.

As for doing a PhD with the guarantee of getting a better job than you have now, or a job in academia, I cannot say since I'm not acquainted with your discipline. I know that with an Arts & Humanities PhD (especially given the current climate) there is no such guarantee (but then again, depends which area within Arts & Hums, and whether it's something that could be used in policy-making, and instituitions outside of academic). So you need to explore the career propspects of the particular area of your PhD since this will - in part - answer your question.

Personally, I know that the chances of getting an cademic job in my area of specialisation is something like 30% (if that!); but I'd rather have tried than live with myself not having given it my best shot. So ultimately, things depend on what you're ideas are of a PhD and why you want to do it.

Best thing to do is ask yourself what your priorities are in life (imagine you're 60-70 years old or something) where would you like to see yourself, and what would you like to have achieved. Now ask yourself sincerely (and speak to family & friends too): Which route (PhD or Job) would provide the best means to that end?

Best of luck either way!

Hi, thanks for the advice, My phd topic is really a follow on from my dissertation. My degree is Construction Engineering & Management, and the PHD is researching safety of road surfaces, so its more of a civil engineering disipline. As you said i think I need to decide where I want to be in my life when I am 40 or 50 and base my decision on how to get there.

RK! As this forum is anonymous most of the people will sort of give advice without any bias or reward, or at least I will. I think the best strategy at the moment('putting me in sort of your pos at the moment') is to get a Chartered Engineer Status. You can easily find information from the engineering council or even from employer. Once you got that then you can go for a PhD. Leaving work without Ceng would in my view could leave you in a vulnerable territory.

Hey Rk1985,

I was working in a good engineering job before starting my PhD and faced making the same difficult decisions. I decided to go for the PhD and moved 400 miles to do it! I don't regret it because I realised I loved working in academia and I was researching a subject I loved strongly even if it meant my earnings were less. You should create a pros and cons list of PhD vs Job and see if that helps. Also look into the current jobs available for postdocs (www.jobs.ac.uk is a good website) and see if they are the kind of jobs that would appeal to you and compare them with your current job.

You mentioned lecturing, if that's a career path you're considering then PhD may be the answer. However, if you like being in industry and having a 9-5 job without the overtime of a PhD then you may prefer the job route. I loved my job but realised that it was repetitive and that I would not advance much with it (I suppose eventually I could advance to management but I did not find that appealing).

As far as careers are concerned after a PhD, it's down to the student to make it happen. I was interviewed for an engineering company where most of their employees held PhD's and me being with a masters degree didn't get the job. You also have work experience which would be in your favour. Also speak to your mentor about your concerns as they would have dealt with things like this before and can advise you.

All the best and let us know your decision.

CB

A PhD won't necessarily delay chartership versus being in work.

This article looks like it was made for you:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/14/civil-engineering-doctorate-academic-career
It includes a link to the ICE's development objectives which have to be met for chartership to be awarded. However you achieve it the CEng should be your big ambition if you want a career in engineering.

Starting out, the initial salary of a PhD in physics is significantly higher than of an MS in physics. And, if you graph the salary of the PhD and MS, you can see that they both increase roughly linearly over your career. However, surprisingly, the MS salary has a higher slope, so they both intersect roughly a decade out of school. After that, the PhD salary just can't keep up.

My thinking is that the MS earners go into management, which may not be worth the extra money. Depends on your personality.

These numbers are just statistics. There are people with PhDs who have amazing salaries, and those with MS who make little. Your mileage may vary.

Sometimes having a PhD helps during technical discussions, when it can be used as ammunition to back up your claims. However, these days management in most companies has decided that their MBA trumps a PhD from a top technical school. Another great situation for a PhD is when you need to represent your company to the outside world in some hot technical field - that piece of paper definitely makes people take you more seriously.

One nice trick is to get an MS in a top technical school. In the very rare situation when a technical discussion turns into "what degree did you get?", the answer "an MS from XYZ" usually terminates all doubts of your ability.

Me? Physics MS from a school that has 50 times more Nobel prize winners than my coworkers' school. There have been two situations where the lack of PhD had an effect: (1) almost was not hired into a group of PhDs doing exciting work but they assumed I had one and hired me, and (2) during a period of college-level teaching I was told I had no chance at tenure.
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Thanks for all the comments, they are appreciated. I have been doing alot of researching for jobs relating to my PHD topic of ' friction of road surfacing materials' and have found no consultants or jobs in this field who specialise in safety of roads etc., any jobs I have found are just civil engineering ones, that I could do now with my degree!

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I don't know what you decided on doing but if you are looking for work with an engineering degree you should check out some of the jobs.arinc.com. They do a lot of work with rail/transit as well as engineering work for the navy, dept of homeland security and various other governmental agencies. They have locations in over 100 countries so there's a good chance that there's a job reasonably close to you.

AT&T has corporate jobs open which include Real Estate & Construction - might be an option for you?
http://www.att.jobs/career-area/corporate-support