Hi,

I am sorry if this or similar questions have been already been discussed here. I am third year PhD student and I am thinking about life after the PhD. Right now, I prefer a career in industry, for many different reasons such as salaries and the prospect of being able to stay at one place for a longer time that a grant period :-)

But I have been offered a very attractive PostDoctoral Position. This position is funded for two years and quite exciting, but purely basic research. It is in another (European) country, but the lab is very good, international and I speak the language of this country, too. The project is fairly different from my current PhD research and I believe that it would extend my skill set to some extent.

On the other hand,I see my future more in industry and less in academia. I am wondering whether taking this position would somehow decrease my chances of getting a reasonable job in industry (I will be 30 years old after the postdoc project and without any experience in industry so far).

Well, probably my concerns are exaggerated, probably not. What is everyone elso thinking ?

Purely based on my instinct, I would advise you to leave academia after one year of the PostDoc, at the age of 29. No rational reasons, except the insight that life moves on fast and travelling down the wrong road for too long could possibly result in getting lost...

Hi jouri,

thanks for your reply. But wouldn't that be the worst option? I would leave a new project after one year, possibly without much results, and my PostDoc advisor with a half-finished project ...

Morally wrong, that's correct. But it's your life. The problem is, if you complete the PostDoc project successfully, they will offer you a lecturer or associate professor position and then you will be faced with the same decision, expect that a few years have moved on. It will be easy to find a replacement postdoc person for you. You have to remember that you wouldn't be the first one to get trapped in academia, it happened to others before. Just talked to a senior lecturer today, 50 years old, never became a Professor, excellent publications, regrets he never made the exit into the real world when he was 30.

when you know it doesn't excite you to get out of bed and face the working day of being a researcher, surrounded by other researchers in a place that doesn't make your work sparkle. That's when it's time to leave whatever you are doing, academia, job, anything. Every day can't be sunshine and smiles but it ought to have a purpose. Have you looked at how competitive the industry job market is in your area of interest? That may help you decide where to go next.

From the experiences of my friends who made the jump to industry the "best" time is either straight after your PhD or in a period of 1-2 years post PhD (but with some industry experience during that time).

If your industry is competitive, I would highly recommend you get some real world work experience, even low level. Quite often you are going to be competing against undergrads and MSc students, who may not have the same academic background but are more commercially savvy and have internships and placement years.

Even if you take the postdoc, make sure you have SOMETHING else work related on your CV to talk about at interviews.

I know postdocs who have gone into industry. They tend to go for jobs based on their experience i.e. they have excellent lab skills which are directly applicable. Other ways in (pharma) seem to be trainee positions. I'm temped to say go for industry if that is what you want, rather than holding off. There are also industry postdocs.

Hi,

thanks to everyone for the replies, they've been really helpful.

I probably forgot to mention that I am in natural sciences. I also
forgot that this a UK-based forum... in my country, people study
much longer and it is not uncommon for people to get their PhD in
my field when they are 30. So I will finish relatively early.
But things are changing slowly since we adopted the English system
of BSc/MSc + a three year PhD.

Nevertheless, I made my decision and will get some experience in industry.

Cheers,

Ben