Dear all,

I have an M.Sc. in Computer Science from UChicago. I graduated with a great GPA under 2 years ago, and did some minor research projects during my masters degree.

I am now doing something entirely irrelevant and have always wanted to continue my PhD, but because of personal circumstances I could not pursue this dream, until now.

However, I am worried. I feel like I don't know where to start: Should I look into those areas that I truly loved and start reading papers like crazy to narrow down my research interests? Should I simply start with some unpaid research assistantship somewhere? Should I look at emerging areas in computer science?

Where do I start? Because this is an overwhelmingly scary place that I am in right now: I know that this is what I want to do, and I do not want to fail or get into a substandard program or get into a rigorous program that I cannot measure up to or.... It's all too worrisome.

I am now 25 years old, and I feel like time is running out. I am currently working in the banking sector and I've been working at my job for 9 months now, and I know I will never fit into the corporate world. I love academia, and love research, but I never believed in myself or my abilities.

I'm all eyes/ears.

hi Rmokh,
I feel i'm the last person who should be handing out advice to anyone out there but I think its kinda relevant as i'm in the same boat as you! I'm 24 and finished my MSc in Cancer Pharmacology 8 months ago and have been working in insurance for the past 7 months, and all this time I have been applying for PhDs as I really wanna pursue a research/academic career.
If personal circumstances are no longer a problem then go for it, you might not find something straight away but keep at it and i'm sure you will find something that you wanna do. start by looking for areas that really interest you and apply for any PhDs that you like the look of, have a word with the principle supervisor and go from there. The main thing is believing in yourself and being patient! I have been applying for 7 months now and finally have an invite for interview in a couple of days! hope it helped, good luck, A

Can't really comment on what you should do other than to say you are 25 and think time is running out oh dear - I've just started my (part-time) PhD and I graduated form my first degree probably around the time you were born.  It's never too late (and there is a lot of sense in having some experience of the world outside academia (esp if that is where your career aspirations lie) before you do your PhD)

Hi rmokh, I'm in a similar situation to you as well, just a few years older and also currently working in banking (and hate it) and will be starting a PhD later this year. When I decided I wanted to do the PhD I started out by reading some papers online, going to university web sites and looking at the research interests of the staff, then looking up their publications. Also searching findaphd.com and jobs.ac.uk for funded programmes in my field.

You say you feel you're in a scary place, it sounds actually as if you're in a very strong position. You have a job, so you're not in the situation of a student coming to the end of their current course and desperately needing a job or studentship. You can afford to take your time and evaluate all your options and you don't have to rush into accepting a place that you're not 100% happy with. I felt the 'time is running out' panic as well, but 25 is not in any way old for starting a PhD, plenty of people start in their 30s or 40s or even later.