Morning all,

I was wondering if I could trouble you for a little advice. I have recently graduated with a 1st class degree (with a very low 69% av.) and hope to go on to do a PhD. I struggled to get a place this year round due to lack of research experience and so am faced with a year out. I have a MSc lined up in the field I want to go into and have recently been offered a research assistant position in a different field. Which would give me the most chance in succeeding in obtaining a PhD next year? A relevant masters or not entirely relevant lab position? Should I bolster my relatively low 1st with an MSc? Would the fact I'm prepared to leave a research assistant post after only a year of a 3 year contract reflect badly on me?

Please help.

It depends if most people in your field have a masters. In mine you have to have one really, particularly if you want to become a pracititioner rather than an academic. The dissertation should also give you some research experience.

I guess it depends on whether you can afford to i.e. paid RA vs Masters tuition fees and no income.

Well, in my field, graduates can get into a PhD with a 2:1 or above. I don't know what field you're in, but since you got a first, there is much less of a necessity, unless you are aiming for a very specialised field or aiming at a top institution. Masters can be seen as being targeted more to industry than academia. Also, research assistants can also be registered for PhDs, so if you worked as a RA for a year then it might be possible to get a second job as an RA whilst completing a PhD (often resulting in better pay, and it wouldn't necessarily take you longer to complete). A friend of mine worked as an RA for two years then had his PhD funded by the same institution; essentially he ended up doing that job / research for five years. And it was very specialised research.

Then again, I'm only saying this because I hated every minute of my MSc and once I finished I was so heavily in debt, and had lost out on so much experience, that it took me there years of working in the "real world" to get a PhD, and I swear I only got this studentship because of two unpaid months of fieldwork. Without them, I'm sure I would now be on the civil service reduncancy scheme with the rest of my ex-colleagues...

Whoops, sorry. That probably isn't very helpful. Honestly, get a copy of the graduate destinations from your MSc and see if any of the ex-graduates have gone onto do anything that you like. If not, DON'T DO IT. If there are large amounts now doing cool things you would love to do, then that is a good indication that it might be a worthwhile investment of time. And definitely make sure your supervisors know exactly what you want to do your dissertation in, and they fully understand, and that it is definitely possible (in my experience quite a lot of MSc students end up doing something they don't enjoy because the promises made to them before they signed up just never come through).

Oh, and I've made the assumption that it's a taught Masters. If it's a Masters by Research, just ignore what I've written. It's taken me a long time to get back to where I want to be after doing the wrong MSc.

Well done on getting onto a MSc and getting a RA position. I spent the year after my undergrad working in a bar! Hardly career enhancing!

I got a first with low 69% average and it's never held me back. I've never written my average on a CV and it doesn't appear on my degree certificate, so don't worry about that.

Anyway not sure which will help more. I think it was working in an academic environment (as a Teaching Assistant) that helped me get my PhD (though I had also done an MSc) so maybe I'd e inclined to say go down the RA route and it was nice starting my PhD without any debt (bar student loan). You could always work for a year then do an MSc if you find you're struggling to get onto a PhD. Or think about which would you rather do rather than which might help career wise.

I would go for the research assistant position - yes, good academic results are important, but then you already have a first-class degree so have shown that you're not lacking in that area. I think having some actual real-world research experience will really make you stand out compared to other applicants who have only done taught courses.

Also consider what area you want to do the PhD in, would the MSc or the RA job be better preparation for that (you mentioned they're in different fields).

Harrumph, sulking: I got 79.4% average for my MA, a Distinction for my Long Study, but no overall Distinction. Still hurts.