Hi

I'm a 21 year old process/chemical engineering student in New Zealand. I'm just about to finish my undergraduate/bachelors and am in a bit of a dilemma. I have been awarded PhD funding (from a prestigious organisation) for energy research. I have also been offered job offers as a graduate process engineer.

I have worked with my potential supervisor this year on my honors research project already and have a good relationship with him. He's part of a larger team, which have resources and industry connections. They've made a reasonably competitive offer (to compete with my job offers). They're really keen to get me on board.

My topic aligns a bit with my honors research project, my supervisor's interests and the team's research contracts/obligations.

Would appreciate any advice

My advice would be that unless you are ABSOLUTELY certain that you want to do a PhD, don't do it.
I would be in a better position now if I had taken a graduate position at the end of my MEng instead of doing a PhD programme. Also, it will be awful unless you have a good supervisor that is actually going to spend the time here and there to make sure you are on the right track. A PhD generally isn't given weight (at least from my experience in the UK) in engineering industry, so if you don't want an academic career, then I would say to go for the graduate position.

But that's just my opinion. :-p

Why do you want to do a PhD?

I speak as someone who actually enjoyed mine. I did it because I wanted to do something new that no-one had done before and actually came back from industry to do it. Personally, I found the PhD process to be a big boost in self-confidence and self-belief.

I don't know if it will help as regards industrial career prospects and many people do view it negatively. That will depend upon the sector you are working in and with process / chemical engineering, if you are able to demonstrate relevance to a future employer then just possibly you could turn it into an asset. How are you going to demonstrate saleable skills to a potential employer.

Please take a look at my blog (link following), have a read through and see how you feel after. Note it's written from a UK point of view as regards funding.


Cheers,


Ian