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Dear Dr. 29
I am absolutely in your boat. I did PhD in ESR spectroscopy and I was already knowing that this field is not that wide and then went for certification in medical writing (with my own money) while writing my PhD thesis. Then I figured out that for medical writing the jobs I was getting will not provide me the need to get Visa as I was living in a foreign country and being an Indian my visa conditions are stringent. I tried for getting post doc offers in different fields and sam field like my PhD, yes all the different field people politely denied me and I got a post doc in my field. More technical, more expensive more narrow.
Now I have returned to my home country (my husband has a job here) where this spectroscopy is in very basic stage and it is very difficult to convince people about the benefits of this technique. Also I don’t have that many publications to prove.
I also have a daughter and I really feel that hardcore academia job is not for me, but what else? I am still searching. In the mean time I am freelancing in medical writing or any kind of writing. I have just got a parenting blog writing offer based on my blog. These are just interim measures. I don’t see any hope in the same city as my husbands so it is time to move again I guess.
Sometimes I curse to too much studies I have done when I see how much more money and stable life others are having with half of my education. But what to do! Only we can do is not to loose hope and keep trying.
Oh Chandrima, I’m so sorry …. I do hope all works well so you and your husband and baby can be at the same place and find both personal and career fulfilment. I’m glad you’re keeping your writing skills in shape at least …. but studying a technique that is only widely used in a very limited part of the world sucks … I know this as I was counting the labs in Canada that do something akin to what I mastered for my PhD and I have many fingers left behind on my hand. Some people see the value, they don’t have the funds, and the ones that do have the funds, give the job to others … it sucks. Do keep me posted on how things move and (hopefully) change for good for you and your family.
Like you very well said, we mustn’t lose hope and we need to keep trying. So far I’m back to job application mode seeing where I can fit, that is rewarding even if it’s not in the same field that I held near and dear my heart.
Hugs and best wishes!!
I’ve read your blog entries over the past few days and I think that you’re frustration with your thesis project is one that I and many friends of mine feel as well. I don’t know what to suggest other than we’re all sharing your angst..as to why, oh why did we pick the topic that we did for our PhDs or why on earth did we bother with a PhD in the first place. Sadly, hindsight is 20/20 and we can’t go back and under decisions that we made at the time when we thought it was a good idea to do what we’ve done. Perhaps we made some dud decisions but we can’t undo them…plus its a good idea to remember that some circumstances are way beyond our control: who knew the the global economy was going to collapse, who knew that the university system in different countries was going implode….some of us are trapped in countries that we’re not from but we can’t return because we can’t afford to do so. All I’m saying is that you’re not alone..and please, please don’t blame yourself. Sadly, lots of people are affected by this horrible mess. …and really my only advice is to try to be calm and start thinking out of the box as to what you might be able to do.
Thanks for visiting Anthea! I think my job search has been far more frustrating than my thesis project … Hindsight is 20/20 indeed. Sometimes I’m very glad I did my PhD … other times I wonder if being so stubborn and fixated on getting done with this degree because people will call me a quitter was my curse … it really depends on the day. I do wish sometimes I’d gotten out with just a masters, and maybe I could have negotiated my stay in my PhD lab as a tech … but this only came to mind years after. Thanks for your kind words. I’ll keep your thoughts and feedback in mind. I’m just hoping for a miracle that maybe, just maybe, one of the places I interviewed and I’m still waiting for will give me a call. In the meantime I’ve picked up on the application boat again and I’m applying for any jobs that use any of the other, however limited, skills I have. Will keep y’all posted.
Dr. 29, I am at 27 after completing my masters degree in CompSci a year back and now thinking of going for PhD as thats what I always wanted to pursue but keep postponing for one reason or the other despite completing my bachelors degree 6 yrs ago. Many of friends showed a grim picture asking me what will I do after PhD … what if I dont get the right job/position etc…. many of my friends may be well settled by the time I complete my PhD but I am still not able to see any other option as lucrative even if pays me well in my own country because they are nowhere to what I dreamt to pursue/study…. I think what you achieved is commendable …. My best wishes
Thanks for visiting, Rahul. Best of luck with your studies! You could also explore the option of working for a company who helps fund your PhD, I don’t know how common this is in your country, but that would give you some job security and would allow for you to pursue your PhD at the same time. Best wishes, Dr 29
Dr. 27! I’m a budding scientist that finds your achievement of PhD at 27 rather impressive! Keep up the good work. I’m from the Philippines and Canada is one of the countries in which I hope to earn my Ph.D. If I’m ready for that time I hope to have you as a contact there
Thanks for your sweet comment jsuix. Sadly, I had to leave Canada (my postdoc appointment finished). But it’s a wonderful country and if you ever get the chance, visit and/or do some science for sure. I’m close enough, so do count on me as a contact
Hi Dr. 29, I stumbled upon your blog, completely out of the blue, and have not been able to stop reading. I defended my PhD dissertation this past October and have been working as a post doc in the area of medicinal organic chemistry ever since. Thank you for sharing your experiences…especially those concerning your job searching, which is in my near future. Since I was completely consumed with grad school at 25, I seem to be going through a quarter-life crisis now at of 28. It’s so funny to me that I once thought I would get my life together easily after grad school was behind me and now I’m feeling more confused than ever about where to take my career.
You may have already mentioned this somewhere in your blog…but why did you decide to blog?
Hi Dr Mazzone. Thank you so much for your comment. What an amazing story. At 25!
Oh, yes, I did get the quarter-life crisis last year (well, it really started at the end of 2010) and it was tough. I think part of why it was so hard was because all my life I’d been planning to go to college, get a degree and be done. Then I realized it wasn’t that easy, and so I went to grad school. And for 6 years my life was consumed by grad school this and grad school that. And I had a supportive department and PI who took care of me. And I knew I’d be done, but I though “hell, I’ll deal with it when I get there.” That was obviously a bad choice, and I went into the postdoc without really considering my options, and more importantly … asking myself the tough questions about what to do and when and what career path to follow. And it was tough to be facing not only the depression of my failed postdoc, but also facing the tough questions dead on. I still haven’t decided what the next step is, but I believe that finding a lab and a position that I can (sort of) handle and flourish will help me decide what the next step is.
As to why I decided to blog, well, I was feeling lonely for starters. I also had a personal blog, but I didn’t feel comfortable sharing some of the tough things that were happening and had happened, so I opted for a pseudonym. I think I found the blog of a fellow tweep and that motivated me to write and share with other students, other people what there what grad school and being a student on the verge of finishing feel like. Sometimes you see happy faces when you first go in a lab, and there’s a story behind each person and their success and failure, so I wanted to give a candid account of how things were for me. And so, almost 3 years later here we are.
Thank you for reading and commenting, and feel free to anything. I’ll try to answer to be best of my abilities
I am doing a masters degree and I just cannot get my head round on how to do critical review of literature. I never had to do this in my undergradute degree. It makes me depressed to see people get on with their studies and not having to struggle. Everytime I see people completing their PhDs it makes me even more depressed and I feel that I will never get there
Oh yeah, right there with you. That’s part of the reason I failed my qual, because I had never mastered those skills and then, all of a sudden I had to master that and more in a few months. It takes time, it takes practice. My boyfriend took a bunch of methodology classes in undergrad and I did take methodology type-things … but they were all about performing experiments. Beyond reading my textbook, there wasn’t much else to read and everything was so fast because so many topics had to be covered before the end of the semester that I can truly say, no one ever taught us (bio majors) how to do it. My BF, on the other hand, was a social sci major … in which they read forever, so they were equipped with those skills from the first year. I do believe a methodology/hypothesis/analysis class or workshop has to be in place because, sure, you will learn it along the way, but it would make more sense to teach it along reading the textbooks/etc. I’ve always thought that it would be cool to have a class where alongside with the textbook, recent papers on topics which are discussed/presented in the textbook are updated via recent literature. That way students can learn that concepts are shown on books, but analysis and updates happen in labs all over the world, every day, and there’s no textbook that can be updated and published fast enough to really catch up.
You will get there. Hang in there, you can do it!!
Let’s stop doing deep science and move to industry, architecture, automotive design, or computer engineering and programming