PhD, your story

Hairspray

Heya,
Im considering going down the route of PhD/academia next year. Im a 4th year student and i really love what i do, i adore Biology, would love to be a lecturer one day. I also really love research to. I figured the best way to do this would be to do a PhD.
I was out last night and i heard that someone i know had to call off her wedding because she was always really busy with her PhD! I have friends doing Physics PhDs and their life just seems awful. They are always busy!

So i was wondering if anyone out there is/has done a PhD in the bioscience could share with me their expierences. Do you like it?How did it affect your social life?If you had to choose again, would you do anything different?

Not sure if this is the right place, but advice would be greatly appreciated

Tree

My little sister's doing one in micro, half the time she complains that she hates science and hates the phd and all it entails. the rest of the time she's delighted.
I'm hoping to get funding to start one in immunology next september. Fingers crossed. It's a lot of work and effort, and you'd really want to do a project you know you'll love or like enough to work hard at for four years straight. Currently im doing a masters as i didnt know exactly what sort of phd i wanted to do (though i was certain i wanted to do research). It's a great help in introducing you to some topics in greater depth (a one year full time masters is like doing final year again, except with mroe assignments and a bit more pressure).
Talk to your final year supervisor, see if he/she can point you in the direction of funding opportunities or projects that you might be interested in.
There's quite a few others in here who do/have done phd's afaik. There's also a researchers forum in education that might be worth browsing to see what other people have been saying int he past.

lockman

Hairspray wrote: »

Heya,
Im considering going down the route of PhD/academia next year. Im a 4th year student and i really love what i do, i adore Biology, would love to be a lecturer one day. I also really love research to. I figured the best way to do this would be to do a PhD.
I was out last night and i heard that someone i know had to call off her wedding because she was always really busy with her PhD! I have friends doing Physics PhDs and their life just seems awful. They are always busy!

So i was wondering if anyone out there is/has done a PhD in the bioscience could share with me their expierences. Do you like it?How did it affect your social life?If you had to choose again, would you do anything different?

Not sure if this is the right place, but advice would be greatly appreciated

Hi Hairspray,

I have a PhD in molecular biology (2003). Will try and answer your questions.

Firstly, you state that you really love what you are studying. Great. You are on the right road. I met quite a few during my time that didnt, and were doing so to pass the time etc. A few of them dropped out/didnt finish.. So, when you say you love biology, that, imho, is half the battle. if you are going to go down that route, try and find a project, and supervisor, that really interests you, and one you may even get excited about.

As for becoming a lecturer, definitely the PhD is a requirement. Assuming you want to lecture here in Ireland one day, you might be interested in the following, the government's strategy for science, tech and innovation (2006-2013):
www.deti.ie/publications/science/2006/sciencestrategy.pdf

In this report, amongst other things, they estimate that ~80% of PhD's will not be working in academia. Food for thought, maybe?
As an aside, i had a temp contract lecturing a few years back, and would love to get back to it someday. However, given the above report, one must be realistic about one's prospect i.e only 1 in 5 PhD's will get the lecturing post. Even today, competetion for lecturing posts is extremly fierce and it is getting more difficult as time goes on. I know quite a few lecturers around the country, and many tell me that if they had to apply today for their post, they wouldnt have a chance......

Research may sound attractive, and if indeed you want to lecture, some research experience post-PhD is also a must-have. Most people do 1-2 postdocs (maybe 2-3 years for each postdoc) before trying to apply for these lecturing posts. I have some experience in research myself, and must say it is very challenging, and indeed can be very stressful i.e. publish or be damned. You might get into a good lab, publish a few famous papers and Bob's your uncle vis a viz lecturing. But, in my experience, such people are few and far between. Dont want to put you off it altogether, just trying to make you aware of some of the challenges you might face along the way.

Yes, you will be very busy during your PhD, but with a good support team (other lab members, a good supervisor, and indeed family and friends) and a fair amount of "cop-on" and good self-organisation, your social life shouldnt suffer too much. [Typically in the biosciences, you will be working with live bacteria, fungi etc - they need tlc and feeding at weekends etc.. you probably get the drift]

So to try and answer some of your direct q's.

Do you like it? I loved the area i was in, and even though i have moved fields since, i still read papers books etc on my phd area and try to keep my finger on the pulse in this. I found it to be very intellectually challenging and stimulating.


How did it affect your social life?
Not a huge amount, at first i was unorganised etc but as soon as you find your feet, there is no real excuse for it impacting so much on your life, social and otherwise.

If you had to choose again, would you do anything different?

Yes, a whole lot. Firstly, my supervisor wasnt the best: i rarely saw him, and when i did he could be helpful , and then again maybe not (leading to total and utter confusion on my part). Looking back, i would have researched him a lot more- talk to previous students of any supervisor you are thinking about joining. Look at his/her track record: have they published in the area? Are they well-known? Can they attract decent funding etc.

Another thing about supervisors (and forgive the generalisation here), my fella tended to pass on many students my way. Good experience for me (in supervising, tutoring etc), and maybe for them, but my fella was just plain lazy and i ended up doing the donkey work with these students. i know form other postdocs that i worked with , many supervisors carry on like that. Some will pass the odd lecture your way (great for experince and the like), but at the end of the day, the supervisor is getting paid reasonably big bucks to do this job, and you most defnitely wont be.

Anyway, hope ive answered a few q's for you, feel free to pm me if you like with any more.

Kevster

I graduated from IT Carlow in 2009 and am 1+ year into my PhD at the Uni of Leicester in the UK. My area is breast cancer/genetics and I can assure you that it doesn't necessarily have to destroy your social life at all. If you get to the stage of doing a PhD, then you've obviously got some level of organisation going in your life and you'll do just fine. It's more like a job, to be honest, but one that you enjoy.

Look at options in the UK... still a lot of money floating around in research here. Go to findaphd.com

Kevin

doopa

This is worth a look for an insider's guide to PhD life:

http://www.phdcomics.com/

I'd also suggest looking abroad at scheme's in Europe/US. If you're in biology then the deadlines for these programs are coming up:
Closed for next year but good: http://www.sanger.ac.uk/careers/phd/application/
http://www.ethz.ch/doctorate/index_EN
http://www.embl.de/training/eipp/
There are a few more e.g. MPI's in germany, IMP Vienna, CRG Barcelona.

Scibelle

Some good advice from the above posts well worth taking.
I finished my PhD last year but have been working in industry for the last number of years while completing it. If lecturing is what you want to do then a PhD really is valuable (though not a necessity for some places). For the main colleges it is a requirement. You also mentioned you love research. If that's the case I'd recommend trying to get some experience in a research lab to help you make your mind up. We have students come and go in our lab and you'd be surprised the amount of them that realise it's not for them. That said, others have really loved the whole experience and are still working in research. You may even be able to complete your PhD while working in research as I did.
Trying to answer some of your other questions, I loved mine but I would advise careful consideration regarding your research area. You really need to enjoy what you do and have a strong interest in the area to stay motivated when times get tough! It is a lot of work but if you're organised there's no reason why you can't have a decent work/life balance
Admittedly, my social life did suffer when I was writing up but I think that's a common occurrance!
I'd talk to your lecturers/potential PhD supervisors to get a better idea of topics and choose carefully based on what's available. Most importantly, pick your supervisor well (it can save a lot of tears and heartache later) and if you decide research is where you want to be, apply for work experience - even unpaid for a few weeks -just to get your foot in the door!
PM if you need anything else.

sineadgalway

Aaaaggggghhhhhhh*















*that pretty much sums up my experience

r3nu4l

Got my PhD in 2001 in NUIM. Like you Hairspray I had thoughts of becoming a lecturer and indeed would still like to.

I loved my PhD in many ways but was also very frustrated by many aspects including a lack of money!! The good parts include the fact that you can really feel your mind being stretched during a PhD. It really is incredible how you suddenly find yourself thinking in whole new higher levels than you ever have before. Incredible!

However, at the end of my PhD I was caught between doing an academic post-doc or looking for a job in industry. I called a few recruitment agents and got the same story from all of them. You have to start on a graduate salary, as if you just got a degree. I now know that while you may start on that salary, if you're any good you can rise through the ranks pretty quickly but it is pretty disheartening to spend three (or more) years doing hard graft only to discover that your salary will be the same as the starting salary of someone who left 3-4 years ago.

So I went for the post-doc, a three year contract. Within a year I was really regretting it. I watched fellow post-docs finish up their contracts and look for new contracts. In some cases there were no jobs available (!!!) and in others, people got 1 or 2 year contracts for LESS than they had been earning on their previous contract. A lucky few got post-docs paying the same or more. I did a bit of research and it turned out that post-doccing was a very, very unstable 'career'. No pension, VHI, perks, bonuses and relatively short contracts, no permanancy and salaries that may rise or fall between different contracts. I also watched a post-doc in his 40s finish a contract and not find new work for over a year. Why? He stuck to his guns and demanded the salary his experience merited (he wasn't asking for even 50k! ). The answer was always, 'I can find someone to do it for the salary this grant allows so why should I employ you'.

That turned me off post-doccing but not lecturing. What turned me off the idea of working my way through Irish academia was watching how certain lecturing posts were filled. I won't say any more here but I realised that your reputation, knowledge, experience and publications often take second place to who you know and who youre sleeping with :mad:

So I changed career, moved into medical communications (a job that required a PhD), firstly as a project manager, then a medical writer and since then I've become Director of my own department and am very senior in the company I work for. For what it's worth I think I actually prefer what I do now to the idea of lecturing. My work is very, very varied, involves travel to many pharma and medical device companies as well as congresses globally.

For me a PhD was well worth it but you really need to examine what you want and determine what's needed to get there. If you do decide to do a PhD do it in a well respected lab, even if that means going abroad. The opportunities those supervisors can give you can be brilliant, whether it be exposure to great science, great contacts or lecturing.

Word of warning, some supervisors are very hard to work for and not necessarily that good either! Check them carefully, speak to current or past PhD students, ask around if anyone knows of them etc. I had a chance conversation with someone who used to work for a person who offered my a PhD and she warned me off saying that the supervisor was a really bad bully, I trusted that person and took their advice. Someone I knew took the place and went through hell on earth.

Kevster

Liked your post r3nu4l. I've just done the first year of my PhD (started Jan 2010) and have already seen that 'post-doccing' is a little risky. For example, if you have your own family and mortgage, the contract nature of it doesn't suit very much. The only postdoc in my group is going to finish in two weeks because there's no more funding there. She has a kid, house, and has been in the same post-doc role for a decade.

The pay is something good to mention too... in that if you ask for more money, the supervisor/boss can just higher someone else who'll happily take the lower rate. I don't complain in that I'm getting the minimum stipend as a student, but I live alone and am single!! I can actually save!!

Kevin