Good luck! I’d look into the job market for engineering profs (is that the field you mean). It’s a tough road to get to the end and realize the job market is terrible. Of course, where you get your degree matters, too. No matter what your field, you’ll have a much luckier outcome getting a tenure track job if you come from a top tier school.
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Seriously, have a good and well thought out plan B. The statistics on how many PhD students get into a tenured job are not great. It’s worse than opting to play Russian roulette with five bullets.
If you’re a PhD student you represent the 100% input on the left hand side of the figure, and you’re aiming to be in the 0.45% on the right hand side.
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It’s funny how little it takes to be the one eyed man in the land of the (electromechanically) blind. My son does not really take after my gift in this dept, but has messed around enough in my shop and seen enough of my professional work to have a certain competence and know problems can be solved. He has joined his HS robotics team now in his senior year and is their mechanical design star! This is a magnet school full of extremely studious immigrant kids, but none of them have any of the practical experience he got making crossbows, rc robots and knives in my shop.
A few days ago I put him ahead of 90% of the population and coached him how to safely change a light switch.
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https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/2010/4294970126.pdf
Is this a UK thing? I don’t understand what they are calling “science” let alone the distinction between “career outside science” and “non-university research” because they seem to be calling most things science (including Business Management), but appear to be slicing working in industry with non-university research.
Yeah. I’m finding the toughest part seems to be getting accepted. Apparently being a 48 year old who got her M.S. in 1993 isn’t the typical path for a PhD student. I’ve been told by a couple of professors I’ve spoken to that they have concerns about how long it’s been since I was a student. Translation: I’m too old. It’s been a disheartening experience so far, but I’m not ready to give up yet.
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That particular figure is from a study in the U.K, but it’s broadly representative. I guess non-university research is either Mac Planck Institute style organisations or scientific research conducted in industry e.g. drug development, aerospace, Tesla’s R&D, NASA, ESA, advising government on scientific policy, e.g. roles that make full use of scientific training but which aren’t based in universities or carrying the title professor. Whereas non-science is publishing, marketing, finance, high school teaching, or generally any job that you could have done anyway without the science PhD. I think the conversion rate of PhDs even at top schools into university lecturers or professors hovers around 5% whereas if you ask the incoming cohort about their plans, about 50% start out intending to achieve that, so the typical person saying “I’m going to be a professor” is heading for a rude awakening. The original poster on this subtopic is 48 and has already had a career outside science, so I guess they’d have a fallback. What I mean to convey is, given the vast oversupply of PhDs compared to faculty positions, it’s essential to tailor the PhD to equip you with skills that are useful in other contexts.
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Non-traditional student, FTW!
Unfortunately, I think being non-traditional in the STEM fields will likely be a tougher road than if you were in the humanities (and then, going for the gold star programs, you’d have a tough time). I do think your best bet is to talk to people you’d like to work with, and find ways to show them you’re seriously interested in contributing to the field - try to show them something you’ve done that would illustrate your seriousness to get through the program. I’d also look for schools that are trying to build their programs, because I think they’re often more open to non-traditional students than well established, prestigious programs. The trick in making that work is in just doing stellar work, and showing off at conferences in your field, and applying for as many high profile grants/awards/prizes, etc as possible. Be high profile and active, if you’re in a smaller or less well known program.
Whatever you do, find an adviser who cares about you, what you’re doing, and won’t attempt to overshadow you or use you to make themselves look better.
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