Is PhD considered to be equivalent to work experience in Industry???

(edited 6 years ago)

Many engineering employers don't count the time you spent doing a PhD as real work experience. However, this will generally not be an issue if the employer specifically wants to employ someone with doctoral training because they will be prepared for relative lack of experience in certain areas of your professional development.

For you personally, the biggest potential stumbling block is the issue of nationality because defence (in some disguise) still forms a large body of the work that the aerospace/space industry is involved with. In particular, since I am presuming you would want to be involved with work on the R&D level, it can be even more difficult as some of the most sensitive material is often found at this level.

In terms of UK academia, unfortunately, the period during which you complete your doctorate is potentially going to be one of the financially toughest times. It is hard to tell what is going to happen in terms of government spending at the moment but things are unlikely to be as good for UK science as it has been for the last decade.

Reply 2

tigermoth99

Your academic activity doesn't count as industry work experience (I have a friend who had his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Brighton Uni sponsored by Clarks (he was investigating the materials of different shoe soles). He had to give presentations at Clarks' HQ and send off progress reports every so often. That could be considered 'work experience'.)

I wouldn't recommend working for NASA given it often faces cuts by US congress. Boeing, too, is often at mercy of recessions. Have you considered US defence contractors like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman?

If you wanted to build up your contacts over here, I'd research the most prominent aerospace companies and send off speculative applications. If they're not hiring at the mo, the worst they could do is say no and put your name on a waiting list. If vacancies appear, you might be one of the first to be in with a chance.

Reply 3

shiny

ayushsaurabh

Thanks shiny for prompt reply. So some good contacts could help me in UK or not?? or Like if my supervisor could help me as he has been in US before 2004(so will US allow me) or if anybody's contact could help me in gaining in UK itself. I have 3 years still left for my PhD degree so I have still lot to gain like contacts, etc? or UK will never allow me to work even if the work is not that sensitive. And I am very much interested in R&D.

You just need to be aware that there will be some sectors of the aerospace industry that you may need to avoid due to nationality issues and make sure that your area of expertise isn't in those areas. For example, I wouldn't recommend doing your PhD on some aspect of turbomachinery design that can only be applied in the extreme operating environments experienced by military aircraft! It would be useful to make contact with experienced people with similar background to you (e.g. from India) and see what their background is and learn what they did.

Reply 4

shiny

Conferences are a good time to find out about this. There will often be industrial representatives from different organisations in attendance at the larger, major conferences so you can ask them directly about career routes. They may even approach you if you give a talk/poster which they find interesting. Hydrodynamics was never really something I studied (I did turbomachines, fan designs) so I don't really know the sector but generally NASA doesn't employ non-US citizens so I wouldn't look to them as a strong prospective employer!

Reply 5

shiny

ayushsaurabh

Ohhhh Wow....you studied turbomachines and fan designs.....I love Turbomachinery. At what level you are studying or have studied or going to study. You are a interesting person I see. At which university you are studying or had studied.

That was when I was at Cambridge. I was sponsored by a defence company during my undergraduate degree and I did my internships with a turbomachinery group.

Reply 6

indr52

well another self boasting topic from a prick

no , not at all

ayushsaurabh

Wow.....are you still studying that??? I think you might have worked in the Whittle Laboratory. I would love to gain something from you if you could help me.....