Should I quit my PhD? (Poll)

Poll

?

Basically I started a chemistry PhD in October. I don't hate it but I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I'm considering dropping out. If I'm honest I'd rather have a more hands on job, eg electrician/boiler engineer/carpenter.

Staying
+ Employability
+ Reasonable wage at the moment
- Unhappy

Leaving
+ Happier
+ New direction in life
- Officially unemployed
- Being a dropout/regret

Thoughts?

Reply 1

Ryan.W

5

I would follow your heart, if I was you I would say and finish the year and at the end you get the benefit of a PhD instead of nothing

Reply 2

Bill_Gates

21

its up to you who cares what others think. Whatever makes you happy.

Reply 3

DoddSharp

OP

Original post by Ryan.W

I would follow your heart, if I was you I would say and finish the year and at the end you get the benefit of a PhD instead of nothing

I'm funded for 3-4 years, so it's really all or nothing

Reply 4

Juichiro

18

Original post by DoddSharp

Basically I started a chemistry PhD in October. I don't hate it but I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I'm considering dropping out. If I'm honest I'd rather have a more hands on job, eg electrician/boiler engineer/carpenter.

Staying
+ Employability
+ Reasonable wage at the moment
- Unhappy

Leaving
+ Happier
+ New direction in life
- Officially unemployed
- Being a dropout/regret

Thoughts?

Nonsense. If you are unemployed you will NOT be happier. Unless you can financially afford to be unemployed, stick with the PhD. There are people out there that would sell their entire family for being where you are.

Reply 5

DoddSharp

OP

Original post by Juichiro

Nonsense. If you are unemployed you will NOT be happier. Unless you can financially afford to be unemployed, stick with the PhD. There are people out there that would sell their entire family for being where you are.

The + and - were supposed to mean pros and cons. Unemployed being a major con and one of the main reasons not to leave

Reply 6

Juichiro

18

Original post by DoddSharp

The + and - were supposed to mean pros and cons. Unemployed being a major con and one of the main reasons not to leave

I know. It is still nonsense. Leaving your PhD is madness. Stay. You have nothing to lose and a very precious qualification to get. Stay.

Reply 7

HeavyTeddy

16

Ultimately, do whatever makes you happy. Nobody else knows your position or how you feel about your PhD. Afterall, the majority of people using this site are a bunch of undergraduates and sixth formers who don't know jack **** about postgraduate stuff, so don't take advice from them. At the end of the day it's your life and you are the one whos going to suffer if you end up doing something you don't want to do.

Reply 8

polscistudent88

12

Are you absolutely sure the PhD is not right for you? You started it in October... Wouldn't it be a good idea to wait at least until the end of the academic year before thinking of this?

Reply 9

sj27

14

This is far too important a decision to be basing it on a poll of random anonymous internet users.

I also find the employment options you're contemplating slightly bizarre given that you presumably already have at least an undergrad in the sciences.

Reply 10

Klix88

17

I started my PhD last January. Whilst I love my subject in general, I think about jacking it in pretty much every other day! I'm afraid self-doubt and doubt in the topic, methods, outcome, employability advantages etc., are all part of the wonderful PhD experience. I've decided that learning how to work through them and carry on until I reach the final goal, are just part of the skillset that I'm gaining.

TBH employability is a bit of a red herring with a PhD these days. The UK turns out far more people with PhDs each year, than there are jobs which specify a PhD.

Is there any reason you can't train as an electrician/boiler mender./carpenter after you have the PhD? Nobody needs to know about your past training or qualifications. Why limit yourself to one thing or the other when you can potentially have both? Especially when you effectively have a guaranteed wage for the next 2-3 years, which is quite a privileged position to be in. I did jobs I hated for 20+ years before I had enough money to go to uni and do what I wanted for a few years.

Given that you don't actually loathe your PhD, in your shoes I'd stick with it and do something more vocational once you have it. Remember that those qualifications cost money, so you might need to work for a while anyway, to be able to afford the college courses and get the professional certifications which will allow you to work.

The vocational training you're looking at might not be that easy to get. My brother's a self-employed plumber and gas fitter (work includes mending boilers) and has to retake his Gas Safe Registration (formerly Corgi) training and exams regularly, or he can no longer do gas work unsupervised. In order to sit them for the first time, you'll need to have six months of on-the-job training, which means finding a qualified gas fitter to take you on as a rookie. Paid apprenticeships are pretty rare these days. More info here:
http://www.gas-training-and-assessment.co.uk/blog/how-long-to-become-a-gas-fitter/index.html

Reply 11

Nichrome

18

Original post by DoddSharp

Basically I started a chemistry PhD in October. I don't hate it but I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I'm considering dropping out. If I'm honest I'd rather have a more hands on job, eg electrician/boiler engineer/carpenter.

Staying
+ Employability
+ Reasonable wage at the moment
- Unhappy

Leaving
+ Happier
+ New direction in life
- Officially unemployed
- Being a dropout/regret

Thoughts?

I'd say give it a bit more time. I guess at this stage you've probably been doing a lot of literature reading and the like, maybe when you get more stuck in to the lab work and analysing results you'll enjoy it more?

Reply 12

x-Disenchanted-x

12

"Happier" is the only reason you need there to make your decision!

Reply 13

poohat

18

Changing from a chemistry PhD to an electrician or carpenter is such a huge shift in direction that I don't think anyone can answer this without knowing a lot more about your personal circumstances really. It also depends on what specifically you don't like about the PhD; many people either struggle at first or don't enjoy it, but this sometimes changes over time.

For what its worth, I don't think that either of your plus points for staying are especially big plus points though. FIrst, £14-20k (or whatever you are getting as a stipend) isn't really a 'good wage' and pretty much any graduate job would pay more than this (if you are on a fully funded PhD then I'm assuming you have a good undergrad/masters STEM degree from a respectable university already). Second, its not clear that doing a chemistry PhD is going to substantially increase your employability compared to just having an undergrad degree, but this depends on where your undergrad and PhD are from. Having a PhD qualifies you for different types of jobs (i.e. those related to your field) but it doesn't make you massively more employable in general. If you were applying for a generic grad scheme job unrelated to your subject area then having a PhD probably wouldn't really make much difference compared to just having an undergrad degree from a university of similar prestige.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 14

Nathanielle

15

While a Chemistry PHD will mean, you will be more emplayable concerning the whole EU, you need to be good at it, otherwise it will only take you down. On the other hand, the informations you are giving here are just too less to make any helpful comment. It would be better to raise your concerns towards someone in your field knowing you well. There can be so many reasons why you are feeling like this, ranging from reasons as mentally ill to anway hated chemistry since years to fall in love to a girl living 300 miles away ...

Reply 15

Cora Lindsay

10

Original post by DoddSharp

Basically I started a chemistry PhD in October. I don't hate it but I'm not enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

I'm considering dropping out. If I'm honest I'd rather have a more hands on job, eg electrician/boiler engineer/carpenter.

Staying
+ Employability
+ Reasonable wage at the moment
- Unhappy

Leaving
+ Happier
+ New direction in life
- Officially unemployed
- Being a dropout/regret

Thoughts?

You won't see a PhD through if you, yourself, aren't motivated. So if you are genuinely convinced it's not for you, then you are better to get out and do something else with your life.

However, I think three months in is a bit soon to make such a big decision. Some projects can be slow to start and all have ups and downs as they go along. Do you have a supervisor or an adviser, or even a friendly postdoc, you can talk to about this?

Should I quit my PhD? (Poll)

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