Is it worth doing a PhD?

I'm a student ambassador at my university and this weekend I was working with one of my lecturers for an open-day event. We were talking as colleagues and she revealed that academics rarely get time off. She said she rarely gets a weekend where she can spend time with her wife and their twins as she's mostly working and it's the same for other academics.

I've always wanted to do a PhD and since I was a kid I always wanted to work at the university I'm attending but now since I found out that academics rarely get a weekend off I can't help but question if a PhD is something I really want to do.

Reply 1

greg tony

16

Original post by dumb01

I'm a student ambassador at my university and this weekend I was working with one of my lecturers for an open-day event. We were talking as colleagues and she revealed that academics rarely get time off. She said she rarely gets a weekend where she can spend time with her wife and their twins as she's mostly working and it's the same for other academics.

I've always wanted to do a PhD and since I was a kid I always wanted to work at the university I'm attending but now since I found out that academics rarely get a weekend off I can't help but question if a PhD is something I really want to do.

The question you need to ask yourself is, do you need a PhD to do a role you want? Doing a PhD is very tough and not required for most jobs/careers. What role are you considering, an lecturer etc? You are at undegrad level I am guessing, don't make too many plans too early. Most people change their minds as they continue on their journey.

Like any job, some environments/unis are worse than others in terms of pressures etc. Also, you have a small sample of 1 here, just because your lecturer works crazy hours does not mean others do also.

Regardless of what I have said, academia is well known for being poor in supporting and valuing lecturers, hence lost of strikes and news worthy difficulties.

Greg

Reply 2

oswalds

14

I would take what your lecturer said with a pinch of salt. Although it is true that (as the previous poster has pointed out) universities exploit their staff massively, lecturers and PhD students should and do take breaks. Many have young families that they spend time with, and take weekends off. I'm a PhD student and take most weekends off, occasionally doing a bit of work if I have a deadline coming up. My supervisors very strongly encourage me to take holidays, and do so themselves. One thing that complicates this, however, is that PhD funding can be very scarce (especially in humanities) so those who do not recieve a scholarship often have to spend the time they take off their PhDs working in other unrelated jobs to make ends meet, as the Doctoral Loan does not fully cover tuition and living costs. I'd recommend talking to other academics and current PhD students to get a more well-rounded view on what doing a PhD and working in academia actually looks like.

Is it worth doing a PhD?

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