Is Finishing Your PhD Worth It?

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, should I even finish my PhD?

Is doing a PhD worth it?

Am I better off just quitting my PhD?

You’re not alone.

One thing a lot of people don't know about me is I almost quit my PhD halfway through.

I told my advisor I was leaving.

I had gone on an interview and got a job offer in the middle of working on my PhD.

I was going to leave with my masters.

My PhD and the state of academia just became too much.

I was looking at the statistics about getting a professorship and what PhDs were paid as postdocs or in a professorship...

It wasn't looking good.

I felt stuck. I didn't know what else was out there.

I knew that I didn't have any industry experience and thought that meant I would never be able to get a PhD level job in industry.

I was constantly worried.

Was all of this investment worth it?

I was three years in.

I was probably going to be there for another three years.

After six years in grad school, was I even going to be able to get a job?

I'm guessing you have felt this way too.

And I understand.

The good news is that your PhD is worth it... if you use it to get an industry job.

But you are probably wondering, just like I did, how are you going to get an industry job without experience?

How are employers going to take you seriously if you have no industry credibility?

Plus, you’re probably worried about whether you will be able to find a job that leverages your PhD.

Will you be able to find a job that pays you a PhD worthy salary and that allows you to do meaningful work?

In the end will the investment you made to earn a PhD be worth it?

Short answer, yes, if you transition into an industry job.

The worry that your PhD may not have been worth it stems from your fear that you will not be able to get hired in industry.

And there are 2 majors fears that I see PhDs facing over and over again.

Fears that hold them back.

Fears that keep them in low paying academic jobs.

Here’s how to overcome those two major fears you have about your industry hireability…

1. You don't have industry experience.

Most PhDs, have gone all the way through academia never having worked at an industry job that's at the PhD level.

You have no idea how to get hired at a company or what it's like to work in industry.

That not-knowing can cause a lot of stress.

So it's like the chicken and the egg argument.

How can I get a job that requires industry experience when I don't have industry experience?

The good news is, over 90% of the PhDs who come into our association have no industry experience.

Yet, they all keep getting hired.

What does this mean?

It means you don't need industry experience to get your first industry job.

What employers look for is speed of learning.

They want to know how quickly you can find information on your own.

The fact that you are able to work autonomously, that you're a self-starter, that you can learn on the job quickly, that's what employers care about.

That's what you need to be communicating on your resume and your LinkedIn profile.

Experience can actually work against you negatively for your first industry job because they have to un-train you on what you learned at another company and then re-train you.

2. Will you be able to get paid well and do work that is meaningful?

Yes, in industry there is a huge range of positions available to PhDs, you can find one that suits you.

For some PhD having a paycheck that supports their family finally becomes possible after they get hired in industry.

For others, they can finally leave behind the slow pace of academia and see their work have a direct and fast impact on patients.

The way to get into these types of PhD level positions is with referrals.

Employers want to know that you have credibility and having an industry connect who will give you a job referral builds this credibility.

When an industry professional will vouch for you, it gives you the appearance of industry credibility even when you don't have it.

Without this, and other job search strategies, you might end up in a non-PhD-level position, working alongside people with bachelor's degrees.

Then it might feel like your PhD wasn’t worth it.

Don’t let that happen to you.

Imagine what it would feel like to get into a job that's at the PhD level.

A job that pays you at the PhD level in industry, which the average worldwide is over $91,000.

And it's a respected job where people are hanging on your words, they're listening to you.

You're the expert in the room.

Imagine what that would feel like.

You'd never have to worry about whether or not your PhD was worth it.

You'd know for the rest of your life that you made that right decision getting your PhD.

Getting your PhD was the right decision.

You need to finish it if you haven't.

But, you need to say goodbye to the lie that doing a postdoc is going to help your career.

And the lie that you're going to be able to get into a full time professorship— because they're going extinct.

Instead, you need to leverage that PhD to get into an industry job.

Once you get a job in Industry you will never have to worry about whether or not your PhD was worth it.

Because you'll get into a PhD level job, where you are valued and are doing valuable work.

That's what the Association will help you do.

Are you doubting the value of your PhD?

Wondering how to leverage all the time you spent in academia to get hired in industry?

Tell me in a comment below.

To learn more about transitioning into industry, including how to gain instant access to industry career training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, a complete industry transition plan, and a private online job referral network for PhDs only, get on the wait list for the Cheeky Scientist Association.