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by johnminter
2095 days ago
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The academic route has always been a crapshoot. Most of my professors from the Chemistry Department at Florida State were still there and active when my daughter went there for a Meteorology masters decades later. The cartoonist, Jorge Cham, parodies this in the Ph.D. Comics books and movies. One must plan a technical career carefully. I was able to get an internship at Kodak's Tennessee plant after my junior and senior years. I originally wanted to study inorganic chemistry. I worked for scientists who both were Ph.D. polymer chemists. They showed me the American Chemical Society's study on chemist occupations. 80% of chemists worked on polymers at some time during their career. I applied for both types of programs, and the UMASS Amherst Polymer Science program provided a research assistance-ship that paid my way. it was a great experience and I had a fantastic Ph.D. Advisor - who is now an emeritus professor at Rice University. I stopped interviewing after I had 5 job offers. Employment fluctuates with the economy. Some fields are more robust than others... Do your homework before rushing into a pricey program... |
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But honestly: if it wasn’t for like 80+h weeks straight for the past 10 years and “an increadibly lucky chance” even for me university and working in the most prestigious companies would have been a crap choice. Even without the PhD (which I was able to get done in 3 years at the top university in Germany).
I literally do not recommend university to anybody “unless they are willing to take a pay cut and understand the need to be in the top 5 percent for the next 15 years to get a shot at being as well paid as that dude doing an apprenticeship in the quality department working 35h weeks”. And again: university is free here. Not worth it really from a financial perspective for most people. Yet, the “public and political agenda is to push more people into it”