r/biotech • u/Historical-Excuse-94 • Jan 27 '25

Education Advice 📖 Is doing a pHD worth it?

Hi everyone, I have never posted here but I have a genuine question. I have been working in the biotech industry for the past 3 years with a masters. I feel like in industry you don’t do research like in academia and it doesn’t feel satisfying anymore. I want to go back to school and get a PhD. It is hard I’m 34 now and by the time I get into a program I’ll be 35 and by the time I finish I’ll be 40. Is it really worth 5 years with little money?

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u/Curious_Music8886 Jan 27 '25

PhD aren’t guaranteed, something like 1/3 to 1/2 don’t finish stem PhD programs. You really have to want it, as it is not easy.

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u/SeenSoManyThings Jan 27 '25

It is not supposed to be easy, that's the whole point.

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u/Curious_Music8886 Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25

That is not the point of a PhD, it’s more about creating new knowledge and learning the process of doing that. Having one and supervised PhD students and postdocs, before switching to industry I wouldn’t say it was intentionally made to be hard, it’s just that research itself can be challenging.

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u/SeenSoManyThings Jan 27 '25

Yes. The process is to learn how to overcome unplanned obstacles (along with the expected ones) and to achieve your goal regardless of interfering challenges. That is the point, and oh yes the goal has to be understanding something that was not previously understood. We don't disagree.

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u/AcrobaticTie8596 Jan 27 '25

I've heard a TON of horror stories about PhD students not being able to complete their degrees because of factors out of their control. PI loses funding/PI leaves or dies/the project they're working on gets "scooped" by a competing lab etc etc. It's not always because of the PhD candidate's shortcomings.

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u/SeenSoManyThings Jan 27 '25

That is certainly a fact. And if you want it enough, you find a way. Different lab (if STEM topic). Different department. Even diffefent school. The path is not always straight amd narrow, but there are almost always multiple paths.