Reasons to do a PHD and Reasons NOT to do a PHD

If you have stumble into this blog from a search engine such as google, yahoo or bing, it means you are in Dilemma. You are either in the following situations:- 

1. Nearing graduation with good marks, considering getting a job or continue with a PhD

2. Have been offered a scholarship/grant/place in a good University and not sure to take it or not.

3. Unsure if getting a PhD means more MONEY for your future dream job 

PhD is definitely a prestigious degree to obtain and an achievement to be proud of. Not everyone can be accepted to do a PhD in university, and not everyone can finish a PhD. 

As a PhD graduate myself from an engineering background and currently working in the industry straight after. I have met numerous people from both the academia and industry and shared their views about being a PhD student as well as employing or working with a PhD student. 

There are many reasons to do a PhD:-

1. Research Interest

Many people gain research interest mostly during their final year project. Excelling and enjoyed the thrill of researching work from previous candidate in the same field. Having vision and ideas for improvement. Remember PhD is not a final year project; it is a three year programme minimal and can even last up to seven years in some cases. During this period great discoveries can be made which can be very rewarding, through minimal guidance.

2. Industrial PhD

Industrial PhD are very common nowadays and still hard to obtained. There are no fixed numbers of industrial PhD positions published/available each year in any university. It entirely depends on the funds from government body or industrial interest. If an industrial PhD is offered, it is difficult to refuse. It would help open up either an industrial career opportunity or long-term academia with potential funds boost. 

In this situation its common to have 2 supervisor to report to, an industrial and  an academia. Its always a challenge trying to please both, as vision of research expansion and work ethics can potentially contradict.

3. Moving along the academia route

Do you see yourself teaching the younger generations, inspire them about your field of work and be the brains of tomorrow? No doubt you should strongly consider research and teaching if this is what you like. Having good interest in the field is important as well. Please be advise to do a research which will potentially generate interest in industrial sector or certain funding bodies. No use working on a field which interest you and inability to gain funds to support a research group after. After all you need to pay your bills. Its not just a 3-5 years plan but potentially a 25 years plan.

4. Role Model

It is very common PhD students join very charismatic lecturer's journey in discovering the wonders of the world. It is not easy to inspire young people, if one can he will tend to have followers. Remember end of the day you will have to spent alot of time working with/for that person.

5. Interest of Location

Some subjects like biology, archaeology, marine science etc, may potentially have research outings expeditions in foreign lands. This beat sitting at your own desk the whole day. Its always advisable to move around different countries to do you PhD and learn culture and preception from different countries. Remember not to sit in a room with 4 walls doing your PhD ALONE. Issac Newton didn't discover the three laws of motion sitting in his lab or workshop!

Reasons not to do a PhD 

1. Because your mother told you so

Honestly don't do a phd cause someone told you so, cause when you hit a brick wall in your research. You will play the blame game. Remember its your own responsibility for your chosen career path.

2. You want a DR in your title

Same as the first reason, You shouldn't do a PhD cause you want a fancy title. It doesn't help with the women cause you are not a real doctor and you cannot save life. It doesn't get you first class airline upgrade. It doesn't get you a better job either.

3. No Funding No PhD

Its quite common that I've come across PhD students working on a 4 year project with their parents paying for everything including accommodation and expenses. Very common among Asian students. Seriously it cost easily £40-£50k and does not include your first degree. Why pay the Uni or the Professor money to do work for them??? Think about it!

4. If you expect to finsh in 3 years

Its very unlikely students finished their PhD in three years; inclusive of research, write up, viva and final correction. 3 years is minimal and expect lot of time investment. Not only that, it involves lots of mental stress and strain. Many people give up half way through and many lose confident along the way. Be very prepared for one. Being top of the class doesn't mean you can finish a PhD easily.

5. One man team

Some people are solitary worker. They love to work alone at their own pace. PhD nowadays require alot of collaborations and team working environment. We do no roam the jungle alone like Bengal tigers. Having someone to speak to and discuss work helps progress alot. Hence the need of conference and technical paper presentation to gather feedback on your work progress

Feel free to drop me email for any personal questions you may have. I am always more than happy to help

5 Tips On How to Get a Job Quickly After Graduation

Our modern world recession began in the late 2008, where many all over the world have lost jobs, homes and businesses. Christmas sales began soaring in 2010, people felt confident to break their piggy banks and shop for the stuff they've always wanted. Does that mean that we can leave our couch and get our dream jobs back again. Well I guess not.....

University has always been the tradition of quantifying someone's ability and make a person more employable. In August 2009 an american college student sued her university cause she can find a job. All those years of education, education, education and then they graduate around £20,000 in debt into a world where there are precious few opportunities for them.

University may teach us how the gravitational forces pulls all the planet together, advance medicine for new virus, how to transmit data wirelessly....HOWEVER, they forgot to teach us how we can get jobs after we graduate. Every univeristy and colleges around the world have dedicated career center: application forms, brochure, flyers, career fairs. That does not get us the job. Students now just expect to sit behind the screen and wait for the phone call or that email on interview invites (only 5% of applicates). That does not secure us a job in the end!

I am going to show you readers 5 vital tips which can secure you that very job, which my University never told me!

1. Call up the company HR
At least 9 in 10 students or graduates have mobile phones, but only 4 in 10 may have sufficient credits. Well that does not mean you can't make a phone call which may potentially change your lives. Companies expect you to fill applications forms, questionnaire and CV and then sit and wait after.

Do you know?:-
a. Companies do not pay their HR staff to update website every hour. Therefore some information might be irrelevant. e.g jobs no longer available for past 3 weeks.
b. The advertised job may not be available any more. Or there may be unpublished opening for new positions.
c. HR are not engineers, doctors, accountants, lawyers. Sometimes they don't know what skills is required for job. You may be rejected wrongly! e.g Who shall we employ? an Electrical Engineer and Electronics Engineer? How about Electrical and Electronics Engineer?

What to do?
a. call the company switch board and ask for the HR responsible for graduates intake
b. email them if you cannot get them and express interest

What to say and ask?
a. Be polite and ask if there are any graduate openings?
b. If not, are there any other openings? When? What type of jobs available?
c. Nothing available, then move on to next company!

That will only take a good 3-5 minutes of your time rather than filling a perfect job applications for 3 days!!

2. Attend Job and Career Fairs


The next job fair is 100 miles away, you have a night out on the same day, dilemma? Well haven't you spend the last 3-4 years having nights out already? Don't you want to have nights out in beautiful cities like Venice, New York, Japan, South Africa instead? Well you need a job first!

What not to do at job fair.
a. Take the brochure and freebies and just walk off. Take your time and learned about the company.
b. Don't just walk to the big boys, e.g Google, Microsoft, Shell, and PWC.
c. Don't ask how much the company is paying. Its just a guideline
d. Don't be shy. You can say hi first!
e. Don't come in shorts and hawaiin shirts. Make some effort in dressing and not cocktail suits too (unless MI5 is recruting for 008)
f. Don't just drop your CV and leave.

What to ask? What to do? Who to ask?
   1. What's the company goal and ambition for 2011-2012? Companies rivals? Company various sector/departments?
   2. What does the job role X require? How many team members? What training is required?
   3. Tell what skills you can offer to the company, your ambitions, your dreams in the next 10 years.
   4. Always ask who is the main HR personal on stand who is doing the recruiting and speak to him/her.
   5. Get their name card or contact and possible contacts. They may have lost your cv and couldnt contact you after.
   6. No harm distributing own home made name cards. It will make yourself unique.
   7. Make sure you leave the stand, and the HR personnel remembers your key skills, points, manner.

Remember the HR team in a company does not only employ people base on available positions that particular month, week or year. If they think you hold a significant skill, they will always try to readjust. It is not easy to find a superstar everyday. You may be a superstar yourself and you don't know about it. Remember always make an impression.

Don't just walk away because they said no openings. Always be polite, stay and chat awhile. You may learn something new or advice about another company. Networking is always good. It helps to build confident and maybe improve your language skills.

3. Attend Evening Lectures or Professional event.


This may be more applicable for certain profession like engineers, accountancy, law. Like I said previously, it is very important to socialise and make contact with others. One skill which university may have taught you the most and you may not realise it at all! Talking is the best form of communication. Going to a specific field evenings lectures or events make help you increase your chance of meeting someone in a same field.

Let me share with you what you can earn from this:-

a. A name card/phone number of someone whom may help
b. Find out about someone else's job career, experience and even advise.
c. An old mate whom you have not seen in a long time and may help you get a job.
d. Other personnel from large companies: Managers, Senior Engineers, Retired employees

Most importantly you can help improve your social skills. Talking, presenting, confidence is not a skill we are born with. Its all about our exposure and experience. Remember Arnold wasn't keen at presentation and now he is the governor of California!!

You need to learn how to approach someone and say hello.
You need to make small chats. E.g hows the weather? Football scores? Paris Hilton's new bf?
You need to develop confident!
You need to make mistakes and learn not repeat them again. E.g Spill your drinks while chatting.

Its not simple, but once you've done it, you can tell the next person how simple it is!!

4. Recruiting Agents


Recruiting agency are widely available nowadays. Just because google and internet knows everything doesn't mean we don't need recruitment agency any more.

Large companies may have HR recruitment team doesn't mean they don't employ outside agency to get talents. Remember HR team is always one of the smallest team in a large company. Their job roles are managing their own hundreds and thousands of staffs; payrolls, promotion, department movements etc. You may be surprise only 1-3 people may be assign for external recruitment. How can a large company of 1-3 people manage hundreds and thousands of applications. Answer, external agency or recruitment.

Most, about 85%, agency in UK for example do not charge you a single pence for getting you a job. They earn a certain percentage of your salary when you get employed. This may not sound very satisfying, but please remember, they do all the handwork by helping you contacting the companies whilst you just wait at home for your next interview.

Approach several recruitment companies to broaden your option. You can even approach on line agency for international jobs in a different country. Please do consider, cause you may not know what other opportunities are available else where.

5. Student Placement


Student placements are not just for pre-final year students. If you have your degree its no harm trying a non-graduate role. Student placement can help you set your foot in the door. Even if you decide not to stay the several months you stay with them you can take credit for the experience. Do not spent months trying to find the perfect job. GO out there and get some experience.

Yes the pay may not be brilliant for the first 6 months or one year. However you still are gaining experience and expanding your network. Sometimes being on a student placement may potential lead up to a possibility of probation period with the company for a permanent start.

In some cases, you may even find the field of work is not what you were expecting and move on to a different field. E.g. Electrical in an Design Engineering firm is preferred over field support Electrical engineering.


These are the 5 tips which are provided in this blog today. Hopefully some of this information may be applicable to your specific career or location. These information are not based on books or references, but experiences of many. Its maybe a tough world out there, you need to walk out there and experience it yourself. This information is a guideline, however the effort is still yours! GOOD LUCK and BE YOURSELF!!

AK