Featured image of post The Ph.D. Blueprint: Five Questions to Design Your Future

The Ph.D. Blueprint: Five Questions to Design Your Future

A visual guide to help you decide whether to pursue a Ph.D., based on insights from interviews with dozens of Ph.D. holders.

Years ago, I published a collection of interviews with people I respected about whether a young person should pursue a Ph.D. I still hear from people who found them helpful.

This is a slide deck version of the key questions from those interviews. If you’re wrestling with this decision, I hope it gives you a useful framework.

You're at a Crossroads: You're academically talented, you enjoy your subject, and you have a funded Ph.D. offer. You also suspect you could get a good job right now. This guide gives you the right questions to ask yourself.
Question 1: Why do you really want a Ph.D.?
Deconstructing Your Why: For Personal Satisfaction (love your subject), For a Specific Career (become a professor), or As a Default Path (warning against this).
Question 2: Are you prepared for the reality of the path?
Specification Sheet: The Ph.D. by the Numbers - Timeline (5-7 years), Career Odds (2-3% tenure track), Financials (10x less than industry), Attrition Rate (~35% drop out).
A Ph.D. is a fundamentally different experience: Undergrad is learning known information with clear deadlines; Ph.D. is producing new knowledge with little external guidance.
Question 3: Are you built for this?
The Researcher's Personality Test: Inquisitive, Disciplined, Obsessive, and Delusional (believing you can uncover something new and important).
The Skills Checklist: Technical (analytical software, programming), Academic (self-study, reading literature), Communication (structured writing).
Question 4: What are your alternatives (and have you seriously considered them)?
Exploring the Alternatives: Go to Industry, Get a Master's First, or Take Time Off (with pros and cons for each).
Question 5: If you go, what is your plan to succeed?
Designing Your Program & Process: Choose Your Advisor Wisely, Investigate the Culture, Set Your Own Agenda.
Your Blueprint is Personal: 1. Why do you really want this? 2. Are you prepared for the reality? 3. Are you built for this? 4. What are your alternatives? 5. What is your plan to succeed?

Want to hear directly from Ph.D. holders about their experiences? Check out the full interview series at Should I Get a Ph.D.?

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