Did I Make a Mistake by Getting a Ph.D.?

In 2004, I graduated with a Ph.D. in genetics. At the time that I graduated, my grand plan was to do a quick post-doctoral fellowship, then become an associate professor, and then somehow become a full professor with tenure and a research group to boot. To this end, I had earned my doctorate; otherwise, a master's or even a bachelor's degree would've been sufficient for finding a science-based job.

My life didn't go exactly as planned, however.

After I graduated, I was accepted into a postdoctoral fellowship program, a type of scientific apprenticeship that prepares the budding scientist for a life of research. In fact, I did two such fellowships. However, what I quickly came to realize was that, as hard as graduate school was, the postdoc life was even harder. As a postdoc scientist, I had very little money to live on, despite working long hours and most weekends. I had no retirement benefits, stock options, or job security (my position was funded on a yearly basis). And finally, if I did not attain an associate professorship after finishing my postdoc(s), I'd be unemployed.

Then, the inevitable happened: the grant that funded my fellowship expired and I was out of a job. I thought about finding a third postdoctoral fellowship, but the truth of the matter was that I didn't want to do any more of these "apprenticeships." I was also looking at my friends who, for some time now, had been working steady jobs and accumulating money, retirement benefits, and seniority. I decided to get out of academia and find myself a real job in the corporate world.

As luck would have it, I applied for a biotech position and was hired about three weeks later. The job was not very research-orientated; in fact, I wasn't even expected to step into a lab. My work was mostly office-related. As time passed on, I received a promotion, raises, and began contributing to my company's 401(k) plan. I was on my way, albeit by a completely different route.

Now that I've been working in industry for almost five years, I sometimes regret that I didn't earn an MBA or a legal or marketing degree of some sort. Not that I mind having my Ph.D., but such a degree is more suited to the academic rather than the corporate lifestyle. I look at my colleagues who have attained better jobs or positions and almost all of them have a "real world" degree that gives them some kind of edge. Meanwhile, I am often pigeon-holed as the stuffy academic who has no idea about how to make or invest money or sell products. While I've considered going back to school for another degree, my current lack of time simply won't allow for it. At this point in my life, I gain real-world experience and knowledge by becoming part of joint projects at work. I also complete private projects such as creating web sites, becoming an affiliate marketer, and working as a freelance writer.