Grad school/career change after 5 years of working. Sanity check.

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the considerations and implications of pursuing graduate school or changing careers after five years of professional experience. Participants explore the risks and motivations associated with such a decision, particularly in the context of physics and engineering fields.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses a sense of reassurance after articulating their thoughts, suggesting that their career change may not be as risky as initially perceived.
  • Another participant counters that pursuing graduate school can be risky, citing statistics about the competitive job market in physics, specifically the ratio of physicists to tenure-track positions.
  • A participant shares their personal background, indicating they are not currently pursuing graduate studies in physics but are considering a shift towards nanotechnology or micro electromechanical systems within electrical and computer engineering.
  • Concerns about the feasibility of entering a new field and the implications of such a transition are mentioned, highlighting the uncertainty involved in the decision-making process.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the risks associated with graduate school and career changes. While some feel reassured about their decision, others highlight significant risks and competition in the academic job market, indicating that the discussion remains unresolved.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference specific statistics regarding job competition in physics, but the applicability of these statistics to other fields or personal situations is not fully explored. There are also mentions of personal circumstances that influence career decisions, which may not be universally applicable.

dighn
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[Delete] Grad school/career change after 5 years of working. Sanity check.

Edit: I guess I was just trying to convince myself, and I think I'm convinced.

Will probably post specific questions later.
 
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:smile: Nice...so just by writing the question, you got your answer. Glad PF helped, in some capacity :smile:.
 
lisab said:
:smile: Nice...so just by writing the question, you got your answer. Glad PF helped, in some capacity :smile:.

Yeah thanks PF :)

Seriously though, reading some of the other posts put me into perspective. What I'm thinking of doing isn't that risky. Still young, no family responsibilities etc.
 
dighn said:
Yeah thanks PF :)

Seriously though, reading some of the other posts put me into perspective. What I'm thinking of doing isn't that risky. Still young, no family responsibilities etc.

Heh, I'm not sure about that. Grad school sure seems risky to me. Investing six years of your life just so that you can compete with 2,000 other physicists for 300 tenure-track jobs seems like quite a risk (scary part: I did not pull those numbers out of my ***, they're real statistics from AIP). But hey, if you want to make a trade, I'll give you my spot in grad school for your job. :smile:
 
arunma said:
Heh, I'm not sure about that. Grad school sure seems risky to me. Investing six years of your life just so that you can compete with 2,000 other physicists for 300 tenure-track jobs seems like quite a risk (scary part: I did not pull those numbers out of my ***, they're real statistics from AIP). But hey, if you want to make a trade, I'll give you my spot in grad school for your job. :smile:

Yeah there is certainly risks involved. BTW I'm not considering graduate school in physics right now, even though I love it and planned to be a physicist before undergrad. For reasons I won't go into, I went into Comp Eng and am working as a software engineer instead for various reasons (this has caused me some grief, though I still teach myself higher physics). What I'm considering is nanotech/micro electromechanical systems, which falls under ECE. Whether I can get in though is another topic. One thing at a time.
 
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