Navigating Changing Interests in PhD: Advice Needed

[pazmush]

Hi

I'm doing a PhD in england and am worrying that I have gone into the wrong subject area(organic electronics), I only have a year left and feel like I can complete it but find myself drawn away from my subject area (i originally did a physics degree).

What do you think I should do? Will it be too hard for me to move to a new field after completing my PhD?

thanks

 

[chiro]

Hey pazmush and welcome to the forums.

Given that you have a year left I would advise you to finish it.

Some reasons for this include that you only have a year and that it might make it very hard for future prospects of yours, especially if you need to look for work. If an employer saw that you pulled out one year early, they would automatically think about your character and your loyalty with respect to their own job offering and that is not a good thing when you are looking for work.

But then again, we don't know your situation or your life so we all could be missing a lot of factors that might otherwise change our opinion or relevant advice.

The other thing has to do with any obligations you have as a result of doing your PhD which can not be ignored and should not be ignored. By finishing your PhD you will have fulfilled your obligations and can then move on to other things without having to worry. If you do not, then you will have things to worry about since it will, at least for a time, follow you around.

 

[pazmush]

I don't think I was really ever thinking about not finishing the PhD.

My worry is really whether there will be opportunities for me to move away from this field but still pursue research, in particular in physics?

 

[BruceW]

From what I hear, it is fairly easy and common to move around into different areas of research (for example physics graduates doing biology research). Possibly the only thing that might be a problem is if you wanted to do research in an area which required a higher level of maths knowledge (pure maths for example). This is my opinion, after talking to a few professors in the UK.