7 reasons to do a PhD
“I don’t know why anyone would do a PhD”, an old friend told me yesterday, shortly after I shared with him my PhD-related life updates. “I don’t know either”, I replied, and we both laughed.
Many people, including my friend, think of a PhD as a gruelling way to spend 3+ years studying in extreme depth a topic which may seem insignificant and boring to most.
But that exchange got me thinking, why would anyone do a PhD? Why did I choose to undertake one? What reasons do I have for not quitting? Et voilà — this article was born.
If you’re keen on doing a PhD, if you’re already doing one and are doubting your decision, or if you just don’t understand why people do that to themselves, then read on…
1. You’re (mostly) in charge of your schedule
In many PhD settings, you work mostly alone and are not bound to the standard office-based 9–5. You may spend a lot of time in a lab, or on the field. Or, in my case in front of my laptop screen.
If it’s the former, you may not have lots of flexibility about when you can be in the lab or on the field, but you do when it comes to analysing data and when you do your writing. The lab hours may be fixed, but if you’re a night owl for example, you could always do your writing and data analysis in the evening.
