Take the risk! The worst thing that can happen is you go back to academia with a (relative) wealth of industry experience – especially compared to your colleagues. The best thing that could happen is you find a full-filling career.
That there will come a day when the rejection ends!
Understanding what really motivates me and gets me out of bed in the morning tended to steer me in the right direction and enabled me to realise my calling.
The PhD is a hidden superpower, not a ball and chain.
Based on my own experience and that of my DPhil friends, it’s much easier to transition into non-academic roles than I ever thought it would be.
I’m very glad I did a PhD. Going through the experience made me a much better teacher.
As a young student, I had dreams of combining my passion for art with my interest in science.
I think the really key part of a PhD is learning how to break a problem down into solvable steps.
My research training has set me up to develop research-informed strategies to implement in the classroom and rationally defend my teaching practices.
Working on a PhD is a long-term commitment to a project and during this process you become meticulous, patient and develop a certain amount of resilience because not all avenues of enquiry are fruitful.
