I picked TOTALLY wrong career and I'm afraid it's to late...

PLEASE help me make a decision here.

I'm currently getting my PhD from a very prestigious institution (if I gave the name, you'd all know immediately who I am). Here's my dilemna:

My job prospects are somewhat limited once I receive my doctorate--it's not in psychology or a field where I can charge what I want. It's in a field where I can only become a full-time professor. HOWEVER, there are no jobs for professors in my field these days! Absolutely nothing unless I want to adjunct forever (at near minimum wage). I keep on being told "Go where the jobs are, even if it's Timbuctu." Well, DH won't do that, and I don't want to uproot myself too much.

There's no prestige, no money, in what I do, and I want both. I want to live comfortably in my hometown, which is one of the richest cities in America. [Note: DH will never be a big wage-earner.]

Is it too late for med school? I just feel like I schlepped my entire family to a place to go to school and now I'm doubting the entire decision. I'm upset.

I'll be poor and will have college-students yell "Hey, Miss!" at me forever. Why can't I be an MD with an office on Park Ave?

--Sad & Confused

I don't know anything about where you are, or about going to med school as I've never been. I also don't have a PhD. What I do know, is that my company (tech/business consultancy) employs lots of people with PhDs, in fact, to me it appears that having a higher qualification can make getting employed in a career far removed from the subject you researched easier, because employers look for particular skills. The demands of researching, upwards and downwards management, tutoring (if you did that), and all the writing skills needed for a thesis, are really great transferable skills.

Your job prospects are only limited by how imaginative in presenting yourself you can be. Fine, if you have your heart set on med school, nothing else will make you happy, then go.

Don't be sad, don't be confused, but be truthful and realistic. You can do more than what you are giving yourself credit for right now. FACT. capital letters make it so

Long term academic study can take its toll on anyone, so perhaps jumping into the working world would be healthy for you and apply for jobs if fields which you hadn't considered before, you might surprise yourself.

Senior Member Joined: Oct 17 2011 Posts: 231

I will use my screen name because I don't go to a prestigious institution and nobody knows who I am, but life/career wise, I'm in the exact same boat. I'm ABD, I'm 29, I just had my 2nd kid (literally, 46 hours ago), and there are tenure-track jobs in my field, but they really are usually in the middle of nowhere. I am definitely too old/too late for medical school, law school, whatever... I think I would be good at selling residential real estate, but who knows if the market will ever pick up enough to make it worth giving up what I actually really like to do the most - teaching my subject to undergrads? It's a terrible dilema, but I will say this - things look a lot better when you're not 41 weeks pregnant. I oscillate all the time between regret/self-hatred/anger/shame and optimism/happiness/etc. depending on getting a nasty email from a student vs. having a great teaching moment, depending on my advisor's tone of voice, depending on how messy my apartment is... and clearly late-pregnancy hormones were not doing me any favors. Anyway, in all seriousness, please PM me if you want - I would love to have someone in the same situation to talk to about this... especially with the extra dimension of being frum, it's a big one.

Thanks for your reply. I have heard that. I'm just overwhelmed by the enormity of uncertainty. I'm great with students and even received an award from a college where I was an adjunct. But I'm poor as anything, and want to be able to give my children the "right" upbringing. And do PhDs have prestige?

Maybe I'm just overwhelmed lately. If I ever declined the opportunity to get my doctorate from this particular school, I'd regret it my entire life. But now that I'm in "the bubble," nothing is ever good enough. My colleagues have MDs and are working towards PhDs. I taught a Rhodes scholar last year (seriously). My dissertation committee is in last week's New England Journal of Medicine. But that doesn't stop my bank account from being empty while the lawyers and MDs are raking it in.

::::Sorry for venting, but thanks for listening and for the advice::::

Anon bc this has a lot of personal info: I transferred from a masters to a PhD program after I got married and moved to my husband's town. While I was already employed in my field at the time I entered the PhD program, I figured that long term, academia might be more conducive to raising a family than my current 9-5/5-day week career.

However, OP, I discovered many of the same things that you did: my academic field is glutted right now, and it is extremely hard to find a lucrative professor position or even one with promotion/tenure potential nowadays. Even when people find such positions, I think they're often not satisfied with the teaching and research opportunities. I find that many of my classmates are turning to alternative fields in order to get jobs (see this really helpful website: http://versatilephd.com/).

In my case, many classmates are turning to careers in the field I am already employed in (government -- maybe it would work for you?), so I am considering simply finishing my masters and calling it a day (I am not too far along in my PhD research so that's still doable for me).

I hope some of this info helps you. Feel free to respond if you'd like more info on goverment jobs.

I'm the anon above: OP I see that you are definitely in a diff place in the PhD spectrum that I originally thought! However, would it be worthwhile for you at all to look into a gov job position? The pay is decent and the benefits are amazing, and with a prestigious PhD you would probably be eligible for decent pay grade as well.

Platinum Member Joined: Dec 27 2007 Posts: 7232

how old are you?

Moderator Joined: Jun 05 2011 Posts: 3372

What were you imagining that you'd do in the future when you chose this field?

Had you planned on moving, and only now realized that moving would not be ideal?

What do you WANT to do all day in your profession?

Can you think of other, related jobs - along the lines of shoeboxgirly's post- that you would be qualified for, even if they are not precisely what you'd intended to do?
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There is no guarantee that getting an MD will lead you to prestige and wealth. I would think about how much you enjoy the field you are in. If you enjoy what you are doing then there are other ways of making money.

There are more things in life than fame and fortune.
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Could you continue to do research and write scholarly articles after your PhD so that you can market yourself as an expert in your field, to get hired as a consultant or do public speaking/give seminars about your field? If you did that in addition to a teaching salary that could add up to a nice living.

Hi Op,
I'm anon as well b/c I think my story and my profession would give away my screen name to my friends.

anyhow- a few quick points
1- its never too late to go to med school. seriously. I had a classmate with 6 kids, who started at 35. second career. and then there is a lady in our shul who started at 32, after becoming a PA and realizing she wanted to become a physician. she had one kid and had another during her second year I think.
2. if you think an MD will "buy" you more prestige than a PhD, in today's economy, sorry to be so blunt, but you need a serious reality check.
3. if you think that an MD will provide you with this lucrative career where you are just rolling in dough, see (2) above. And, FWIW, this is coming from someone who has 0 in student loans to pay off. Its not a lotto ticket
4. depending on how far you are in your phd program, id say even if you DO want to go back to med school, finish what you have started (unless like- you just started this year and you have 4 or so yrs of research to go). another degree can never HURT
5. is there some sort of MSTP track wherever you are? is that an option? If you really want to go to medical school, dont let "age" stop you. unless you are like 65 or above. then, Id probably recant my last statement.

good luck with whatever you choose to do. If it makes you feel any better, I cant even count the # of times during med school that I said to myself "omg, what am I doing, I should have become a [__] instead, this is such a waste of money, I'm never home with my kids, and there is no light at the end of this long tunnel!!" - everyone goes thru similar crises. you arent abnormal Smile

!!!!

Don't want the hijack the thread, but what fields are you guys in that there are no teaching jobs? I just accepted admittance to a PhD program myself, hoping to teach at the end, but I have a decent career right now already and I'm starting to wonder if I'm making a mistake switching if you are finding that there are no jobs at the end?

Active Poster Joined: Apr 13 2011 Posts: 97

I'm one of the anons -- political science/public policy

Gold Member Joined: May 09 2010 Posts: 2107

I'm almost done with a master's in library science degree and sometimes I wonder if it was a smart choice. On the one hand, I LOVE this field, I'm really good at it, and would be happy to have a lot of different types of jobs that fall under the umbrella. But on the other hand the job market right now is horrendous. there are people with way more experience than me applying to the same jobs. I'm too educated to get a lower-level position that will give me the experience I need, and I also need to earn enough to cover daycare and student loans - which most lower level jobs won't supply anyway. I've been applying to totally unrelated positions because at the end of the day, we need the money more than anything else.

Since you haven't specified your field, it's hard to help you figure out what you can do with it other than teach - and it sounds like you're expert enough to be realistic about how well your education transfers to the job market. But I'd still make an effort to meet with career counselors or other experts in this area to see if there's any way you can use at least part of your education in a different industry or field. is there any kind of consulting you can do?
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Why do you have to be a professor? You could write, lecture, many things.