Will getting a PhD narrow my career options?

I was recently a panelist for the “Meet Your Future” session at this year’s American Physical Society March Meeting. The session is designed to give students a forum where they can address their career questions to a panel of physicists working in non-academic careers (i.e., the kind of careers most physicists have). The room was packed with a few hundred students. To my surprise, the very first question a member of the audience asked was, “Will getting a PhD narrow my career options?” I was happy to see us get off to a no-nonsense start.

It felt like that question had a lot of subtext, which we will address in a minute. First, let’s tackle it exactly as asked. No, getting a PhD will not narrow your career options, but it will somewhat narrow your employment options. More specifically, getting a PhD will increase your chances of getting a smaller number of more specialized jobs while making it harder to get many jobs that require less involved qualifications. Career options transcend employment. More on that later.

Why would you want to do something that narrows your employment options? First, let’s recognize that every choice you make has an opportunity cost. Choosing to forego a PhD also narrows your employment options. There are classes of jobs that you have next to no chance of getting without a PhD: professorships, most senior research scientist positions, directorships of major science labs or projects, etc. The PhD supply is more than adequate to meet the demand for those roles. Conversely, if you have a PhD, most managers will shy away from hiring you for positions that require significantly less advanced qualifications. That’s because they think you will get bored and leave, or that the mismatch will cause other problems. Of course, if you are getting a PhD for the right reasons, you probably won’t lose any sleep over the fact that it will narrow your job options. 

The question’s subtext came out during the dialog we had with the asker. The question underneath the question might be phrased something like: Will getting a PhD set me on the path to becoming one of the horror stories I hear about? If you are reading this, you have probably heard the horror stories. There’s the friend of a friend who is over forty, on their nth academic postdoc, and barely making enough to get by in the major city where they live. There’s the acquaintance whom one of my past PhD coworkers described as “destroyed” by graduate school and who is now eking out a living on the adjunct professor wheel of pain. There’s the PhD who applies for every job opening they see but who just can’t seem to get a call back. If you need more, take a look at Jonathan I. Katz’s “Don’t Become a Scientist!” Horror story avoidance is a very understandable preoccupation. However, avoiding a horror-story fate is less about whether you get a PhD (or not) and much more about individual expectations, assumptions, prejudices, willingness to change, and the humility to seek help.

In the labor market, you are an individual competing with a certain set of skills and credentials, all of which have a market value and an acquisition cost. PhDs are difficult and costly (in time if not in money) credentials to acquire, so there are relatively few out there. Rarity and demand drive up value, but there are necessarily fewer buyers (i.e., employers) in the market as prices increase. The PhD horror stories usually take one of two forms. First, some individuals simply misallocate their resources in getting a PhD in the first place by not thinking the choice through deeply enough and coming to regret it. Second, some people can’t or won’t change their approach to the market when they are disappointed about the meager results of selling to a customer (e.g., academia) that has a glut on their hands. For those willing to take a broader view, career options abound:

• “Alternative” Employment – The aggregate total of PhD-suitable jobs in industry is much higher than the more obviously applicable positions at universities and national labs. However, these opportunities are often difficult to locate, particularly for the freshly minted PhD. The word “physicist,” or even “scientist,” will usually not appear in the job titles or descriptions. Every subfield has different names for approximately the same thing. For example, it took me quite a while to figure out that when people in the defense industry speak of “EO instruments,” they’re talking about cameras. Finding your niche requires research, persistence, and, most importantly, talking to people. Check out our networking tips and our interviews for inspiration.
• Service – Strategic volunteering and service can be a great way to gain experience in a new field and open opportunities. I place (typically low-paid) internships and fellowships in this category as well. The volunteering/service path is open to anyone, but the credibility conferred by their degrees helps PhDs play at a much higher level. Just one example is the APS Congressional Science Fellowships.     
• Entrepreneurism – This is the biggest career opportunity because it is literally unbounded. You do not need an employer to make a living. The option to go your own way is not an easy one but it is always available. It also takes a different way of thinking because you’ll need to market a product or well-defined service rather than your personal labor. Also, being an entrepreneur does not necessarily mean founding a startup company and spending all day chasing venture capital, though that’s certainly an option. Again, a PhD confers the credibility and skills required for lots of successful solo ventures: tutoring, scientific translation, consulting of myriad types, etc.

Whether you choose to earn a PhD or not, the process of finding your career niche is similar. Be sure to do your research and think deeply about what you want, both now and in the future. Network and talk to people to learn more about your options, test your assumptions, and surface opportunities. Finally, do not underestimate the value of seeking help. Amateur help in the form of mentors, friends, and family is always useful. However, if you feel like you are stuck or underperforming, the right professional coach can provide critical perspective, guidance, accountability, partnership, and motivational support.