Hi Everyone,
Am a research tech in Canada with undergraduate in Chemical Engineering and Masters' in Biochemistry. During my undergrad years, I became interested in acquiring lab skills to perform research in fields related to human disease and stem cells. Hence the degree in biochemistry which was thesis based and I graduated with a first author publication in a 3.0 impact journal (2 years worth of work).
I continued to pursue the same field and improved my skills by taking up a job as research tech in a lab. Recently joined a new lab and would be starting my PhD the fall this year.
While I took 3 years of my time post Masters' to get some work experience and decide whether I actually want to pursue a PhD in the same field, I find myself in dilemma now.
The reason for pursuing PhD is solely to get the training to improve my critical thinking. While working as a research tech provides "hands on" experience, I was left wanting to train and improve my critical thinking and independently approaching and diagnosing a problem.
The reason for dilemma is I do not want to pursue a career in academics. I love teaching and I do not mind imparting knowledge to others but I do not see myself being a PI and running a lab. I like research but then again, I do not see myself doing indepth research for the next 35+ years of my professional career. Considering the above two points, I wonder if I should put in 6+ years to pursue my PhD. But thinking about the invaluable training that one can get in PhD, makes me want to go for it.
I am interested in being involved in health policy, regulation and management and quite honestly I love to expand my knowledge and skills in science. So, my question is, considering I like to do multiple things and interested in acquiring a range of skill set, should I still go ahead and pursue PhD in Biochemistry and enrich my thinking ability and hand skills, while pursuing something parallely in health policy. Or should I simply opt for degrees pertaining to Health policy and regulation and broaden my knowledge in science while making use of the research base I have so far.
I find myself at crossroads now and would appreciate any suggestions and advice from this forum. I am also open to other career recommendations.
Thank you for the patience read.
Sincerely,
Aditi