by Nikos » Thu Dec 02, 2004 5:13 pm
Hey there Peter,
Sounds like your really caught in a dilemma and are questioning what the heck your future looks like. Well, I can relate to you in some ways I think and I will do my best to offer you up some advice for the future.
First and foremost, I think that you are indeed overanalyzing and overexaggerating the supposed negativity of this and other forums. I am currently a third year graduate student in the biomedical sciences and comments and advice from people liked Dave, Don, Jim Gardner, and many others who are successful and are willing and happy to advise and mentor on how to be successful in one's career in the life sciences industry, have served as a basis for many of the extracurricular activities I have conducted during graduate school. All of these individuals have recommended that as PhDs and postdocs in the life sciences, we seek to be unique, innovative, attempt to take leadership roles, perform extracurricular activities, and in the end attempt to stand out above our peers and be successful. Truth is that those qualities are what are necessary to achieve success in any field, be it engineering, finance, business, law, sciece, etc. We cannot expect that the PhD serves as a piece of paper guaranteeing us permanent job security and happiness. Yes, it is supposed to facilitate that process, but it is up to us as individuals to avoid becoming one of the "run of the mill" PhDs because personally I feel that is where many arrive at frustration and unhappiness with their career choices.
Furthermore, u state in your post that you would like to someday move into the business side of the industry. Then I advise you to begin that as soon as you commence your PhD by taking business classes at the university you are attending, networking with those that surround you constantly, joining student organizations, and choosing a mentor who has a track record of taking grad students and postdocs into industry(may help you generate contacts). I hope that I have been of some help.
Nick