Howdy,
I am a prospective Experimental/Social Psychology Ph.D. student with the required grades, educational background, research/publication, and assistantship backgrounds that exceed the admission requirements for the programs to which I have applied. However, I took quite a few years off in between my undergraduate and masters, and my masters and Ph.D. applications, to cultivate a career in operations and marketing high-end corporate jet aircraft.
I am not concerned about my age. I do, however, wonder how a graduate program might look at my life experience - specifically, as a benefit or detriment? The former, because I have certain skillsets and intuition that can only come from being a professional with many years of experience, conducting "business-level field work," or the latter because I might be "too far removed" from academia.
I would be interested in anybody's thoughts on this issue. I am DEEPLY passionate about reentering academia and then staying there, teaching and/or researching, until I'm not "mentally there" anymore.
Thank you so much in advance!
Josh