Undecided between trying to build a career and starting a PhD

[Julia92]

Hi. I need some help on how to deal with my future professional life. I’m 27 and I finished my M.A. in history and oriental studies one year ago. After I graduated I started to work as a guide in two different museums, because I wanted to earn some money and because I wanted to stay a while in Berlin, the city where I still live and work. 

 

I recently began to consider to continue my studies with a PhD on a subject which concerns the security forces of the former East German regime and their relations with the Arab countries, but I’m not sure if this is the right path to follow. Generally I really like to study how security forces operate in dictatorships and how authoritarian regimes work from an historical and also theoretical point of view and I would like to become an expert in this field and getting a PhD would likely allow me to become one. On the other side I don’t see myself working in a university but rather for the government, think-tanks and research institutions and maybe NGOs or even for private enterprises, so I don’t know if I really need a PhD to work there.

 

My main questions are: 

1) If I will finish my PhD I’ll be at least 31-32, without any previous working experience in the sectors I mentioned before, how hard could it be for me to enter the job market after the PhD? 

 

2) Should I rather do some internships or try to apply for a job in those sectors? I never did an internship before and I also fear that I am too old for that and that I should have done it before. 

 

3) I really like the idea to start a PhD on such a topic, but among the other things I also consider it as a way to get experience on a specific matter and avoid years of unpaid internships, am I wrong to think this way?

[PsyDuck90]

A PhD, just as any degree, is often a means to an end. I would look into the exact jobs you'd be interested in and see the types of credentials these people hold. If most of them have a PhD, then that may be an important requirement for attaining that job. If the majority don't, you may run the risk of becoming "over-qualified" for the position.