Job or PhD?

[bmephd]

If you suddenly got a job offer from one of the biggest tech companies in the world, would you take the job or continue on with your plan of getting a PhD? Would your love of research outweigh your star struck view of the company? The job is not something that you see yourself doing in 20 years, but you just want to get your foot through the door of this beloved company. The school and lab option you got was not your ideal aspiration, but good enough that you can settle.

[nugget]

Perhaps there is a way to postpone the PhD by one year, take the job and see how you feel about this the same time next year. 

[tip3r]

If you suddenly got a job offer from one of the biggest tech companies in the world, would you take the job or continue on with your plan of getting a PhD? Would your love of research outweigh your star struck view of the company? The job is not something that you see yourself doing in 20 years, but you just want to get your foot through the door of this beloved company. The school and lab option you got was not your ideal aspiration, but good enough that you can settle.

Since you mention the lab option isn't your ideal aspiration maybe you can take the job, get some experience, and then go back and try to get into a lab which IS your ideal aspiration. If the company is so huge and the job is related to your field the experience might be impressive for adcoms. My work experience in a similar tech company helped me in a similar way.

[Biohacker]

Can you commit to your PhD, work this summer until the Fall and see if you like it?  You could gain some valuable experience to put on your resume. And if you don't like it you can bail and go to school.

 

This is exactly what I'm doing -- although I've had my job for a year now and I get paid hourly so it's not a big deal.  I've also told my boss and coworkers that I'm leaving -- not suggested btw.  The fact that they all know makes for an awkward working environment, at least with my coworkers.

 

At the end of the day, this decision is ultimately yours. After I graduated and worked for a few months I knew I didn't want to work in the industry holding my current position (to regulated and little room for creativity). I was able to see different departments and get a good idea of what I really wanted to do.