Like you, I went back to do a PhD after too many years in corporate IT. Based on my experiences, I was motivated to research MBSE as applied to business systems. I'm on the home run, ABD! Here's what I wish I knew before I started:
You don't need a high GPA, you need tenacity and perseverance and faith in your goals. And at the same time being able to take criticism, feedback and rejection.
You are not learning as for a BE or ME, you are creating new knowledge and sharing it with other academics with similar interests.
Postdoc and researcher positions are not well paid, very competitive and you need to have had some good papers published to even get a look in.
You must love reading, thinking and writing, re-writing and re-re-writing. This is where I still struggle. It's one thing to get things researched and implemented but another to write about it in a way that others will want to read. If your papers don't get cited, then it is hard to gain traction for researcher positions.
It helps to be a confident speaker at conferences, faculty seminars, etc. Thinking of it as an opportunity to market yourself to prospective future employers (as in universities and research labs).
My observation is that you either need to be in a good relationship or be willing to forego having one for 5+ years. Dating whilst doing a PhD is a huge distraction and could result in missing out on one or the other.
Finally, I think you need a Plan B. What you'll do if you don't like it, or like it but can't get a postdoc position.
Comments
Like you, I went back to do a PhD after too many years in corporate IT. Based on my experiences, I was motivated to research MBSE as applied to business systems. I'm on the home run, ABD! Here's what I wish I knew before I started:
You don't need a high GPA, you need tenacity and perseverance and faith in your goals. And at the same time being able to take criticism, feedback and rejection.
You are not learning as for a BE or ME, you are creating new knowledge and sharing it with other academics with similar interests.
Postdoc and researcher positions are not well paid, very competitive and you need to have had some good papers published to even get a look in.
You must love reading, thinking and writing, re-writing and re-re-writing. This is where I still struggle. It's one thing to get things researched and implemented but another to write about it in a way that others will want to read. If your papers don't get cited, then it is hard to gain traction for researcher positions.
It helps to be a confident speaker at conferences, faculty seminars, etc. Thinking of it as an opportunity to market yourself to prospective future employers (as in universities and research labs).
My observation is that you either need to be in a good relationship or be willing to forego having one for 5+ years. Dating whilst doing a PhD is a huge distraction and could result in missing out on one or the other.
Finally, I think you need a Plan B. What you'll do if you don't like it, or like it but can't get a postdoc position.