My Future Career

This week I have had a lot of opportunities to talk to people at work about their career choice, and how they got to where they are now. Most of the people in the lab are Ph.D.s. One guy, Ken, is in the process of getting his Ph.D. right now from UC Denver. When I stayed really late on Monday it was a great chance to ask him about the process. I was really surprised to learn that you actually get a stipend while in school. It's not much (about $25,000) but it's enough to live on for sure. And I would be doing basically what I'm doing now- except earning my Ph.D. and getting paid more. It takes 4-6 years to get your Ph.D. and unlike other fields, in science you usually go right from your undergraduate without getting a Master's degree first. I could potentially become a Ph.D. candidate one year from now. How crazy would that be? I think I'm capable, but the big question I have is if that's really what I want to do. I mean, do I want to do research the rest of my life? Because besides teaching at a university, that's about all a Ph.D. does. And if I truly want to move back to Scottsdale, what kind of jobs are there? Not very many. And I don't think I would go to school in Arizona either. Which would mean staying here, or moving somewhere else. But how incredible would it be to have my Ph.D. before I'm 30 years old? But how worthless would it be to have my Ph.D. and stay home with my children? I'm completely torn. A month ago, it wasn't even on my list of options. Now it definitely is. So I'm going to think about it some more, and ask more questions.