Mechanical Engineering PhD - Student Personality and the Stress Level

Pbrain
Wed, 11 Mar 2015 17:48:10 +0000

All of the above=truth. Otoh there are a LOT of jobs available for engineers with only a BS. He doesn’t need a PhD in order to get going in his field of interest. A PhD creates a specialist, which actually narrows opportunity to a certain extent. If he’s not sure, encourage him to work a bit and see if he likes it. I did that-turned down a PhD program to accept a job (turned out I didn’t like it; took me a few years before I stumbled upon my passion, and then I went back to grad school for my PhD, but highly motivated!). NASA is unique in a sense that they do the Really Cool Stuff. My dh got a job there with a Masters, and it was a lot of fun. Fwiw the downsides were politics messing with funding, and having his program shut down due to shifting winds, getting re-assigned to new programs, etc. he eventually became disillusioned and left, although many stay for a career there. Best wishes!