Thinking About a PhD? 🔍 Discover the Top 4 Benefits and 7 Drawbacks Before You Decide

In this video I outline 7 pros and 4 cons for you to consider when making the life decision of whether you should do a PhD!

My idea for this video was to give reasons that are strong enough to decide between doing PhD versus doing something else. For example, an advantage of a PhD is you learn to develop projects independently, but I feel you can also gain that skill other places (e.g. starting your own company), so I tried to pick things which are really unique / characteristic / intrinsic to a PhD.

However, depending on your experience you might feel like I've missed some important pros or cons, so let me know in the comments if I have! It's good to note that these pros/cons will vary A LOT between different people, and also for different geographies (e.g. US versus Europe).

00:00 Intro
00:29 PhD 101
01:37 Con 1: Stress
02:18 Con 2: Social Isolation
02:54 Con 3: Poor Management
03:48 Con 4: Long Hours
04:07 Con 5: Compensation
04:43 Con 6: Exit Opportunities
05:46 Con 7: Immediate Impact
06:51 Pro 1: Research Career
07:59 Pro 2: Social Mobility
09:21 Pro 3: Pursuing a Passion
09:59 Pro 4: International Experience
10:41 Making a Decision