I worked as a data scientist at a tech startup for two years before leaving to start a PhD in chemical engineering.

Here’s my thought process, as well as some early takeaways on grad school.

Note: I first wrote this on 9/13/2020 and promptly procrastinated putting it up for >6 months. Everything in this post reflects my thinking and mindset from back then, although not much has changed.

PhD = one of many options

I stumbled upon grad school. I never set out to get a PhD, and I didn’t go through college preparing for grad school.

When family and friends asked me about grad school, I always gave them a vague answer, “maybe someday.” After I took a job in tech, going back to school became even less likely.

Some people target a PhD early on in college. This makes sense in some cases – it’s a no brainer if you want to become a professor or if you want a job that requires a PhD (government lab, leading a research team, etc).

In my case, my long-term goal is to start a company in cleantech.1 Besides grad school, I looked at many other paths: startups, VC, and tech.

Getting a PhD was never the sole focus for me. I realized it was the best path for me from reading, reflecting, and talking to people, but this wasn’t obvious at first.

A PhD is a stepping stone

In hindsight, it was helpful to evaluate a PhD next to other options. It put grad school in perspective.

It’s easy to fall into the trap where grad school consumes your life. And from great advice I’ve read here, here, and here, that’s a dangerous mindset.2

The PhD shouldn’t be the sole focus of your life. Your dissertation doesn’t have to be (and likely will not be) the crown jewel of your career.

It’s better to view a PhD as a job. A challenging one where you’ll have to work long hours and push yourself, but not the most important thing in the world.

And that’s the mindset I adopted. I saw grad school as a stepping stone, a small piece of a longer journey.

Given my goal of starting a cleantech company, a PhD is the perfect incubation environment. A place to drill down into an area, meet like-minded people, and iterate on ideas.

PhD = accountability

This may come as a surprise.

When I read grad student horror stories online, a PhD often sounds like the exact opposite of accountability:

  • Perpetual students who pursue degree after degree in order to avoid the “real world” — whatever that means.
  • Students who jump straight from college to grad school because they don’t know what else they want to do.
  • The grad student lifestyle of cramming before paper deadlines, with long lulls in between.

I’m generalizing here, but the point stands. There are many ways to avoid accountability as a student.

But that’s not the right way to do grad school, and that’s not what I’m talking about here.

When done right, grad school is a way to maximize accountability. Here’s what I mean.

Ways to maximize accountability: founder, investor, or…grad student?

One of my favorite thinkers, Naval Ravikant, says we live in an age of infinite leverage. Technology and the internet have reduced the marginal cost of creating and sharing knowledge to near zero.

According to Naval, in a world of infinite leverage, you want to maximize personal accountability, which by extension maximizes your upside.

I’d always believed the paths with maximum accountability are either founder or investor. In both cases, you own significant equity in a business.

As a grad student, you don’t own any equity besides your student loans (Joking. You don’t even own that; the bank owns the debt). Yet I’m convinced pursuing a PhD is a third path to maximizing personal accountability.

Why? Because if you do a PhD for the right reasons and if you find the right advisor, you control your destiny to a large extent. Your time is mostly your own. You choose what you want to learn, what to focus on, and what projects to pursue.

This is not always true, depending on your research group and funding situation. But in the right environment, it’s true to an extent that’s not possible in industry.

Adam Marcus sums it up well: “You’re in charge…Your advisors are smart collaborators with lots of experience, but they aren’t your boss.” - The N=1 guide to grad school

A trusted mentor once told me, getting a PhD the right way is trading money for operational freedom.3 After having been on both sides, I’ll take freedom and accountability any day.

Unstructured time

There is a lot of unstructured time in grad school. Even during the first semester, when there’s an emphasis on classes, I’ve been surprised at how much free time there is.

I’m taking 4 classes, which is more than I’ll take in any other semester, and it’s still only 12 hours a week.

Free time opens up exciting possibilities such as crafting the ideal maker vs manager schedule. In contrast, working at a startup means deadlines, meetings, and competing priorities, and one can only dream of a calendar with such large chunks of open time.

On the other hand, this level of freedom is intimidating, and I’m still getting used to it. An empty calendar is easy to waste. The upside is there, but it’s not guaranteed, which leads me to my next point.

Risk vs. reward

I’ve covered the good aspects, but leaving a job to get a PhD comes with real risks. Unlike a cushy job in industry, getting a PhD sucks in many ways:

  • It’s long: 4-6 years, if not more. You can quit a job anytime (in the US at least). If you quit a PhD part way through, you might not have anything to show for it (although some programs allow you to get a masters degree along the way).
  • It’s stressful and hard: smart people have told me it’s the hardest thing they’ve done.
  • It’s an emotional roller-coaster: self-doubt and imposter syndrome are common, as well as long periods of questioning whether you’re making any progress.
  • It’s a large pay cut compared to working in industry: Especially if your alternative is working in tech, the monetary opportunity cost is huge.

Leaving industry to pursue a PhD is doubling down on both risk and reward. I did it to take a bet on myself. For someone who wants to start a company, grad school in ChemE is perfect for creative freedom: a place to meet people and bounce ideas.

Similar to the unstructured time, the upside is there but it’s far from guaranteed.

One more word on risk

The best advice I’ve read about risk is legendary VC Marc Andreessen’s guide to career planning.

In short, risks are fine. There’s no opportunity without risk. But be honest with yourself about the risks, and walk in with eyes wide open.

At the risk of patting myself on the back, I’ve heard the best grad students are the ones who work first and then go back to school.

I didn’t understand this at first. Wouldn’t they be more rusty? Forget how to solve a differential equation? Feel fidgety sitting in class? (2021/3/31 update: after two semesters, I can confirm these are also true.)

Now I know. None of this stuff matters. It’s all about opportunity cost and risk.

The best grad students are those who left an industry job (especially if they liked the job!) because they’re giving up the most.

The opportunity cost of lost income and the inertia of staying in a steady, well-paying job are powerful filters. To yank yourself out of that and jump into 5+ years of volatility and uncertainty in grad school, you have to really want it. Hopefully that puts me on the right side of Andreessen’s advice…time will tell.

Notes

  1. 2021/3/31 update: cleantech has entered the mainstream much more in the past 6 months, and the recommended term is now climate tech. ↩

  2. The first two links may disappear at any time, and the author, Philip Guo, doesn’t recommend sharing or linking them. I’m linking them anyways, because they are too good to not share. Sorry Professor Guo! ↩

  3. This begs the question, what’s a good reason to do a PhD? There are many legitimate reasons (and even more bad reasons!) that are covered extensively in wonderful blogs and Reddit posts, so I won’t go into detail here. ↩