Good Reasons To Do A PhD
1. To achieve something significant
Some of us who have ambitions to make
money should just become an
entrepreneurs and forget Phd. But if you
are
ambitious in that you wish to challenge
yourself,
push yourself to new heights or achieve a
difficult goal, then a doctorate may be for
you.
2. To discover or learn something new
Some of us are very curious when we are
young, we love to learn new thing, i think
you will make a great research. If you feel a
driving force pushing you to explore and
learn
new things, then you may love research,
and find
a doctorate is perfect for you.
3. To improve yourself and your life
Doing a PhD for the sake of a pay rise is not
a
good reason. But if you want to improve
your
abilities to understand and solve problems,
increase your confidence, make yourself a
better
communicator and gain skills that may lead
to a
better job, then a doctorate may be right for
you.
4. It fits you/Natural to you
Some people are made for a doctorate. You
might have grown up doing countless little
‘research projects’ as hobbies. You might
have a
natural thirst for knowledge or an insatiable
appetite for reading books about a
particular
topic. You might have had a life-long
fascination
- even obsession – about something
significant.
If this sounds like you, and you can tailor a
doctorate to suit your particular needs, then
you’ll love it.
Bad Reasons To Do A PhD
Most of us have several reasons for wanting
to
do a doctorate, and of course they’re not all
good.
1. Peer Pressure
If you’re thinking of a doctorate because all
your
friends are going to try, well done on having
some clever friends. But you will have to do
the
doctorate, not them. How will you feel if
they all
achieve their PhDs while you struggle on,
year
after year, getting further and further into
debt? and we all know Nigeria professors
2.Horrible Job
If you are doing a job that you hate and just
want to quit – then find another job. A PhD
is
not an escape hatch through which you fall
into
a better world, it is a long steep staircase
that
takes extreme perseverance to climb.
3.Fulfilling the Ambitions of Others
If your partner or parents think that you
should
do a doctorate because they wished that
they
had – tell them to do one themselves. It
must be
your own ambition that drives you, not the
ambition of anyone else. Otherwise you will
resent them during the tough times of your
work
and blame them if it goes wrong.
4. Rebelling
If everyone is telling you to go and get a job
and you don’t like being told what to do,
then
make sure you are rebelling towards
something
you want, and not simply away from
irritating
parents or a boring town.
5.Misplaced Genius Complex
If you think you are brilliant and will solve
all of
the world’s problems, but every one of your
undergrad lecturers is telling you that your
ideas are unworkable and that you are not
cut
out for a doctorate – it is quite likely that
they
are right and you are wrong.
6. Insecurity
You might feel that your talents are never
appreciated and you crave more respect
from
people around you. Perhaps you like the
idea of
impressing by showing a CV with ‘Dr’ on
it. This is not as daft as it sounds, for
doctors do
genuinely receive preferential treatment,
and in
some countries are treated with enormous
respect. You are more likely to get a better
job
as well. However, if insecurity is your main
driving force then you may struggle, for you
will
be surrounded by professors and post-docs
who
are more experienced than you throughout
the
course of your PhD. You will receive respect
from
them when you earn it, not because of the
`Dr’
which they have themselves.
7. You’ve Done This Kind of Thing Before
If you have worked in a similar area, you
may
have already done research or activities very
similar to those that you will do during a
doctorate. Or perhaps you have done a
research-
based project for your MSc. This is excellent
experience and will help you, but a word of
warning: most people think they know what
they
are letting themselves in for, and they are
wrong. An undergraduate or MSc project
does
not give a proper taste of a PhD any more
than Working in
industry is very different from academia.
Even for
someone with experience, the doctorate is
not as
easy as you might think.
Hopefully, you will find that more of the
good
reasons apply to you than the bad ones. Be
honest with yourself. You are thinking of
embarking on something that can change
your
life, either for better or worse, depending
on
you.