PhD is definately not an option for me!!!

Recently there are a few people asked me whether I want to study PhD one of them is a PhD student who shares the same laboratory as me another one is my former lecturer Prof Chung. My answer is a straight no. It never comes across my mind for me to study PhD because I am just too tired and bored of studying, although I do like synthesis (synthesizing new chemicals and materials) experiments. I also don’t have the financial means to further studies after I finished my Bachelor (Engineering) degree. There is a joke that I made that if I study PhD I will study until I got Permanent Head Damage. I heard that graduate students need to pay the full school fees about $18000 a year as compared to the undergraduate who pays about $6300 a year so in total need to pay $90000 for the full course. I don’t want to be financially independent to the society and family only when I reached 28 and for my dear male counterparts they can only be financially independent when they reached 30 years old (if they study PhD). That is wasting 6 years of my life when I can earn $200000 already and can pay up for half of my new flat (assume I spend as little money as possible).

I think that studying PhD is a total waste of time and money unless there are certain incentives for me (and most Singaporeans) to do so. First, it is whether I can make it to become a lecturer in a rich or famous university. But, since my first degree is quite a flop, those famous universities won’t consider me to be their lecturer, at most I can be a research fellow or lecturer in a polytechnic which of course won’t pay that well, even the most well paid research fellow I know earn $5000 a month is which is around 1/10 of what Prof Chung the best paid lecturer in the Engineering faculty earns. There are some research fellows that only stared teaching lectures when they are 40+ haha. Secondly, I will take up PhD if my employer is so impressed with my work as a chemist in the research company that he want to sponsor me to study for Masters and PhD. Thirdly, if I can earn over $10000 a month from online marketing or franchise business, and I amass so much savings that I can enjoy life (buy condo and car), then I will study for Masters and PhD for fun.

There is a theory which I learned in Economics that I suppose is the reason why most Singaporeans don’t want to study PhD. It is the “law of diminishing returns”; the extra years and effort put in for further education after getting Bachelors doesn’t pay accordingly (reduced increments). The starting pay of polytechnic graduates is around $1600; the staring pay of Bachelor’s graduate is around $2500, the starting pay of a Master’s graduate is around $3000 and the staring pay of a research fellow with a PhD is around $3600. A PhD graduate tend to think there is too much to lose after studying so much so venture into a stable job like research which they think pays a lot and hoping that they can get promoted to a lecturer in the future. They are still stuck to the 20th century mindset that high education qualification is required for a high salary and think they are on top of the world. But the fact is that people who are in management, marketing, law or property earns much more than a researcher or engineer although these people usually got diploma or Bachelor’s degree only. These sorts of jobs usually requires more valuable skills like public speaking, marketing, leadership, motivation and people relation skills. These sort of skills is hardly taught in Engineering which we learnt the formulas’ for reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, process modeling, mass and energy balance, separation processes, machinery programming and computing and apply to different units. Of course there is also research projects which we formulate a new theory, program, machine or synthesizing new materials and nanoparticles, genetic engineering which we can learn a lot of skill but it may not worth much in the market. The knowledge from the university won’t help us to cope with office politics, mudslinging and other mind games played by our superiors and employer.

Many of our parents also have this kind rigid mindset which forces the students to bury their heads in their books, give them intensive tuition so that they can get straight As and then study law or medical degree and then become lawyers and doctors. While this strategy works well for us in the 20th century, it will not work well in the 21st century. People who are stuck to the old mindset will be employees for life and they will have salary ceiling especially for jobs like engineers, researchers, teachers, administrative staff and other mid level workers. We need to have an open mindset, listening ear, mind reading, emotional quotient and adversity quotient to survive in the globalized world. Although education is a valuable tool in Singapore, most of the mainstream education trains us to be good employees. Ultimately, it is the amount of money and assets that counts in Singapore society not getting a high educational qualification.