Why to make PhD while working full-time

How it started

My PhD journey started in 2022. I was working full-time as a software engineer and I was doing my masters part-time. The masters journey was challanging but doable, and I finished cum laude. So I started to talk with other PhD students, why they are doing it, how they do it, etc. Appeared, that everyone has their own reasons and their own way of doing it. The main reasons for my peers were the interest in the topic and the desire to learn more about the topic. Many mentioned that they are not interested in teaching, but research is something that facinates them.

For me the reasons were:

• I wanted to learn more about the topic I was working on during my masters

• I wanted to learn more about research process as such

• I wanted to learn more about academic writing

• I wanted to learn more about teaching

• I was surprised in general that there is an official job, where you can be paid for reading (and writing) papers

How it is going

Currently I am in my second year of PhD. I am still working full-time as a software engineer. I am still doing my PhD part-time and I am still enjoying it. It is hard to keep up with everything, but it seems to be doable so far. My first year progress review was successful and I am doing at least not worse than my peers. I have some doubts that in this way I’ll be able to make very slow progress, that I’m not really doing anything, but I guess it is normal.

If you are planning to do the same

• you need support from your family and friends. You will be missing a lot of family events, you will be working on weekends, you will be tired and you will be complaining a lot. You need people who will support you and will not complain about your absence.

• you need to be very good at time management. You will have to plan your time very carefully. You will have to plan your PhD work, your work work, your family time, your friends time, your hobbies time, your sleep time, etc.

• you have to be very good at saying “no” to things that are not important for you. Sometimes you will have to say “no” to your friends, sometimes to your family, sometimes to your work. You have to be able to say “no” to yourself as well. You have to be able to say “no” to your hobbies, to your sleep, to your PhD work. You have to be able to say “no” to your PhD work, when you have to do something else.

• don’t beat yourself up for doing nothing. Sometimes you just need this “slack” time. Stare at the wall, watch TV, play games, do nothing. It is ok. You need this time to recharge.