Question
Did anyone change careers after a PhD? I'm a final year MechE PhD student. I have lost interest in my research & none of the job responsibilities in my field excite me. My research required a lot of coding. I now want to work as a software engineer.
Answer
Switching career after PhD is a lot more common than you think. I know STEM PhDs who became insurance brokers, real estate agents, financial advisers, policy experts... to name a few. Plenty of PhDs went on to become management consultants. And yes data scientists is also a viable option. I made that switch myself from a materials scientist after working several years in the semiconductor industry.
Switching career make look intimidating to you now because your old field is literally the only thing you have been working on for the past 4+ years. But, if you look at your entire career, the PhD years is only a small fraction to your working years. Let's assume you get your PhD at age 28 and retire at 65 - that is 37 additional years that you could be learning new things, developing new skills, taking on new responsibilities.
If you are already having the realization that "none of the job responsibilities in my field excite me", you owe it to yourself to find an alternative. But I hope you at least have a short list of alternatives in mind!
(Originally answered on quora: Did anyone change careers after a PhD? I'm a final year MechE PhD student. I have lost interest in my research & none of the job responsibilities in my field excite me. My research required a lot of coding. I now want to work as a software engineer.)
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