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Originally Posted by mufi_02
I thought about PhD but as a Biology major, the job market is very saturated. Finished my bachelors around 6 months ago and lucky enough to have a job right away. But now I am in that phase of what to do next. This job is maybe good for now but what about in 10 years or later on when I ummm get married and stuff. That's why I think I made a mistake by not going to grad school right away, because more schooling means better pay and job security? I don't know, I am confused as BANCAN bhai too.
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Mufi, I apologize beforehand for hijacking your post to talk a little about PhDs and jobs in the Biomedical field.
A PhD in Biology is not necessarily going to land anyone their dream job, either, in terms of better pay or job security. You have to be among the best of the best to land a decent faculty position in a research university. And then, much of your life will be spent stressing about RO1 research grants. Keep in mind that in many universities, a good chunk of your salary also comes from your research grants, not entirely from the university. Trust me, if you don't have the passion, drive or temperament for it, life in academia is not fun. Faculty jobs at 4-year colleges aren't much easier either, because just to get it, you'll have to show that you stand out among all other candidates in terms of both research and teaching skills. But then you'll find that there's basically no money for doing any research, and that there's not much you can do with college kids (as opposed to grad students and postdocs) in terms of research anyway. And in both research universities and colleges, there's still the issue of tenure (so, for the first six years you'll be stressing about job security).
That leaves industry -- which still provides well-paying 9-5 (as opposed to all and weird hours in academia) jobs, but mergers in BioTech have reduced both the numbers of PhDs that they need, and job security. Realize that for many of their positions, Masters or even Bachelors is enough.
I mention all this, not to discourage those for whom research is a passion (you'll go to grad school; you won't be able to help it), but those who think of academia as a sinecure, who like the idea of the "Dr." prefix as a title, or who think that getting into grad school is one way of staving off decisions about careers and jobs.
Go get an MD instead. It's hard work too, but it pays well, you'll end up paying off your debt, and the market isn't saturated. Besides, you'll get a lot more respect and make your Bengali parents happy and proud in the bargain.
Finally, keep in mind that I'm talking about my my fields -- Biology and biomedical sciences; other disciplines might well be quite different.