Skip to main content
Academia

Return to Question

Post Closed as "Duplicate" by Bryan Krause♦, FuzzyLeapfrog, Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩, David Richerby, user3209815
deleted 2240 characters in body
Source Link
user105021
user105021

A little background story about me. I did my undergrad in materials science in India. I was an average student but I was really interested to study more and pursue research. Since I was an average student in an average university, I never got an internship opportunity. After my undergrad, I went on to do a masters from a different university in India. There I got exposed to computational mechanics. I struggled with the Masters thesis, but I really loved the mathematics and physics behind the theories and numerical solutions. I decided to go for a PhD in computational mechanics. I did not have very sound mathematical background but I thought that I can learn and develop it as I pursue my PhD.

After my Masters, I got accepted for a PhD program in a university in a reputed university in US for computational mechanics. I took the necessary courses, I passed the qualifiers, research proposal and stuff. My supervisor is very supportive. However, throughout my PhD research, I was using a commercial software to do various numerical simulations which got published in some medium impact factor journals. I never was able to work on something rigorous and theoretical throughout my 5 years in PhD. The thought of developing an analytical /theoretical solution without the use of the commercial software gives me cold sweats. I also did not get any internship positions during my PhD or Masters.

Now, I am looking for postdoc positions, and all the positions I am interested in are quite different from what I have done in my PhD. They need sound experience in analytical/theoretical analysis of a problem. And I am not sure if I will be able to perform even if I get a position somewhere.

I notice my colleagues working on different topics and who have come from good schools effortlessly producing highly complicated works during their PhDs. I on other hand don't seem a fit for research or any technical field. I hoped that during my time in PhD, I will be confident in tackling any problems related to computational mechanics. But, I feel that I have failed to achieve my goal. I know this is not impostor syndrome. I feel like I shouldn't have pursued Masters and should have pivoted to a non-technical field.

Tl;dr: I am about to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months and have to move on from being a student. I am already 30 (so a sort of mid-life crisis catching up). I feel that I made a really big mistake in entering academia and should have not gone into masters 7 years ago. I feel incompetent with no area of expertise. I am a mathematically and technically weak PhD student in a field of research where being proficient in analytical and theoretical analysis is the only required skill for research. I think I am technically screwed up.

My question is just vague. What should I do, and are my future prospects as limited as I foresee them to be?

Thanks.

A little background story about me. I did my undergrad in materials science in India. I was an average student but I was really interested to study more and pursue research. Since I was an average student in an average university, I never got an internship opportunity. After my undergrad, I went on to do a masters from a different university in India. There I got exposed to computational mechanics. I struggled with the Masters thesis, but I really loved the mathematics and physics behind the theories and numerical solutions. I decided to go for a PhD in computational mechanics. I did not have very sound mathematical background but I thought that I can learn and develop it as I pursue my PhD.

After my Masters, I got accepted for a PhD program in a university in a reputed university in US for computational mechanics. I took the necessary courses, I passed the qualifiers, research proposal and stuff. My supervisor is very supportive. However, throughout my PhD research, I was using a commercial software to do various numerical simulations which got published in some medium impact factor journals. I never was able to work on something rigorous and theoretical throughout my 5 years in PhD. The thought of developing an analytical /theoretical solution without the use of the commercial software gives me cold sweats. I also did not get any internship positions during my PhD or Masters.

Now, I am looking for postdoc positions, and all the positions I am interested in are quite different from what I have done in my PhD. They need sound experience in analytical/theoretical analysis of a problem. And I am not sure if I will be able to perform even if I get a position somewhere.

I notice my colleagues working on different topics and who have come from good schools effortlessly producing highly complicated works during their PhDs. I on other hand don't seem a fit for research or any technical field. I hoped that during my time in PhD, I will be confident in tackling any problems related to computational mechanics. But, I feel that I have failed to achieve my goal. I know this is not impostor syndrome. I feel like I shouldn't have pursued Masters and should have pivoted to a non-technical field.

Tl;dr: I am about to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months and have to move on from being a student. I am already 30 (so a sort of mid-life crisis catching up). I feel that I made a really big mistake in entering academia and should have not gone into masters 7 years ago. I feel incompetent with no area of expertise. I am a mathematically and technically weak PhD student in a field of research where being proficient in analytical and theoretical analysis is the only required skill for research. I think I am technically screwed up.

My question is just vague. What should I do, and are my future prospects as limited as I foresee them to be?

Thanks.

I am about to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months and have to move on from being a student. I am already 30 (so a sort of mid-life crisis catching up). I feel that I made a really big mistake in entering academia and should have not gone into masters 7 years ago. I feel incompetent with no area of expertise. I am a mathematically and technically weak PhD student in a field of research where being proficient in analytical and theoretical analysis is the only required skill for research. I think I am technically screwed up.

My question is just vague. What should I do, and are my future prospects as limited as I foresee them to be?

Thanks.

Source Link
user105021
user105021

About to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months, feeling lost about my future and inadequate for any job. What should I do?

A little background story about me. I did my undergrad in materials science in India. I was an average student but I was really interested to study more and pursue research. Since I was an average student in an average university, I never got an internship opportunity. After my undergrad, I went on to do a masters from a different university in India. There I got exposed to computational mechanics. I struggled with the Masters thesis, but I really loved the mathematics and physics behind the theories and numerical solutions. I decided to go for a PhD in computational mechanics. I did not have very sound mathematical background but I thought that I can learn and develop it as I pursue my PhD.

After my Masters, I got accepted for a PhD program in a university in a reputed university in US for computational mechanics. I took the necessary courses, I passed the qualifiers, research proposal and stuff. My supervisor is very supportive. However, throughout my PhD research, I was using a commercial software to do various numerical simulations which got published in some medium impact factor journals. I never was able to work on something rigorous and theoretical throughout my 5 years in PhD. The thought of developing an analytical /theoretical solution without the use of the commercial software gives me cold sweats. I also did not get any internship positions during my PhD or Masters.

Now, I am looking for postdoc positions, and all the positions I am interested in are quite different from what I have done in my PhD. They need sound experience in analytical/theoretical analysis of a problem. And I am not sure if I will be able to perform even if I get a position somewhere.

I notice my colleagues working on different topics and who have come from good schools effortlessly producing highly complicated works during their PhDs. I on other hand don't seem a fit for research or any technical field. I hoped that during my time in PhD, I will be confident in tackling any problems related to computational mechanics. But, I feel that I have failed to achieve my goal. I know this is not impostor syndrome. I feel like I shouldn't have pursued Masters and should have pivoted to a non-technical field.

Tl;dr: I am about to submit my PhD thesis in 4 months and have to move on from being a student. I am already 30 (so a sort of mid-life crisis catching up). I feel that I made a really big mistake in entering academia and should have not gone into masters 7 years ago. I feel incompetent with no area of expertise. I am a mathematically and technically weak PhD student in a field of research where being proficient in analytical and theoretical analysis is the only required skill for research. I think I am technically screwed up.

My question is just vague. What should I do, and are my future prospects as limited as I foresee them to be?

Thanks.