Professional goals in pursuing a doctoral degree - Statement of Purpose

Question

I am a prospective Ph.D. applicant in the area of Robotics Controls and Biomedical Engineering (US universities). As a part of universities' SOPs, I am supposed to talk about my professional goals in pursuing a doctoral degree (or current degree goals).

I am really confused over what to discuss about it in my SOPs. If you ask me about my goal of enrolling in a doctorate degree, I would say that I want to be able to make a contribution in my field through my research, and subsequently develop core expertise in the field so that I can join some top-level R&D organization/startup after completing Ph.D. (This answer might be a cliche and other applicants might have written the same thing.)

Is it literally that easy to talk about one's doctorate goals? Or do I need to work on it more and come up with a better answer?

Any direction/feedback/critique is welcomed.

Answer 1

Your SOP as a whole should cover your professional background in terms of classes, research, former professional experience, and your goals going forward. It sounds like you're asking about the last part of this.

Yes, your goals going forward are to do a good PhD and to get a job at a start-up. Those are reasonable goals, so it's reasonable to list them.

To the extent possible, you should be specific: what kind of research, which core skills, what types of jobs, etc. Obviously you want to leave yourself enough room so that your interests can evolve, but if you can articulate a well-thought-out, realistic plan for what you're going to do with this PhD after you get it, that will put you heads-and-shoulders above most applicants, who will be focusing on the PhD as an end in itself, or haven't considered jobs other than hyper-competitive faculty positions.

Answer 2

While I believe that previous answers already gave interesting feedback, I would like to add this additional point.

Maybe in your field it is more common to obtain a PhD to have "better" jobs later in industry, however, I would be careful in phrasing this concept. It should not sound like: "I want to do a PhD so that I can then continue with what I really like, which, by the way, it is not academia".

If you are really certain that your goal is to end up in industry, try to be specific on what a PhD will give you to be better in the industry sector later on in life.

It is totally ok to do a PhD and then not continue on that path, however, showing passion for research in a university environment is always welcome.