I have posted this before, and I think I should post it again.

I'm not sure what do you mean by "work experience". Most people think of PhD as nothing more than doing academic research, I disagree, it is so much more than that. PhD in itself is an "experience", a "lifestyle". It is far more difficult and challenging than your ordinary job (and much lower pay), but the "experience" and "life lessons" that you get out of it will serve you for lifetime.

It is important to recognise the PhD programme as a training process, a hard-core training programme that goes on for 4-5 years.

What you will get out from PhD (just a few things that come to my mind):
- the capacity to think and conceive original/novel ideas
- highly developed analytical skills & capable of organising and integrating data from many different sources
- problem-solving skills
- capacity to synthesise arguments logically (while acknowledging differing viewpoints)
- ability to design complex studies/projects
- ability to conduct literature search and apply the (theoretical) knowledge for practical purposes
- presentation/communication skills (both verbal & written - how to convince other people of your ideas)
- teaching/demonstration skills (how to explain/convey complicated ideas to laypeople)
- efficient time management and productive workstyle (often handling multiple projects at the same time, and thus organisation skill is very important)
- ability to cope with extreme physical and mental stress, all the while maintaining a productive state
- being used to hard work and unusual working hours (staying past midnights and work during weekends are not uncommon)
- and most importantly (I think), getting used to uncertainty and failures

and all these are in addition to the knowledge and foundation of your own project/specialised niche.

These are transferable skills that apply not only in your specialised field but to a broad range of tasks in your work and lifestyle. While I don't mean you can't attain these skills elsewhere, these are the skills that you will be forced to learn in order to survive. It is definitely not an easy path to tread, and it spans at least 3 years. You will have to think carefully about this. I know some very intelligent people dropped out, because they can't cope with the extreme stress, failures and uncertainty.

Depends on what sort of "experience" do you mean, yes, after PhD you most probably will start out together with other fresh graduates holding a degree, but do you really think that you will be less capable that those inexperienced fresh grads, after years of intensive training? Often (and depending on your line of work), postdocs advance much quicker, not because of their titles, but because of the output they are capable of generating. An analogy I like to use is to think of a seasoned athlete and a casual jogger, both begin at the same point, but who can endure longer? (Obviously I don't mean all PhDs, there will always be bad postdocs everywhere).

Age is an issue, of course, because the pressure that will be put on you and the much lower stipend will be difficult for people with more burdens. That's why many people who planned to do a PhD after a few years of work first don't end up doing it, because of the much lower pay (easily half the salary you will already be earning) and also their increasing responsibilities (eg. getting married, mortgage etc.) It may sound like a good idea to get a few years of "working experience" first, but many people for these practical reasons can't really go back anymore.

Something to think about.

Most people doing PhD are under scholarship and paid in the form of stipends. Yes, the pay is really low, but many people survived it. Unless you are the type of person who waste a lot of money on meaningless entertainment, and expensive meals, I fail to see how you can't survive the living cost overseas if you are thrifty enough (which is what many of us poor students do).

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Added on August 24, 2011, 9:19 pmI fail to see any reason why "researching" is not considered as "work experience."

Do remember that being able to finish a PhD project within 3-4 years speak a lot more about a person than anyone who does an ordinary job for the same amount of time.

In order to survive you will have to learn how to work efficiently and often under intense pressure, organise and plan your work schedule usually involving multiple projects/tasks to get the most out of a limited timeframe (while at the same time integrating and analysing tons of data pouring in from all sides). These are transferable skills, and together with your presentation skills (both written & verbal), analytical skills as well as argument synthesis learned from your PhD can be easily applied to broad areas of your life. These skills will serve you for lifetime, provided you take the opportunity get the most out of your PhD.

This post has been edited by tester: Aug 24 2011, 09:21 PM

Is this the way things work in Malaysia? If this is the case, then Malaysia's postgraduate education is indeed in a very sorry state of affairs.

PhD is about independent research, and the candidate is ought to make significant contributions to the project/paper. I never know you can let other people to do the work for you! (Also I wouldn't trust anyone else's data except my own or someone I really trust)

I'm interested to know what do you mean by "survivability in the community"?

This post has been edited by tester: Aug 28 2011, 09:56 PM

You have to sign the declaration that the work are done by you, isn't it?

The way it is described sounds quite blatant (lecturers asking students to do the work). I wonder if plagiarism is handled differently in Malaysia?

This post has been edited by tester: Aug 28 2011, 10:25 PM