u/Main-Lake-1590

Hey all.

I have a PhD in social psychology and work for a contractor. I hate my job. It’s so slow and the works feels nebulous and pointless. I make $115k though so it’s been very difficult to find a role that pays the same amount. I don’t have a business degree, both my degrees are essentially in psychology.

I feel like my soul is slowly dying at work. I need/want a job that is more fast paced, profit driven, where my tasks actually seem to have a point to them. If this job was remote that would be one thing, but forcing me to commute and do pretty much nothing all day is just torture.

I live in Colorado. I am willing to work for very low, seriously even just $25/hr, if the role would be in federal accounts or sales or proposal writing or proposal analysis or literally anything on the business side of GovCon. I have a clearance. Please help, I’m ambitious, I’m hard working, I want to have a career! Thanks.

Hi everyone.

Recently I have been experiencing very severe regret over pursuing an experimental psych PhD rather than a clinical one. I actually had a lot of clinical experience during undergrad, my thesis was on an intervention for kids with autism. But IDK, I was so intimidated by how competitive clinical psych was. I also loved designing experiments and was pretty good at it, and I liked the idea of being a professor. I got into a fantastic program with a pretty famous PI, so I figured I’d succeed in academia. Plus, I started around 2021, when UX was booming and every psych PhD I knew was landing great jobs at FAANG.

The PhD was awful, terrible! I also realized how screwed the job market was for my focus area, and I didn’t want to drag my fiance all over the country for postdocs and then whatever professor job I got. I realized being a professor was no longer a realistic goal for me or compatible with the life I wanted to live.

I did end up getting a job in research with the federal government, but it sort of sucks and I’m living somewhere I’d rather not. I feel like o can’t forgive myself for this awful decision I made. I could be a high earner with great job security, and instead I spent 4 years pursuing a passion project essentially.

I can’t live with this regret for the rest of my life, but I’m obviously not going to get another PhD. I’m considering law school, but it’s so expensive, and I can’t not make $ for three years. I know respecialization programs exist but they are also very expensive. Has anyone been able to respecialize through a postdoc or even multiple postdocs? Thank you for the advice.

Hi everyone.

Recently I have been experiencing very severe regret over pursuing an experimental psych PhD rather than a clinical one. I actually had a lot of clinical experience during undergrad, my thesis was on an intervention for kids with autism. But IDK, I was so intimidated by how competitive clinical psych was. I also loved designing experiments and was pretty good at it, and I liked the idea of being a professor. I got into a fantastic program with a pretty famous PI, so I figured I’d succeed in academia. Plus, I started around 2021, when UX was booming and every psych PhD I knew was landing great jobs at FAANG.

The PhD was awful, terrible! I also realized how screwed the job market was for my focus area, and I didn’t want to drag my fiance all over the country for postdocs and then whatever professor job I got. I realized being a professor was no longer a realistic goal for me or compatible with the life I wanted to live.

I did end up getting a job in research with the federal government, but it sort of sucks and I’m living somewhere I’d rather not. I feel like o can’t forgive myself for this awful decision I made. I could be a high earner with great job security, and instead I spent 4 years pursuing a passion project essentially.

I can’t live with this regret for the rest of my life, but I’m obviously not going to get another PhD. I’m considering law school, but it’s so expensive, and I can’t not make $ for three years. I know respecialization programs exist but they are also very expensive. Has anyone been able to respecialize through a postdoc or even multiple postdocs? Thank you for the advice.

Hey everyone.

Lately, I have been struggling in my job. Honestly it’s been a little rough since the beginning. I was hired by this company at a low six figure salary right after finishing my PhD. I moved across the country for this role with my fiance, who then also found a job here. I had been an intern with the company for a while, they paid for my clearance, and I figured I should give gov contracting a try.

But I was very skeptical and worried about the role because no one could really tell me what I’d be doing every day. I’m pretty bored most of the time, and you definitely do not need a PhD to do my job. My boss is very happy I’m there, but I think that’s just because he thinks my PhD raises the prestige of our unit. However, I also recognize that it’s an easy job with very low stress that pays pretty well. The main downside is that I work in a SCIF so no phones or laptops. Im getting married soon and want to start a family shortly after. I don’t want to keep running out of my car, and it’s a far walk to where I park, in order to check on texts from daycare or my husband or whatever. Idk I’m feeling like it’s not worth it.

Any other kind here worked in a SCIF with a clearance? Do you think it’s worth it? Sometimes I just want a remote job, but I know these are hard to come by in the clearance world. My basic question is whether you think the value of a clearance is overrated. Will I regret leaving?