DIY: the PhD Edition. Chapter I: Should I do a PhD?

This is not my usual thing (my usual thing being stories where everyone dies or everyone ends up really sad), but it has a reason. I'm finishing my PhD soon (no dates, I don't want to jinx it) and I'm far too tired and far too busy to write anything that is fiction (we will get at the whole other writing thing another day). Anyway, it also means that although I don't have time for anything, I somehow have found time for this. The whole point of these posts will be to give you an insight on the world of PhDs, whether you are a PhD student/candidate/whatever-you-call-yourself or not. So here we go. 

We are going to assume you're an undergrad, or an MSc student, or someone who is just tired about their job and want to try something new, and you're considering doing a PhD. I mean, why not? Or, actually, why?

Let's make a list of reasons why you might want to pursue The Next Academic Frontier (cue some dramatic music):

1) You REALLY REALLY like your field of work. And when I mean REALLY I mean REALLY. You love it so much that you want to marry it and have its babies because that's what you're going to do, have its babies. Lots of babies with really long pregnancies.

2) You are not ready to leave university. Real world is scary and big and full of people. University is like a mother's womb, soft and warm. And you sometimes get food for free. I'm not going to judge you.

3) You are a bit of a masochist and you want to keep torturing yourself with long working hours and not having free weekends. You also enjoy having friends ask you if you're free for the weekend and replying "Bitch, I wish I knew".

4) Because it's cool. I think it sounds cooler before you start it than when you're about to finish.

5) For the money. HAHAHAHAHA. That's a joke if you want to do it for the money, DON'T. No one I know does the PhD for the money because remember #1?

We have covered some of the reasons why you should consider doing a PhD. I really can't think of any other reasons right now, but that might have to do with the exhaustion. Next week we will talk about what should you take into account before starting one. The list is probably going to look similar to this one, but different.