Thanks very much!

I will😊😅😮🎉😂

Thanks for the question! It's all about what ultimate career you would like. Do you have a dream job in mind that you're are doing this education to achieve?

Sorry I’m still learning the podcasting ropes!

It’s always difficult to get a truly accurate representation of the total addressable market size but my limited experience of these VCs is that they are very well informed and do their due diligence before investing in any company. Also nowadays several of the large ISVs post their earnings so they can also see the potential size from them too

Thanks so much for your question. Every decision like this is deeply personal and dependant on your own circumstances but I can give at least my opinion. In order to do a PhD and get the most out of it, you need to be deeply passionate about the topic and have a good University and supervisor behind you. It's a potentially 3-5 year journey and if it's something you're motivated to do, it'll make it much easier. So if you want to go down the PhD route, really do your research on the topic area, the supervisor, the University etc. Obviously they will want to make sure you are right for them but it's super important the other way around too. I would say that going into industry for 2 years and then trying to start a PhD will be hard - because you'll be 28 by then, already got used to potentially a higher salary in industry and perhaps get out of the mode of studying and research. So personally I would go straight into a PhD and give yourself the target of being as efficient as possible and getting it done within 3-3.5 years (depending on which country you are doing it in) i.e finish before 30. During your PhD you can start to do short month-long internships too (if you get permission from your supervisor and University) so that you keep in with industry and network and maybe even do colloborations as part of your PhD with some companies you might want to work with. The logic there, is that you are almost getting yourself ready for a great job after your PhD whilst you are doing the PhD. Everything I've just wrote assumes you want to go into industry after your PhD, but of course during the PhD you may change your mind and stay onto academia. The main thing is not to underestimate the time to do a PhD and normally once you go down the route of getting a job in industry it just gets harder to go back to University of personal/financial reasons etc. I hope that's useful and all the best!

@@drneilashton Thank you very much for your response. I agree on everything that you said. I will be 28 finishing my master's but I will have 2-3 years of work experience by that time and join a phd. I am aware that the salary as a phd candidate is lower but I am not doing it cause of money. I would like to be as efficient as possible and be done in 3-3.5 years (I studied in the Netherlands and Denmark so I would like to pursue a phd in Europe). Finishing at the age of 31 while having 3 years of experience in the industry (mostly defence) is not bad I believe and I could also leverage knowledge and experience. On the other hand I was considering of getting a 1-year research MSc at the Von Karman institute instead which requires a 2 year MSc in order to be admitted and specialize in hypersonics. This I believe will give me a lot of knowledge and research experience to go back in the industry as an alternative to a phd. Last but not least, I feel that in the industry , at least in my job where I work for an integrator and not for a designer , my skills are going to the rubbish bin and not utilized and I am kind of disappointed by this and I believe many new engineers face the same and for that reason I would like to go 'higher' in the field let's say. Your videos are very valuable by the way. Thanks for the content.

That’s a very good point about the 1 year research MSc too which could be a middle option. Only problem with that (in my opinion) is sometimes that’s too short to fully get immersed into a topic and do all the surrounding things like build up a network of people within academia through conferences and workshops. On the point of your skills not being used that is also sometimes a manner of finding the right company for your career stage. I.e a very large enterprise might have lots of engineers so you get asked to work on quite a small area which might not use all your skills. Whereas a smaller consultancy company might give you a far broader responsibility. As you can imagine it’s very case dependant but also don’t worry in that luckily in the field of engineering you’ll have lots of options so also try not to worry about making the wrong decision as they all help to build up knowledge and experience!

@@drneilashton yes indeed , either work for a smaller consultancy firm or start your own . But with regards to the networking part in academia I definitely agree with you , not enough time to meet the people and make connections. Things get annoying when you’re dealing more with project managers who only ask about cost and deadlines than actual engineers who understand things so as you said , working as a consultant in a specialised field seems better idea.

Thanks Eduardo!!

You're very welcome!

Thanks Will!

So glad it helped! All the best with finishing your PhD!

Thanks William!

Thanks very much!

thanks for watching!

Thanks! If you have any people/topics you would like to see covered let me know!

Thanks so much!