Degree from a high ranked R1 US program and university. University program expects grad students to take 5 years, I think 80% of my peers take/took 6, and I took 7. Subject is in Earth Sciences.
My PhD coincided with COVID which impacted my ability to progress (I think this will level out with everyone else in that boat though), but more significantly I had two children during my PhD. No family leave policy at my institution meant I could only “stop the clock” for a semester (total).
In conversations I’m given to understand that my having had children matters in the perception of my 7 years. As an example, I had this convo once:
Prospective postdoc PI: “how long has it taken you to do your PhD?”
Me: “7 years”
PPI: “Oh. Huh. Was there…a reason?”
Me: “Well, COVID. And I had two babies. Not sure if that matters.”
PPI: “Oh! That definitely matters! Okay!”
So my questions ultimately are: (1) Does this 7 years really harm me such that I need to mitigate for it? (2) If so, how can I mitigate for it in an application so I’m not circular filed before an opportunity naturally presents itself to bring this up?
I actually would like to be completely considered as a job candidate without my parental status being even brought up (you know, per my legal rights), but I’m starting to worry that without qualifying my time to completion by tipping my hand I won’t get a fair shot as an applicant.
Comments
Nobody cares about phd length. The quality and impact of your publications are much more important.
No. The path to the PhD is long and fraught with uncertainties. Some have childcare, COVID… others have Hurricanes, death of parents/spouses, cancer diagnoses, while yet others have disruptions in funding and mentorship. What is important is the rigor of your dissertation work and the complexity/finesse of your research. Few care how long it took you to get it done if its impressive and fine work. Shoddy work that was done quickly… we all care a great deal about that, but not in a good way.
As in all things, what truly matters is your ability to tell the narrative of it.
Most employers outside of academia won’t care about how long it took you. Their attention will be on how you communicate what your PhD (and any other experience, skills, qualifications) can do for them.
In academia, they’re trying to determine how you’ll deliver as a researcher and mentor. Completion time of your PhD is one factor they’ll look to – it’s not a red flag per se, because any number of reasons (good and bad) could explain it (you took on a big project, your initial project yielded a great follow up, you took time for internships in industry or at other institutions, you had time management issues, you changed topics/supervisors/institutions….). Mostly, they’re looking to understand, not judge.
I’m in the humanities rather than STEM, but time-to-degree was never an issue when I was on the market (and I took 8 years). Nobody even asked about it. Given the realities of the job market, everyone understood that PhD candidates stayed on as long as they had funding if they hadn’t landed a job yet. Half my peers sat on their final dissertation chapter for a couple of years before defending.
That said, discrimination against women with children definitely is still a reality, and you’re right to be suspicious that the time-to-degree question could be a backdoor way to judge whether they think your family commitments might impact your productivity. I would simply avoid the topic whenever you can.
If you take 7 years to finish with good results nobody will question it.
If you have decent results and a reasonable explanation for it (covid, other health issues, having children, funding issues, project delays outside of your control, etc) people may ask but won’t hold it against you.
If you take 7 years with little to show for it, that’s a problem.
Anyone hiring right now should know that current grads are likely to have taken a little longer due to covid alone. Frankly covid + 2 babies only adding a year or 2 to your completion time is fantastic.
Do you have publications that comes with the 7 years of phd? How old are you now? Some start their phd older than others. You could’ve started at 24 and graduated at 31 while someone started at 27 and graduated at the same age? Length doesn’t matter but the age you graduated might matter for some countries (in Asia a lot of Postdoc in my field stops at 35)
I would mention the Covid delay in your cover letter with specifics about what it impacted and how you handled it to highlight your problem solving and explain the extra time. It is surprising how quickly everyone forgets the huge impact that had on research. I probably wouldn’t mention the delays due to having kids since it risks negative biases.