Is Academia the only route after IISERs?
I've been trying to learn about future paths post BS-MS from IISER....but the only path I could find (on the basis of Reddit, Linkedin, and YouTube) is a PhD, and deciding between Academia or Industry after that.
My concern is that a PhD is obviously not easy. So even if it pays well abroad, how can someone realistically know before college whether they would actually want to pursue one, or even be able to complete it?
Because if PhD is the only viable route after IISER, then choosing between IISER and other options after 12th almost becomes equivalent to choosing between other options vs PhD itself....before even knowing what Research looks like.
"Subject Interest" doesn't seem to be a really good indicator of whether someone would be interested in research or not, because any subject interest before college is very nascent and is on the basis of the content studied thus far, which is against nothing like the curriculum in college.
So are there any other options after IISERs apart from PhD? By options I mean practical options, because on-paper one can even crack HFT off campus lol. And yes, ik there are no on-campus placements at IISERs.
[I have Maths in class 12th, my subject interest is also Maths]