r/LadiesofScience

Women phd holders around the world, what made you pursue phd ?

I have a bachelor's degree and I work in an automotive manufacturing company. I am thinking of pursuing higher studies from sometimes and I'm thinking of considering masters then a job. But I'm also getting some advise about phd.

Would it be worth to do masters+phd ? I mean I would love to have a Dr infront of my name and to be among 2% of women who have phd.

I am actually good in studies, I liked studies, but I don't know if I have what it takes to have a phd ?

Any advise ?

I’m a clinical laboratory baby so sorry if this is a stupid question but I have no idea what to wear.

I know the basics of lab safety, I used to wear very casual (tshirt/sweats) clothing at my previous laboratory but this one is asking for more office wear.

I was wondering if anyone could provide some advice or examples on how not to burn up in a long sleeve in Florida summers but still be lab compliant?

I’m going into Immunology following my bachelors in biochemistry, and I love the idea of having dyed hair but I’m curious if I could have a more colorful hairstyle if I become a full time professional later on. (Specifically a red and pink neopolitan style if that matters)

I also do experiment with doing tattoo designs on my arms but don’t have any permanent ones for fear of losing opportunities in my future field.

I’d love to hear any advice on either issue!

I am looking for a technical co-founder / CTO for Aura. Co-founding with Priyanka, a pre-clinical research scientist.

Problem we are solving: Connecting personal context and daily life with the biomarkers that flash as numbers on a wearable dashboard. Your wearable knows your HRV dropped but doesn't know you fought with your boss!

Aura is the voice companion that hears what your wearable can't measure and your chatbot can't remember, built for women.

Traction: 100+ signups on waitlist in 48 hours. 155+ consumer interviews with 78% women resonating with problem statement. Beta testing activated.

2 advisors onboarded. A post-doc expert in female health and endocrinology from SF and another Tech advisor who is a principal investigator and the owner of multiple AI research labs across India and US.

Four unsolved problems compose into one product:

- voice as the input modality at consumer cost

- longitudinal per-user memory across months

- clinical-grade signal extraction from unstructured speech

- habit formation deep enough that a woman talks to an app daily about her whole life, not sporadic venting to ChatGPT once a month

No one has shipped this because no one has shipped across all four.

Stage: Pre-seed. Beta testing. Raise in motion.

Hi friends.

Chemist that does a lot of chemical physics type stuff. Working for a govt lab, but the US administration and its policies throughout the last year and a half have REALLY worn me down. The stress of losing telework, threat of firing all probationary employees (which included me), budget cuts, crumbling infrastructure, under staffing, and being told to do MORE with LESS accumulates over time until it feels like death by a million paper cuts.

The job has lost all flexibility and I am an only child (not by choice) that has to occasionally take care of two sick parents in different states. My own boss and his boss are very supportive of me taking leave when I need to care for my parents. They understand that no one chooses these shitty circumstances. Pretty much everyone else is unsupportive. The only thing that convinces these other colleagues that I care about my job is working 12 hour days when I am not caring for my parents.

I recently received funding to study a topic a co-PI and I are passionate about, but my co-PI left my job and the person taking on her tasking was voluntold to do so. He's frustrated by the circumstances (understandably so, it's not his passion project the way it was for her) but it feels as though he might be taking his frustration out on me. The colleague also seems frustrated by other coworkers that don't take their jobs as seriously as he takes his own job. It seems like he's actively looking for opportunities to narc when I know they do good work.

I get drained hearing these comments and fear that people are making similar judgments about me. I'm just trying my fucking best but it doesn't seem to matter. I don't want to work 12 hour days. I keep getting told by various people (including my own boss) that I work too much. What other choice do I have when this colleague that is supposed to work with me says he can't complete all of the tasks that were assigned to him, besides learn how to do them myself? I am the one who has to bear the consequences if our funding doesn't deliver as promised.

I love my partner and we're considering marriage soon. He's tied to this area because of his own career opportunities and educational path. The drama of the last year and a half alongside my co-PI leaving has sucked all joy out of the job. But what if I'm the problem? What if I lack resilience and grit and am just a baby??

I wasn't necessarily the best math student but I can work on that. There's a lot of overlap between chemical physics and electrical engineering, which has dramatically better job prospects in my area. So I'm considering that educational path, and yet work is so overwhelming right now that I don't have a ton of time to study besides weekends.

I wish I could quit and pursue an EE masters full time but both my mom and partner keep telling me to not give up on the funding I worked so hard to acquire. But at this point I can't care about the funding. Maintaining the health of my relationships feels way more important. My mom's cancer is stage IV and my dad had heart problems this last year. My partner misses having more time with me because we see each other for an hour and a half on weeknights. This job doesn't seem conducive to caring for the things that matter to me.

I need someone smarter than me tell me what to do.

Hi!! I’m currently a freshman at a university and honestly I’m not 100% sure what I want to do yet. I’ve been taking GenEds and my current major is technically Economics but I have more of an interest in space and related fields.

That being said, I really wanted to job shadow an Astrobiologist and see what they do on the day to day or for research. I don’t know if it’s too late now that I’m already in college, but any advice on how I can find people to job shadow would be very helpful!!

I looked for nearby universities but it is kind of hard to find. So, if anyone knows anything else please let me know!!

hi ladies! im going into my 4th year of health sciences. i feel a bit... ashamed asking this question cuz im starting so late. i havent had the best grasp of uni.

long story short: undiagnosed adhd and ocd = bad grades for me which means i gotta do second degree if i wanna get into med school unless theres a god given miracle (i finished this year with a 3.3 gpa which is.. my highest one). and with this poor grasp of uni, i havent gotten to ask any of my profs to do research along side them.

i am a very anxious person and i dont have a close relationship with any profs so i feel weird asking them if i could do research with them, especially cuz i dont have th best grades.

how would i even go about getting into it at this late stage? can i do any sort of project alone? we have summer research internships, i just wasnt able to apply for one this year.

i feel behind and a bit like a failure. the only thing i can credit my name to is being president of a club. i want to rant but ill save that for a therapy session lol.

Thanks in advance!

I have a chemistry degree and I’ve been working in labs since I graduated college a handful of years ago. There are definitely fun parts like not sitting at a desk all day, working with my hands, and problem solving with equipment. Overall, I’d say I haven’t loved working in a lab like college me thought I would. It’s been, fine.

All that said, I recently accepted a new role that won’t be lab based. I’ll be helping with lab audits and troubleshooting. I’ll visit labs but my day-to-day work won’t be in one. I’m very excited about the new opportunity. (It’s worth mentioning there are some other issues at my current company, that I’m very much looking forward to getting away from.)

I put in my notice at my current job (lab-based), so I have a limited number of days left. While wrapping up my lab work, I’m starting to get a little nostalgic. Admittedly, I’m getting a little caught up in my title and work, and potentially not being/feeling like a scientist anymore.

For those of you that have changed work environments or job types, can you share your experiences? I’d love to hear some success stories of people that don’t wear a lab coat anymore but are still kicking a$$ as a woman in stem.

Tl;dr took a new job outside of the lab and getting a bit anxious to change things up. Looking for some feel good stories from others to calm my nerves.