I can empathise with your situation. Although I am not making career choice between engineering and research, I am looking to decide what to work on next.
I cannot give you any answer, but I can share few heuristics I use in order to decide what to work on.
For one, you are asking how should timeline affect your decision. But I would consider other variables that might affect it as well and I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on only one, e.g. time in this case.
You have advantage in having binary choice here between engineering and research. So I would ask, from which it is easier to transition into the other? And which gives you more opportunities in the future?
Making decisions now based on our predictions of unpredictable future is maybe not the best way to go about it. So consider that if your predictions about future go completely wrong or in unanticipated way, which choice would be more robust?
Also if you are anything like me, deciding mostly on what you enjoy now wouldn’t be very wise as what I tend to enjoy does change with time and new experiences. So I prefer choices that give me more options and easier transitions in future.
In terms of flexibility, a PhD seems to score higher since it would be relatively straightforward to just stop it and do engineering instead, whereas the reverse would then require doing the full 4-5 years. I suppose it is also easier to automate an engineering job compared to research job.
I can empathise with your situation. Although I am not making career choice between engineering and research, I am looking to decide what to work on next.
I cannot give you any answer, but I can share few heuristics I use in order to decide what to work on.
For one, you are asking how should timeline affect your decision. But I would consider other variables that might affect it as well and I wouldn’t place too much emphasis on only one, e.g. time in this case.
You have advantage in having binary choice here between engineering and research. So I would ask, from which it is easier to transition into the other? And which gives you more opportunities in the future?
Making decisions now based on our predictions of unpredictable future is maybe not the best way to go about it. So consider that if your predictions about future go completely wrong or in unanticipated way, which choice would be more robust?
Also if you are anything like me, deciding mostly on what you enjoy now wouldn’t be very wise as what I tend to enjoy does change with time and new experiences. So I prefer choices that give me more options and easier transitions in future.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for your thoughtful answer!
In terms of flexibility, a PhD seems to score higher since it would be relatively straightforward to just stop it and do engineering instead, whereas the reverse would then require doing the full 4-5 years. I suppose it is also easier to automate an engineering job compared to research job.