For those people, it may seem like the right thing to do. The harsh reality is that they are going to spend 10 years of their life doing research, making less than minimum wage to emerge into a market where research grants are very difficult to get unless your doing research into cancer or AIDS, teaching positions are next to impossible to find, and when you finally do land a job, unless you re lucky enough to work for a university or large corporation, you re making as much money as a tech with a few years experience or a Master s degree. Almost all of the people who went back wonder if it was worth it, especially in a job market saturated with Ph.D. s and with competent, experienced technicians in short supply. Other people move on with their lives by throwing themselves into their work. Working the job is fine, but even if you put in 50-60 hours a week, you still have a lot of time on your hands.
Some people take the time to catch up on chores.
But even that requires relatively little time. Go drinking, dancing or club hopping. Again, that s fine, but it gets old after a while. You start to develop new hobbies or you keep on doing the things you normally did for entertainment when you were in school. After graduation, the hardest thing to do is to get out and meet new people.