[ishan_ae]

Hello everyone.

I have been wanting to do a PhD in an area which is closely coupled with numerical fluid mechanics. My main motivations to do a PhD are my love for learning fluid mechanics, programming and desire to have a career in numerical fluids research.

In my opinion all these things are a bit idealistic and, the reality strikes hard when an about-to-graduate PhD struggles to find a relevant post-doc position. Also, the competition in academia seems intense to me. I say this because its good to be realistic when it comes to super-niche research areas.

This has got me wondering, what kind of job roles does a new PhD graduate work with in the industry ? Lets say that he/she works with C++, MPI and unstructured solver techniques in the PhD. The application area here can be anything.

Does the industry really need someone with all these skills ?

Does the industry work on hard-core numerical fluids research?

I think in big companies, who have their own solvers, the core research( new BCs, coupling algorithms, etc) is performed by only a select few. These select few would almost definitely have a PhD in fluids. Rest of the issues are more related to how the setup is implemented from a computer science point-of-view. This can be done by someone who has a Masters in Computer Science. I mean, yes, a PhD is nice to have, but its not needed right ?

I recently came across a video from a professor who mentioned that once you do a PhD, it is very difficult to get yourself mentally adjusted to anything that is not related to your core research area. This to me makes sense because, once you undergo rigorous mental gymnastics for four to six years, it seems as if your brain has been completely conditioned to think in a certain manner. Nothing else would excite you, right ?

Can someone shed some light on these things?

How has been your experience been after you did your PhD in CFD ?