Pros:
- Currently I believe that I would be much more interested in doing research than continue working as a software engineer. I really like the idea of trying to solve problems that have not been solved and contributing to (open) science.
- Financially the fellowship is so good that I would earn the same amount of money as my current job. In addition I would not have any other obligations except research.
- The PhD city seems great and I would prefer to live there compared to the city I currently live in.
- I would be able to be a visiting researcher at great labs in cities I would like to visit.
Cons:
- I have been reading for the past weeks that mental health issues are quite common among PhD students[1]. Considering my mental state I am afraid that the PhD will break me mentally.
- I do not want to work in academia in the future. Ideally I would like to work remotely having a balance between research and coding (is this even possible?). This is my biggest concern, because it would not make sense to do it if it would not help me reach this goal.
- Doing a PhD takes a lot of commitment and I am unsure if I will still want to continue doing it in 2 years. If I eventually decided to drop out I would have wasted valuable resources of the scientific community and I do not like this.
- In a PhD you do not actually know where the finish line is. What if the three years pass, my fellowship ends and I have not finished?
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17081778
[1]: https://www.quora.com/Why-are-PhD-students-so-depressed