Should one continue their journey on the academic path if they love their field of study and research but are not proficient at it? Suppose a student decides on a topic for their PhD that's interesting and enjoyable for them but they are not very good at it. For example, an experimentalist wanting to completely transition to be a computational researcher, starts with their computational research and enjoys the research. They are conversant with the tools available but they are technically mediocre in the fundamental knowledge of the tools even after taking the courses and working hard on improving themselves on the topic.
They will get their PhD and publish decent papers, but they lack the basic proficiency that others in their field readily possess. Others in similar academic position easily develop the codes that they find extremely difficult and time-consuming.
&quot;For example, papers in my research field of additive manufacturing and machining are easy to produce. I can publish in 3-4 impact factor journals (computational materials science, surface and coatings tech, jour. of manufacturing processes). But I lack the deeper fundamental knowledge to make significant contributions to new code or algorithm development for better predictions. This skillset is possessed by almost everyone in my field, and is a requirement for producing good papers in top journals of my field (international journal of plasticity, journal of mechanics and physics of solids).&quot;
Should they continue on the academic journey, like postdoc(s) after PhD, apply for tenure track position?
Not being able to do certain things is no reason to leave the field. Instead, the student could focus on what they can do, not on what they cannot do. In fact, it is often the people that &quot;lack&quot; the &quot;advanced&quot; knowledge who come up with creative ideas and new approaches that are different from everybody else.
And if it turns out that the student needs fancy new algorithms anyway: all the others are doing that already and it can take as little as a phone call to start a collaboration. Also, the &quot;fancy algorithms&quot; may be in fashion now, but nobody knows what happens in five or ten years.
Of course there is no reason for the student to stay in the field if it does not make them happy. Changing field or changing from academia to the private sector are not as hard as people often assume. There are plenty of interesting jobs outside of academia and it should not be seen as a failure to leave the academic world.