CS PhD from Stanford in dynamic program analysis. Lost all my friends. Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research. Everyone I knew who went directly into industry is doing way better than me. My salary has only tracked inflation. I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
101–110 of 258 posts
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#102Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#103I got a MSc (in electrical engineering, thesis on neural networks in 1998) and went into industry, switching into programming in mid-aughts. Absolutely no regrets. Ph.D. is absolutely not necessary to get a good job in programming, and at most employers not really even an advantage.
If you make the wrong choice of which job to take, you can fix that relatively easily by switching employers, and your experience at the "wrong" place still adds to your perceived value, status, and pay. If you make the wrong choice of thesis, advisor, or university, I am led to believe it is much more difficult to correct.
From your own description of your desires, skills, and interests, it does not sound like you should be getting a PhD. You can leave industry and go back to school later if you want to (I did to get my master's), but the reality is you almost certainly will not want to, so you should be clear in your mind that you're making a definite choice.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find that to be a funny statement. Would you actually argue that every single phd has "great value to history and humankind"?
I find it sad when people have no other metric of value other than $$$. "I can't sell this, what is this?"
I’ve always been curious about why people write “$$$” instead of “money”. maybe you could elaborate
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#105phd in machine learning - it was worth it, but i had an awesome advisor and my own funding (via a fellowship) so my experience is not necessarily the norm. I would never recommend a phd to someone given the time commitment (almost lost my girlfriend, and now wife, and a lot of friends), but life is way better post-phd than if i hadn't done it. I understand the bind you're in. The phd will open more doors to more interesting work, your opinion will start to have more weight, and available interesting work finds a way to your desk. Just remember that you do pay for all of this with several years of hard, stressful labor - being an expert in a specific technology can get you to the same place without nearly as much of a personal time commitment.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#106CS PhD from Stanford in dynamic program analysis. Lost all my friends. Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research. Everyone I knew who went directly into industry is doing way better than me. My salary has only tracked inflation. I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
> I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
This is an incredibly worrying statement; nobody should feel that way. Do you mind if I ask why you think it has not only ruined your life but so much that it is unrepairable?
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#107CS PhD from Stanford in dynamic program analysis. Lost all my friends. Ghosted by companies for jobs directly related to my research. Everyone I knew who went directly into industry is doing way better than me. My salary has only tracked inflation. I sorely regret the decision and consider it to have fundamentally ruined my life beyond repair.
Could you elaborate why you assume that your knowledge and skills can't be recycled in another (engineering) area?
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#108I very much disagree with the general tenor of the comments. True, a Ph.D won't directly translate into more money, or more exciting job prospects. Also true, a Ph.D isn't a golden key to life.
A Ph.D in a solid field gives you a new set of tools for solving problems, and it gives you the luxury of digging very deeply into a subject you find rich/stimulating/opportune. I walked out with:
- deep knowledge of cutting edge techniques in my field - a network of world-class experts to whom I could turn when faced with interesting business/engineering problems - years of practice in solving hard problems
> I much prefer creating things.
A good Ph.D serves your ability to create.
> I'll be stuck doing things that bore me after a number of years, with no room to grow to more interesting things.
You don't have to stay in academia for your Ph.D to be valuable.
>I also think I'm just not that bright and that a PhD would be a huge intellectual challenge for me.
None of us are "that bright". That's the whole point of the Ph.D.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#109Not giving any advice, just data; you can draw your own conclusion. As an IT manager doing recruiting, a PhD is irrelevant, both for hiring decisions and for salary & career. It will be your skills that matter, not your titles. If the PhD is helping you acquire some useful skills, that matters. As someone who knows a number of people with PhD's: except for MDs and people working in universities, nobody is using in re…
>>As an IT manager doing recruiting, a PhD is irrelevant, both for hiring decisions and for salary & career. I mean, that's because you're talking about IT, which is traditionally about practical sysadmin/network engineer skills and even a Master's degree is good only for management tracks. If you were recruiting in a field where cutting edge research is performed, e.g. hardware engineers for microprocessor design, i…
" Intel and AMD for example employ a ton of PhDs."
Not for their titles, but for their skills. This is what I have also said.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#110Quick Answer: No it will not.
I have a Ph.D, and I have worked both as an academic and as a developer (at Apple). More than half the people in my group at Apple had PhDs, but I would say that their degree was irrelevant to their position and job. What mattered was the skill and passion they brought to their work.
The people I met who were truly happy in their job (either in university of industry) were the ones who loved what they did. If you love doing research, and all that goes with it: reading articles, writing papers, advancing knowledge, then, assuming you have talent too, you will be happy as an academic, and you will need a PhD. If, on the other hand, you want to be creative, contribute to a team effort, work with like minded others, then you do not need a PhD. I do not believe that getting a PhD will give you "expertise/knowledge/academic maturity".
Personally, I learned WAY more outside of university, and tackled much more interesting problems after I left. My post-research life was much happier than my research life.
Good luck.