There’s no correlation. Particularly in the software world, “interestingness” of work is dominated primarily by what you can do, and what you deliver, not by credentials.
Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
231–240 of 258 posts
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#232CS 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.
Drop the PhD from your resume and try again?
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#233Related question: are there ways to get involved in research on the side, rather than as a full-time, multi-year commitment?
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#234Short answer: No
Long answer:
Forget about "studying".
If you doesn't like doing research, i.e. try to solve open-ended problems without even knowing if an answer exists, do not do a PhD.
Doing a PhD is like Antarctic expedition - low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness, safe return doubtful. There's no reason to do it unless you really like it.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#235I have a Ph.D. in CS from the University of Washington. I'm glad I did it, but it's not for most people. Academic research is like a marathon and the Ph.D. is like a marathon training program. If you don't want to run a marathon, you probably don't need a marathon training program. Yes, a marathon training program is an interesting and rewarding way to improve your running, but it's very likely you can find equally i…
I am very interested in what you replied to the email 4 years ago.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#236Most of your post reads as if you really don't want to do a PhD, but are looking for someone to convince you to stay. We can't really help you with that. If you really want to do a PhD, I thought I should add a clarification regarding this: > Equally concerning to me is that I think I'd likely be miserable during the PhD process. It seems very lonely, and I don't find much enjoyment from, say, sitting in my office re…
there was always something new to keep myself busy
Doing phd research didn’t keep you busy?
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#237If you want to do it for the sake of better job opportunity, and to make more money, or status, don’t do it because there are better ways to reach that goal.
If you’re passionate about it and have different goals and believe you can have a positive impact by deep diving into an area, go for it and you will enjoy every day of it.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#238> I'm afraid I won't be able to find interesting work with just a MSc, and I'm really afraid of getting a boring software engineering gig. This is probably true. Most jobs you'll get with a BS+Msc are going to be app development. Web, mobile, server... pick your flavor. You'll largely be using tools developed by other people, to build applications. The really interesting jobs are absolutely held by Phds. But that's n…
> The really interesting jobs are absolutely held by Phds. That wholly depends on your definition of interesting. I don't have a PhD. I've written software that taught literacy to kids, helped people pay their bills online (back in 1999, when this was novel), written full ML systems (15 years ago, before the advent of open source ml packages), co-founded a YC company, and now I'm helping people rediscover the images…
None of it qualify as interesting to peopple interested by phds.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#239PhD in CS here, currently working for start up.
TBH, I wasn't deeply committed to research but got a position offered at my institute, which I took. Plus, I had to relocate to another city, because my adviser took over another institute. My wife had to stay at our former place, because of her job. And a lot more trouble I had to undergo for the entire process. On the other side, having these three letters next to my name was super appealing to me. This let to mixed feelings about doing a PhD. Some examples.
Pro: I was really free to do what ever I wanted Con: But I also had to get my own funding and couldn't save any money
Pro: I focused a lot on methods I was interested in and developed some on my own Con: I left new technologies behind, which made my start into industry quite bumpy
Pro: I learned a ton of interesting things in great detail Con: No one cares. Just as with technologies - models, paradigms, methods come and go. The PhD is, in most cases, only a certificate of your "self learner attitude".
But what really hit me hard was something else. During my time as a PhD I mostly worked on stuff I enjoyed and I was surrounded by people doing this for the same reasons. In industry, in special CS/coding related fields, you likely work on a ticket system. You arrive at your office, grab the ticket, machine it off, take a another one... From now and then your agile coach wants you to wright words on colored post its. I didn't expect the change to be that dramatic. Especially because I already worked as a developer in such systems during bachelors/masters degree. The PhD changed my perception of work.
In summary: I enjoyed doing a PhD, but the PhD left me with wrong self-assessment (for the industry). After getting fired I joined a fresh start-up, which turned out to be great. Here I found the freedom and creativity I was missing. Looking back I would probably skip the PhD for a start-up with a good team. Pay attention to the team - it's key.
Re: Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
That isn’t really true either. We don’t receive masters degrees unless we do a gentleman’s withdraw, then it’s only an M Phil. If you come into a PhD program with an MSC, you can still take 8 years to finish, ya, you get to skip some course requirements, but that isn’t where the majority of the time in a PhD goes. MSC’s aren’t offered as much anymore because they had the same problem as PhDs (it could take 4 years to…
What exactly isn't true about it? In all institutions that I know all, students are given MSc status as soon as they complete the requirements, not M Phil (never even heard of it). Some students leave the school after that point, but it doesn't invalidate their MSc, nor their MSc gets converted to M Phil or whatever. It's not a common thing, but I've seen students drop with MSc mostly because of issues with their sup…
And it takes 2 years for most students to meet the MSc requirements (basically they need to complete the coursework), not 4 years, barring some special cases. Again, I'm talking about the common practice, not the handful of exceptional universities in the US you're referring to.