Ask HN: Will getting a PhD lead to a more interesting life?

Hi there,

I'm at the end of my MSc. studies in CS. At the moment, I can choose to graduate in a month or two, or stay-on for another 9 months doing research in interactive theorem proving that will potentially lead to a PhD opportunity.

I'm doing my MSc in a foreign country and I'm very unhappy here. Another ~9 months seems like a huge hurdle to me. The current situation is if I choose to graduate soon, I will likely surrender my chance for a PhD.

I don't particularly love studying. I think interactive theorem proving is quite cool, but the actual practice of studying/research hasn't been that enjoyable to me, but I enjoy having the knowledge once I've acquired it. In many ways it seems like "the future" to me, and it'd be really neat to be one of the first passengers on that train, so to say.

I have no desire to become a professor/researcher. After I acquire my PhD, I surmise that I would go to industry.

The issue here is one of bad information: I don't have industry experience and I don't really know how any of this stuff plays out. I'm worried that if I chose to forego the PhD, I'll really regret it in a number of years. 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.

I'm concerned that without the expertise/knowledge/academic maturity that I would gain from a PhD, I'll be stuck doing things that bore me after a number of years, with no room to grow to more interesting things. 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 reading papers all day. I much prefer creating things. I also think I'm just not that bright and that a PhD would be a huge intellectual challenge for me. I'm also absolutely sick of living like a student with little financial freedom.

Does anyone have any guiding advice?

Only place in industry that requires a PhD is Data Science. How interesting what you do there is depends on the company. In most cases as a Data Scientist you won't be doing much coding. Otherwise if you want to go in any other software development you don't need PhD, because as you said you don't want to be a researcher. That being said its very likely for your 9-5 programming job to be very boring and not what you expected so I suggest you don't completely rule out researching, because it probably won't get any more interesting than that.

> 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.

You don't even need a MSc to get interesting work...

What do you find to be interesting work? Creating things, what sort of things?

In general I think if you are very unhappy it makes sense to change things up. It is possible to do a PhD later in life if you want to.

It might help you to change the area you live, get a job and see what that is like. It will help you see what is good and bad about academia and just working a normal job and that will let you make an informed decision about how to proceed.

Also I agree totally the interactive theorem proving is the future.

Get the PhD. You KNOW you can get it now. You may not be able to say the same thing in 5-7 years. Private industry will NOT penalize you for having additional education, and academia does NOT hold a monopoly on boredom. In fact, plenty of people are just earning a paycheck and can't remember the last time they felt satisfied professionally. In my experience, private industry gives PhD.s a lot of latitude to figure out what THEY want to do for the company. Does that sound interesting to you? Also, you mention that you are studying in a foreign country and are very unhappy there; do you mean the country, the university, or both? I ask because every country has an intellectual tradition that reflects its values and culture. Is it possible you would be happy in academia or private industry if you returned home?