My company has a tuition assistance program that allowed me to complete an MS and PhD, while working full-time. Took 10 years. Loved it!
And, it wasn't just the money that helped, it was also that they supported continuing education.
Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
121–130 of 259 posts
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In this case, getting advanced STEM degrees provides a path towards residency, work rights, and perhaps eventually a green card or citizenship. At my very first job, nearly all of my coworkers were Indian. As I met more people at work and started adding them on LinkedIn, I noticed one thing in common with all their LinkedIn profiles: they all got their bachelor's in India and their master's in the US. One day, I wa…
> before I learned how fucked-up our immigration system is. Fucked up because they give higher-educated people preference, or fucked up because corporations lobby for more H1B workers to depress engineering wages industry wide?
It's fucked-up because there are very, very few ways to actually get into the US legally.
And in this case they're not giving educated people preference. They didn't come here on a rule that says that people with postgraduate degrees get to come to the US. They came here on a student visa because coming here on a student visa is one of the few ways to get in at all, and it just so happens that a student visa can be upgraded to an H1-B later if the student lands a job with a company willing to sponsor them.
I'd recommend reading this flowchart which explains in detail how fucked-up our immigration system is:
https://reason.com/assets/db/07cf533ddb1d06350cf1ddb5942ef5a...
Interestingly enough, it doesn't mention coming here on a student visa and then upgrading to an H1-B; it's basically the only loophole around that depressing flowchart. Vox's slideshow on immigration, though, does link the flowchart and mention student visas are one of the only other ways to get in (the other is a tourist visa, which is useless for immigration because you can't upgrade, and you'll be denied a tourist visa if the US thinks you're interested in immigrating):
https://www.vox.com/cards/immigration-immigrants-reform-us/h...
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#123Obligatory link to phd comics http://phdcomics.com For those who don't know, he started this comic to warn people off from PhDs. The irony, is he gets a lot of emails thanking him because the comic encouraged them to get theirs...
I had to stop reading that because of how accurate it was.
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#124There are more people who want to get PhDs than there are academic positions in universities.
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#125I think CS PhD programs in particular can be a little strange. I decided to go back to school to pursue a CS PhD after chatting with a retired mathematician about his PhD. He was talking about how he took classes for two years to explore different areas of mathematics and to pass the general exams, then he decided on a branch of mathematics (topology) and approached a professor in that area to be his advisor. After w…
What you're describing as what you didn't expect is how PhDs were done traditionally. It's the more recent US model to have classes and exams.
I posed a question to my advisor in order to get onto the PhD, started researching immediately, and my 'general exam' half-way through was a presentation and viva. Obviously the question changed totally by the time I finished, but that's the nature of research and where it takes you.
I'm not sure why you'd expect to explore computer science as a whole on a PhD. The point of a PhD is to become an expert in one part of the field and to push it to expand what we know - not to gain general wide knowledge. I don't think that was ever the idea - that's what a bachelors is for.
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#126I think CS PhD programs in particular can be a little strange. I decided to go back to school to pursue a CS PhD after chatting with a retired mathematician about his PhD. He was talking about how he took classes for two years to explore different areas of mathematics and to pass the general exams, then he decided on a branch of mathematics (topology) and approached a professor in that area to be his advisor. After w…
Too many CS postgraduate programs just feel like engineering ones. This is why chosing a proper advisor is so important as your intentions should be aligned. Even then, there are things you might need to do to satisfy your program requirements that aren't exactly what you want to do.
Anecdoctal experience: I was offered a somewhat decent scholarship for a Master's program backed by an Oil company, but I would work on specific projects chosen by the company. I sincerely prefered to go for a program/advisor that fit my goal (more on the theoretical CS research) and no grant (the program is free here). This meant that I have to work to pay my bills and study on 'free time'. This works for me personally because I make a more than any program scholarship would pay me while acquiring some industry experience. This can work while I am doing my masters, but It is borderline impossible for a PhD program.
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#127I have a master's degree and I learned early that getting a PhD was not for me. The way things worked at the university made me not stand to be in that environment anymore. This thing that is ridiculous in my opinion is that the advisor would say: "there is this conference coming and we will send a manuscript. We can try this and that to see if it is publishable.". Why the hell should I research for publishing? One s…
Most of academia is toxic. Those who don't see that haven't spent enough time in it. I believe things can't go well in general in any area where money comes from organized begging ("proposals", "apply for funding"), driven by reputation ("publications", "impact factor") and where the bad eggs can't even be fired ("tenure")
>I believe things can't go well in general in any area where money comes from organized begging ("proposals", "apply for funding"), driven by reputation ("publications", "impact factor") and where the bad eggs can't even be fired ("tenure")
So you're never, ever gonna work with venture capitalists?
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#128I wish we’d move to a 3 year PhD program now that you have 5-10 year postdocs if you even have a career in you’re field at all.
Three years is not nearly enough time to finish PhD thesis work as an experimental physicist. Even if the goalpost was lowered for a PhD, a three year PhD program in physics would just be a glorified masters degree.
Plus, if it's even easier to get PhDs, we'll just end up with even more people having PhDs and the status associated with the PhD will be even lower. PhDs are becoming relatively commonplace, and the vast majority of them are not in academia because either there's no space for them, or they're simply not good enough.
Meeting someone with a PhD is no longer surprising. It's not "wow, you must be a renowned researcher" anymore, it's "wow, you were able to do lots of grueling work for 30k a year, and now you're in industry doing what everyone else is doing".
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#129I think CS PhD programs in particular can be a little strange. I decided to go back to school to pursue a CS PhD after chatting with a retired mathematician about his PhD. He was talking about how he took classes for two years to explore different areas of mathematics and to pass the general exams, then he decided on a branch of mathematics (topology) and approached a professor in that area to be his advisor. After w…
i totally know how you feel since i have felt that way in the past as well :) here's something relevant: http://pgbovine.net/practical-reason-to-pursue-PhD.htm
my two cents: find something where the grants align with your interests, or find a brand-new faculty member who has startup money so isn't as bound by grants in the near term. and if things don't work out, simply leave and go to industry -- with a marketable skill set like what you get from being a CS major, there's no way for you to lose. go wherever has work that you like more.
Re: Why some PhDs are quitting academia for unconventional jobs
#130Just do a word search in this topic for the word "money".