I'm glad the article mentions how abusive grad programs can be. That doesn't get a lot of airtime.
What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
31–40 of 195 posts
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#32A PhD is a license to do deep research. Deep research careers are very rare, but for the right kind of person, they're great. However, deep research by definition means it probably won't work, and there's just a lot more money in doing things that will probably work vs things that probably won't. So it helps to be extremely talented at deep research if you want to pursue the PhD. Also, most engineering PhD's are bogu…
What do you consider to be deep research? I agree that engineering research is not actually deep, but once you eliminate that almost all of the current (applied, and maybe theoretical too) Machine Learning work for instance is also dismissed.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
But it’s so sad to be in it just for the money. If a phd will allow you to eventually do the things that you love, that should be the priority. Of course you can do what you love also without a PhD, but I’d argue that a PhD will eventually allow you to explore fields and things that are not economically viable. In fact I would say that it’s just plain sad that we have to choose something based on how economically via…
If you want to do something purely for its interesting properties, you don't need a PhD to do it.
If you’re well off (from family or something like that) then sure you can of course do it in your own.
However I’d rather have a system that would still allow me to get some sort of basic income (to afford a living) while doing, say, archeology studies in Ancient Rome. Such system is academia right now.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#34This is total anecdata, but out of my closest college friends, five of them went to get a PhD, while I went to industry. When they graduated, I was already making more than of all of them, with five years of industry experience. And I made more them them for the next thirteen years too. I never hit any magical ceiling where a PhD was necessary. In other words, don't do a PhD if you're in it for the money. It may open…
I was in a PhD program, I dropped out. I have been working in R&D at a large company for a while now; many of my best colleagues have PhDs, many others do not. As far as my personal experience is concerned, a PhD has no bearing whatsoever on your capacity to do solid research. That said, I am seriously considering going back on the PhD route, because I think I’d like to spend more time teaching down the line. Kind of…
> a PhD has no bearing whatsoever on your capacity to do solid research
Having worked in research at a few major tech companies now, when hiring research staff I’ve found they typical want someone in a strong position in the research community, typically evidenced by a strong publication record in the field they are recruiting in. While this can certainly be done without a PhD, I find it to be a bit rare. Our current research group is around 10 people (in a ~2K person company), 9 have PhDs.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#35Don't do a PhD for the money (although it is more than adequate in STEM fields).
Do a PhD for the jobs that it unlocks (professor or researcher, mostly) or the type of freedom that it provides (it was 6 years of mostly unstructured time that I got to explore things that interested me while being paid). If all else fails, you can still go join a big tech company and make more than enough money to live a good life.
I'm a professor now and love it! Couldn't have happened without a PhD first.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#36A PhD is a license to do deep research. Deep research careers are very rare, but for the right kind of person, they're great. However, deep research by definition means it probably won't work, and there's just a lot more money in doing things that will probably work vs things that probably won't. So it helps to be extremely talented at deep research if you want to pursue the PhD. Also, most engineering PhD's are bogu…
What do you consider to be deep research? I agree that engineering research is not actually deep, but once you eliminate that almost all of the current (applied, and maybe theoretical too) Machine Learning work for instance is also dismissed.
> What do you consider to be deep research?
As a guiding principle, I think deep research is answering questions that no one has approached in quite the same way before. In my own PhD work, I used the time to learn how to answer questions sufficiently (methodology) as well as how to recognize shape/distill questions in a way that they can be approached. Developing these skills don't require a PhD, but the dedicated time helped me.
I've used these skills to learn deeply and answer questions to great extent in business roles and drive some solid change in a few large orgs. It doesn't mean I do a job better than someone without a PhD. Also, the PhD signals that I have answered some deep questions to the satisfaction of others that answer deep questions (PhD committee).
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#37This is total anecdata, but out of my closest college friends, five of them went to get a PhD, while I went to industry. When they graduated, I was already making more than of all of them, with five years of industry experience. And I made more them them for the next thirteen years too. I never hit any magical ceiling where a PhD was necessary. In other words, don't do a PhD if you're in it for the money. It may open…
I was in a PhD program, I dropped out. I have been working in R&D at a large company for a while now; many of my best colleagues have PhDs, many others do not. As far as my personal experience is concerned, a PhD has no bearing whatsoever on your capacity to do solid research. That said, I am seriously considering going back on the PhD route, because I think I’d like to spend more time teaching down the line. Kind of…
That piece of paper is actually the easy part of the entire process.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#38This is total anecdata, but out of my closest college friends, five of them went to get a PhD, while I went to industry. When they graduated, I was already making more than of all of them, with five years of industry experience. And I made more them them for the next thirteen years too. I never hit any magical ceiling where a PhD was necessary. In other words, don't do a PhD if you're in it for the money. It may open…
> I never hit any magical ceiling where a PhD was necessary.
Well is that because you aren’t in a job track that has anything that would need a PhD?
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Five years is a super long PhD. If you can get it done in two or three years it makes more sense.
In computer science in the US, this is just false. Four years is the usual "officially expected" length of a PhD straight out of a bachelors' (which is the most common way to do a PhD in CS in the US). In practice it usually takes longer, sometimes much longer (seven+ years is not unheard of). In the UK and Europe, shorter PhDs are much more common, in part because you're expected to do a master's before a PhD. Even…
6.5 years is the average length in the US according to the NSF.
I tell students to expect 5-6 depending on whether you want to go to industry or academia.
Re: What You Need to Know Before Considering a PhD
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Five years is a super long PhD. If you can get it done in two or three years it makes more sense.
In computer science in the US, this is just false. Four years is the usual "officially expected" length of a PhD straight out of a bachelors' (which is the most common way to do a PhD in CS in the US). In practice it usually takes longer, sometimes much longer (seven+ years is not unheard of). In the UK and Europe, shorter PhDs are much more common, in part because you're expected to do a master's before a PhD. Even…
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