It works really well if there's some synergy between your job and PhD. For example, a friend of mine is working at an R&Dish job while doing a PhD. His thesis i

It works really well if there's some synergy between your job and PhD. For example, a friend of mine is working at an R&Dish job while doing a PhD. His thesis is essentially an excuse to dive more deeply into the problems he's currently trying to solve during working hours. Everybody wins! Barring that, I think it's going to be difficult or impossible. My current (wet) lab would not consider a part-time PhD student. Most of the experiments we do are time-consuming and can't really be done piecemeal like that. Theoretical stuff works a bit better, but I think there is a lot to be said for being "around."