Looks like author is focusing on grad school as in PhD only. PhD highly depends on the field. For example in hardcore sciences, to accelerate career PhD is ofte

Looks like author is focusing on grad school as in PhD only. PhD highly depends on the field. For example in hardcore sciences, to accelerate career PhD is often helpful. However, in applied fields it depends on industry to industry. I was doing my masters with focus on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). I was considering PhD but after talking with academic advisor, I realized having PhD will limit my options to either research labs or academia, for which jobs are few and far between. For industry jobs, I felt I didn't need PhD. Yes, you might be few steps below in the ladder but you can quickly catch-up as you climb. So everyone should seriously consider where they want to end up. If research is something they fancy and their field has ample research opportunities or can be leg up in the industry with PhD then PhD is a great option given the opportunity costs.