4 ms·
A little disappointed with the one-sided point of view here - the author states "...I deeply admire everyone I’ve listed, and I am not arguing that a PhD is ne
by dannykwells 8y ago
A little disappointed with the one-sided point of view here - the author states
"...I deeply admire everyone I’ve listed, and I am not arguing that a PhD is never useful or never works out well" but never really gives examples of skills that PhDs do provide.
And there are absolutely career paths where a PhD is not required, but since many of the practitioners have one, can often be selected for (data science, biotech, biostats, lots of engineering research etc.) So without a PhD you might have a harder time rising as far as you would like in one of these positions (again being realistic that it's not all about talent, it can often be politics/perceived competence, which a PhD can augment).
It's just important to be honest about both pros and cons when writing advice articles like this.
- azhenley 8y agoSadly, there is a weekly post on HN that hates on PhDs and grad school. I have tried my best to comment on each one and try to give a different perspective: In CS you can earn over 50k a year with your stipend plus summer internship, you have a lot of unstructured time to explore your interests, and there are a lot of tenure-track positions without doing a postdoc.
- sulam 8y agoThis really depends on the role, the company and the culture. I am arguably the most senior engineer where I work (out of over 500 engineers) and I don’t have a college degree. We have many PhDs on staff. What matters at many companies and in many roles are results.