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> the Profs treated me with a combination with disrespect and contempt (when they were not outright ignoring me). That's my experience of working with PhDs in

> the Profs treated me with a combination with disrespect and contempt (when they were not outright ignoring me). That's my experience of working with PhDs in software development (Germany). Yes, you are very smart Mr. Dr. Whatever. No, your PhD doesn't give you authority on picking the building blocks for the front-end and devops stacks. Now chill and bugger off, go back to the C++ image processing ML models (1 year of development and no release still).

david-gpu 8y ago
I've had many coworkers and several bosses with PhDs and I've not seen any negative attitude from them. In the past I did work with a couple of guys from academia who had little interest in building stuff we could commercialize and that was challenging in the context of a for-profit company. Still, that was the exception and not the rule.
suprfnk 8y ago
> No, your PhD doesn't give you authority on picking the building blocks for the front-end and devops stacks. Now chill and bugger off, go back to the C++ image processing ML models (1 year of development and no release still). There is a pretty big gap between a computer science PhD and software engineering in general. I'd rather have someone that did 4 years of software engineering pick the tech stack than someone that did 4 years doing a computer science PhD.
- seanmcdirmid 8y ago
  As a PhD, that would be my preference as well.
KKKKkkkk1 8y ago
I've worked with lots of PhDs from all over the world, and I've seen something similar from the Germans among them. Trying to assign menial tasks to their "lesser" colleagues; trying to meddle in their work and impose arbitrary decisions on them. In fact, I've seen them do it among themselves and not just to the non-PhDs.
- jarvist 8y ago
  The German academic system is extremely hierarchical. So the head of the lab will be on all of the papers, in spite of having no academic input etc. Possibly the German PhDs you've met have inherited this toxic system as being the management style to aspire to.
- expertentipp 8y ago
  Yes, extremely toxic an infuriating. Cliquish self-satisfied judgmental hard-heads.

david-gpu 8y ago

I've had many coworkers and several bosses with PhDs and I've not seen any negative attitude from them. In the past I did work with a couple of guys from academia who had little interest in building stuff we could commercialize and that was challenging in the context of a for-profit company. Still, that was the exception and not the rule.

suprfnk 8y ago

> No, your PhD doesn't give you authority on picking the building blocks for the front-end and devops stacks. Now chill and bugger off, go back to the C++ image processing ML models (1 year of development and no release still). There is a pretty big gap between a computer science PhD and software engineering in general. I'd rather have someone that did 4 years of software engineering pick the tech stack than someone that did 4 years doing a computer science PhD.

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
As a PhD, that would be my preference as well.

KKKKkkkk1 8y ago

I've worked with lots of PhDs from all over the world, and I've seen something similar from the Germans among them. Trying to assign menial tasks to their "lesser" colleagues; trying to meddle in their work and impose arbitrary decisions on them. In fact, I've seen them do it among themselves and not just to the non-PhDs.

jarvist 8y ago
The German academic system is extremely hierarchical. So the head of the lab will be on all of the papers, in spite of having no academic input etc. Possibly the German PhDs you've met have inherited this toxic system as being the management style to aspire to.
expertentipp 8y ago
Yes, extremely toxic an infuriating. Cliquish self-satisfied judgmental hard-heads.