3 ms·

The US labor depts numbers for unemployment show something like 10% for folks without a college degree and 2ish % for people with a phd. This tells me there are

The US labor depts numbers for unemployment show something like 10% for folks without a college degree and 2ish % for people with a phd. This tells me there are lots of jobs just maybe not in academia. That seems like a good thing to me. Less publicly funded research and more private industry taking over. (e.g. SpaceX) Frankly, lots of people arent cut out for acadeia. I realized I wasn't and left my phd program with a masters and couldn't be happier.

apl 15y ago
> 10% for folks without a college degree and 2ish % for > people with a phd. Doesn't say much about job quality, though. Nobody could sensibly argue that it's impossible to get a job with a PhD; it evidently isn't. But this includes career paths that make acquisition of a PhD either pointless or even detrimental. Ask, for instance, burger-flipping or even Excel-wielding zoologists if (a) their PhD was worth the time, effort and money it cost and if (b) they're happy with their current employment situation. Because, statistically, they're employed.
- hugh3 15y ago
  The burger-flipping zoologist seems to be a bit of a myth. Of all the folks I know who have (science) PhDs, they're all either employed in their field or making craploads of money outside it. Of course the latter group of people are smart enough that they'd also be making craploads if they'd skipped the PhD. If you do a PhD for the right reasons I don't think you're likely to regret it. I, for instance, have a PhD in physics because I couldn't imagine not having a PhD in physics. When they offered to pay me a pittance to do physics research for three and a half years in order to get the word "Doctor" before my name my reaction was not "hmm, let me calculate the effect of this on my total lifetime earnings" but "Wow? You mean you'll actually pay me to do this? A whole pittance? I'm in!"

apl 15y ago

> 10% for folks without a college degree and 2ish % for > people with a phd. Doesn't say much about job quality, though. Nobody could sensibly argue that it's impossible to get a job with a PhD; it evidently isn't. But this includes career paths that make acquisition of a PhD either pointless or even detrimental. Ask, for instance, burger-flipping or even Excel-wielding zoologists if (a) their PhD was worth the time, effort and money it cost and if (b) they're happy with their current employment situation. Because, statistically, they're employed.

hugh3 15y ago
The burger-flipping zoologist seems to be a bit of a myth. Of all the folks I know who have (science) PhDs, they're all either employed in their field or making craploads of money outside it. Of course the latter group of people are smart enough that they'd also be making craploads if they'd skipped the PhD. If you do a PhD for the right reasons I don't think you're likely to regret it. I, for instance, have a PhD in physics because I couldn't imagine not having a PhD in physics. When they offered to pay me a pittance to do physics research for three and a half years in order to get the word "Doctor" before my name my reaction was not "hmm, let me calculate the effect of this on my total lifetime earnings" but "Wow? You mean you'll actually pay me to do this? A whole pittance? I'm in!"