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

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!"