Not the author of the parent comment, however my experience has been similar. My take is that it depends heavily on the field. If you're in biosciences, then ye

Not the author of the parent comment, however my experience has been similar. My take is that it depends heavily on the field. If you're in biosciences, then yes, absolutely (I can't speak to other fields). You won't get very far with just a BS degree - mostly technician positions. With a MS you can get better roles but they will still largely be more technical, often with little autonomy until multiple years of work experience have been gained. PhDs are often more highly compensated that non-PhDs and those with PhDs can progress though the career ranks more quickly and ultimately rise higher within the timespan of a career. After completing your PhD sticking around to do a post-doc or two is not advised, as work experience may be much more valuable than additional academic experience at that point (personal view). I would stress, though, that one really must want the experience of completing a PhD in order to consider doing one - the time, stress, and opportunity costs are non-negligible. Also, please take all this with a grain of salt, as generalizations as broad as those I've described are always easily proven wrong.