I don't think that applies to all PhDs. People studying things in computer science can often put in practice their skills, because big tech companies do a lot o

I don't think that applies to all PhDs. People studying things in computer science can often put in practice their skills, because big tech companies do a lot of research. But no big company does research on "minority ethnic groups in American literature". That's for studies in general. In my country lots of people study psychology, which doesn't have a lot of jobs opportunities, because way too much people study psychology. In software, it's the opposite, we're missing people. Lots of young people seem to follow a "do what you love" way of thinking. My parents always told me "try to find a balance between doing what you love and earning a living", which I think is a bit better advice.