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My experience of PhD is more mundane. I didn't discover anything particularly meaningful, or hard, or even useful. Basically, I read papers until I understood

My experience of PhD is more mundane. I didn't discover anything particularly meaningful, or hard, or even useful. Basically, I read papers until I understood the field well-enough so that I was able to make tiny contributions worth publishing and presenting in conferences. That led to a few papers that I eventually compiled in a thesis. I certainly got something out of the experience, but I can't say it made me a different person, or that it gives me an advantage of any sort at my current job (software engineer).

djenendik 5y ago
All PhDs are not equal. As mentioned by others in this thread, generalizing probably means fitting to noise.
apohn 5y ago
>My experience of PhD is more mundane. I didn't discover anything particularly meaningful, or hard, or even useful. Agreed. I feel the same about my PhD. I did write a book that I could use to put myself to sleep though :)
downrightmike 5y ago
That's the positive sum game. To gain something, a lot of people have to put work in to move us all in inch further. That's progress.
fwilliams 5y ago
I was a software engineer briefly before starting grad school. During that time, I found I didn't have the time to sit down and learn about topics that interested me. I also wanted to be in research-y roles where I could build things that were more experimental and less well understood. During my PhD, I got to spend time learning, and attending talks/seminars/conferences. Gaining deeper background knowledge in my field as well as learning how to quickly evaluate and explore new ideas gave me the tools to have the type of job I wanted. I'm a research scientist at an industrial lab now and quite enjoy it. That being said, I agree with the grandparent post that doing a PhD can be a grueling experience. I had to carry the bulk of the work for many of the papers I submitted. If I took a day off, nobody would pick up the slack. Tight deadlines meant the only way to succeed was putting in long hours. My advisors were also spread very thin so it was difficult to get a lot of time with them. There were times when I felt very alone. This was a really stark contrast to how collaborative engineering in industry was and I don't think I ever fully adjusted to it. My current job feels like a happy middle ground. I publish papers alongside other people and we split the work.
N1H1L 5y ago
Pretty much. To me all a PhD signifies is that you can read papers quickly, form a workable hypothesis from what you have read and publish a solution to that in a reasonable timeframe. It's specialized training that's great for some fields, and completely orthogonal to the requirements of many others.

djenendik 5y ago

All PhDs are not equal. As mentioned by others in this thread, generalizing probably means fitting to noise.

apohn 5y ago

>My experience of PhD is more mundane. I didn't discover anything particularly meaningful, or hard, or even useful. Agreed. I feel the same about my PhD. I did write a book that I could use to put myself to sleep though :)

downrightmike 5y ago

That's the positive sum game. To gain something, a lot of people have to put work in to move us all in inch further. That's progress.

fwilliams 5y ago

I was a software engineer briefly before starting grad school. During that time, I found I didn't have the time to sit down and learn about topics that interested me. I also wanted to be in research-y roles where I could build things that were more experimental and less well understood. During my PhD, I got to spend time learning, and attending talks/seminars/conferences. Gaining deeper background knowledge in my field as well as learning how to quickly evaluate and explore new ideas gave me the tools to have the type of job I wanted. I'm a research scientist at an industrial lab now and quite enjoy it. That being said, I agree with the grandparent post that doing a PhD can be a grueling experience. I had to carry the bulk of the work for many of the papers I submitted. If I took a day off, nobody would pick up the slack. Tight deadlines meant the only way to succeed was putting in long hours. My advisors were also spread very thin so it was difficult to get a lot of time with them. There were times when I felt very alone. This was a really stark contrast to how collaborative engineering in industry was and I don't think I ever fully adjusted to it. My current job feels like a happy middle ground. I publish papers alongside other people and we split the work.

N1H1L 5y ago

Pretty much. To me all a PhD signifies is that you can read papers quickly, form a workable hypothesis from what you have read and publish a solution to that in a reasonable timeframe. It's specialized training that's great for some fields, and completely orthogonal to the requirements of many others.