Public speaking, writing, networking, reading primary sources, and independence are all useful. I’ve met really good PhDs, and awful ones. Awful ones wanted re

Public speaking, writing, networking, reading primary sources, and independence are all useful. I’ve met really good PhDs, and awful ones. Awful ones wanted respect because they had the PhD. Really good ones realized how much they didn’t know and acknowledged that. A PhDs can be a requirement to get very highly specific jobs (ml at google or robotics at Argo AI) but it’s rubbed me the wrong way when PhDs are a bonus for stepping into leadership, which sometimes seems to occur in government / research labs tied to academia. I think PhDs often experience a dysfunctional work environment in their formative years during the PhD and then try to translate that to the work place, implementing almost a caste system with an over-emphasis on education and power concentrated at the top. Also I’ve seen some PhDs discount MBAs or other degrees that aren’t hard science because it’s not what they chose to study (physics or pure CS or Chemistry). I guess the point is that someone can get a PhD and be missing some basic core competencies.