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From a purely economic standpoint, difficult to say. I was able to build skills that are very in demand in certain technical areas, and breaking into these area
by cherryteastain 3y ago
From a purely economic standpoint, difficult to say. I was able to build skills that are very in demand in certain technical areas, and breaking into these areas is notoriously difficult otherwise. On the other hand, I earned peanuts for many years. It'll probably take some time for it to pay off.
That said, never do a PhD for economic reasons alone. It's a period in your life where you are given an opportunity to build up any idea you would like. I enjoyed that aspect very much and hence do not regret it one bit.
On the other hand, I also found out that academia sucks so I now work in a completely different field. Unfortunately it's very difficult to find out whether you'll like academia short of doing a PhD, so you should always go into it with a plan B in the back of your head.
- mckn1ght 3y agoI feel this comment. I did a masters with a thesis option because I was not hurting for money with TA and side business income, so figured I could take the extra year (it was an accelerated masters). Loved being able to work in that heady material, but disliked some parts of the academic environment. Was glad I could see it with less time and stress than a PhD. Even so, I still never say never for a PhD, but it’d have to be a perfect confluence of conditions.
- godelski 3y ago> On the other hand, I also found out that academia sucks I also found that I don't want to be a good academic, but a good researcher. Most importantly, that these are two very different things.