3 ms·
As usual, lot of PhD bashing in the comments. My experience was generally positive. The good things 1. I had mostly fun doing it. Being paid to learn things i
by yodsanklai 2y ago
As usual, lot of PhD bashing in the comments. My experience was generally positive.
The good things
1. I had mostly fun doing it. Being paid to learn things is great.
2. I got to work in different countries, and travel to many places
3. I was able to have more than one career. PhD + academia, before switching to industry. Gave me more perspectives.
4. I did learn a few things and skills (public speaking, I learned a lot of things while teaching too).
The bad things
1. Opportunity cost. I could have earned more but, would have I had the same career with the PhD? hard to tell
2. A lot of what I learned is totally useless.
3. Doing a PhD was fun, being a professor wasn't. Boring administrative work, lots of bitterness among academics, unhealthy competition. (and I wasn't good enough).
Overall, I would probably do the PhD again, but wouldn't go to academia. I find that working for a big corporation can be depressing/stressful. I'm glad I did other things in my life.
- parpfish 2y agoI had a ton of fun in my PhD. It probably wasn’t the best route if I was trying to maximize total lifetime earnings, but I’m happy with the route I took. In fact I liked it enough that I often joke that my retirement plan will be to get into another PhD program for the stipend/insurance and just do projects to help some junior prof get their career going
- nolamark 2y agoI agree that it can be fun. I also devised a retirement plan as a graduate student, figuring out what sum of money I would need to live the rest of my life living the graduate student lifestyle without the hassle of being enrolled. Less than a decade after finishing my PhD I was able to walk away from my career into that lifestyle. Certainly not for everyone, but if it floats your boat, it is certainly an achievable plan.
- gyomu 2y ago> my retirement plan will be to get into another PhD program for the stipend/insurance Imagine being a young ambitious student not getting placed into a PhD program because some old dude doing it for the benefits and the lolz took the spot.
- vaidhy 2y agoIt is not a zero sum acceptance.
- michaelrpeskin 2y agoRegarding Opportunity Cost... For a long time, I felt stupid for getting my PhD during the buildup before the 08 bubble. I could have socked away a lot more money than my measly stipend. And afterwards, I always had decent jobs but not SV style salaries. That made me feel like it was all a bad decision. But now that I'm approaching my 50s, I feel a bit differently. I traded variability for steady consistent growth. When SV lays of 80% of the work force and a bunch of people lose their jobs and their fancy SV salaries go to 0, I've luckily (knock on wood) never had that experience. I bet in the long run a person making SV salary right out of college and invests smartly will still out perform economically than a steady growth after a delay for the PhD. But mentally the lack of variability has been good for me. YMMV.
- ImaCake 2y agoMaybe it depends on the institution? I, and many of those I know who went to the same institution, had terrible PhD experiences. I burnt out and left with a Masters, others just quit, one committed suicide. Even those who completed the PhD said it was miserable. Its hard to know if the risk of a bad time is always high or if it is dependent on culture etc, but I do not recommend PhDs as a pathway anymore.
- mnky9800n 2y agoYou can have a poorly paid bad time doing lots of things. A PhD isn’t the worst option by a long shot haha.
- selimthegrim 2y agoIt is if no one in your area hires for jobs that consider the PhD skills worth paying for.
- hanslovsky 2y agoI had pretty much the same experience, except I left for industry right after finishing my PhD
- interludead 2y agoSo many people love doing research but find the actual academic career path miserable. I think it's a shame, because it pushes a lot of talented people out.
- globular-toast 2y ago> A lot of what I learned is totally useless. I feel like everyone says this regardless of what level of education they have. I have a PhD and I've never felt this way. Everything I've learnt has contributed to the whole. The broad, shallow exposure from school has been extremely useful. I think I've used just about everything at one time or another. The PhD was less about learning in the specific area and more about learning how to do a PhD. You have to learn how to study a field and get on top of it, how to organise and assimilate that information, and how to build on top of that. This is definitely still useful to me and I'm not sure I would have learned to do it without actually doing it.
- yodsanklai 2y agoA few extra thoughts since I wrote the parent comment - I did my PhD in Europe where it's only 3 years after master, so the opportunity cost is less - I noticed a lot of frustration with PhD candidates comes from applying to academic positions. If this is not the end goal, this could also lead to a better experience. - I said a lot of what I learned is useless, this can be mitigated by carefully choosing a topic, although not easy when you have little perspective, and possibly limited options (lots of candidates pick a topic in their local university for instance). It's also possible to intern in companies during a PhD. - Having a PhD can open new doors.