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I see a lot of people saying getting a PhD limits your options for employment afterwards and you should only do it if you want an academic career. I'm currentl

by zmmmmm 13y ago

I see a lot of people saying getting a PhD limits your options for employment afterwards and you should only do it if you want an academic career. I'm currently completing a PhD, and that was one of my primary concerns prior to starting. However I've eventually become more at ease with it. For one, I see a new appreciation for PhD level knowledge thanks to Google et. al, who have repopularised the value of having a PhD with their hiring practises. The advent of machine learning has made higher level CS knowledge more valuable again where for a while it was even actively spurned by much of the software industry. At the same time the basic bachelor CS degree is becoming commoditized and its value is decreasing. Partly because of outsourcing, partly because of MOOCs, and partly because it is becoming evident to employers that people without college / university training can be as effective as people with that training. All up, I'm a lot less worried about this point than I was before I started.

tokenizer 13y ago
Good for you. I'm usually apart of the libertarian crowd of qualifications: You prove you're capable with example, not credential. This is due to my view of the cost of college, and my success in IT without higher learning credentials. That said, I would definitely give advice to young adults now that if they are going to college, they should either go for their masters/doctorate, or an advanced bachelors like nursing, law, or engineering. Anything else is just a waste of money. Everything you said about bachelor degrees is spot on.
btown 13y ago
I had a similar decision to go through, and I'm in a PhD program in machine learning now myself! PhD's might not be the trendiest thing in the startup world, but they're not a detriment at all from what I've heard and seen. Interned at a well-funded startup with 40 employees at the time, and we interns were literally the only tech people there without advanced degrees; many were ex-Googlers and the like. Similarly, at Microsoft I heard from many that as long as you can demonstrate that you haven't lost your touch for coding (do implementation + theory!), you're at no disadvantage relative to where you were before the PhD, and quite possibly at an advantage if you want to do more research-oriented things. Me, I may end up catching the academia bug while I'm here, but I'm not worried about losing my "in" in industry. ...now back to that problem set...
- hconceic-HN 13y ago
  I'm almost done with my PhD, and for people that don't want to stay at academia, I find extremely important what btown says about not doing only theory. Very rarely you will find a job where you'll only have to do theory, and even if you think you still remember everything you learned in your Bsc, you probably don't. Also, some of the things you might still remember, may not be of any use in the job market anymore. From my experince, I recently started being contacted and going to job interviews at major companies and I had to spend some time going through some course material and MOOCs, even if I been doing some code during my PhD. Regarding the PhD experience, choose your advisor and group very carefully. You'll spend a lot of time with them. Also, during almost 2 years I was working with a really bad crazy advisor, that was pushing me to the limit for his interest. I was almost quitting but decided to change advisor and I'm really enjoying this now.

by zmmmmm 13y ago

tokenizer 13y ago

Good for you. I'm usually apart of the libertarian crowd of qualifications: You prove you're capable with example, not credential. This is due to my view of the cost of college, and my success in IT without higher learning credentials. That said, I would definitely give advice to young adults now that if they are going to college, they should either go for their masters/doctorate, or an advanced bachelors like nursing, law, or engineering. Anything else is just a waste of money. Everything you said about bachelor degrees is spot on.

btown 13y ago

I had a similar decision to go through, and I'm in a PhD program in machine learning now myself! PhD's might not be the trendiest thing in the startup world, but they're not a detriment at all from what I've heard and seen. Interned at a well-funded startup with 40 employees at the time, and we interns were literally the only tech people there without advanced degrees; many were ex-Googlers and the like. Similarly, at Microsoft I heard from many that as long as you can demonstrate that you haven't lost your touch for coding (do implementation + theory!), you're at no disadvantage relative to where you were before the PhD, and quite possibly at an advantage if you want to do more research-oriented things. Me, I may end up catching the academia bug while I'm here, but I'm not worried about losing my "in" in industry. ...now back to that problem set...

hconceic-HN 13y ago
I'm almost done with my PhD, and for people that don't want to stay at academia, I find extremely important what btown says about not doing only theory. Very rarely you will find a job where you'll only have to do theory, and even if you think you still remember everything you learned in your Bsc, you probably don't. Also, some of the things you might still remember, may not be of any use in the job market anymore. From my experince, I recently started being contacted and going to job interviews at major companies and I had to spend some time going through some course material and MOOCs, even if I been doing some code during my PhD. Regarding the PhD experience, choose your advisor and group very carefully. You'll spend a lot of time with them. Also, during almost 2 years I was working with a really bad crazy advisor, that was pushing me to the limit for his interest. I was almost quitting but decided to change advisor and I'm really enjoying this now.