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Agreed. It's disappointing that there is a general skepticism of newly minted PhD's, since the degree generally involves extensive problem solving, independent

Agreed. It's disappointing that there is a general skepticism of newly minted PhD's, since the degree generally involves extensive problem solving, independent thinking, self-organizing, commitment to a specified goal, receptiveness to feedback, critical eye of both one's own work and that of others, and the ability to communicate those ideas effectively. Those are powerful tools. If the candidate wants a job that exclusively involves doing things related to their narrow field of study, then there is probably going to be a problem, but unless you haven't communicated the job description effectively, they're not applying for a job as an academic - they know exactly where to go if they want to pursue that career path. Disclaimer: newly-minted PhD here, with no particular need to apply my dissertation topic directly to my software engineering work.

rayiner 13y ago
Newly-minted PhD's should consider casting a wider net. At the company where I used to work in D.C., probably 1 in 5 of the staff was PhDs. Areas where the tech industry is more "meat space" than "net space" seem to have more PhDs per capita among the engineers.
- aganders3 13y ago
  > Areas where the tech industry is more "meat space" than "net space" seem to have more PhDs per capita among the engineers. Can you explain this a little more? I'm genuinely interested.
  - rayiner 13y ago
    The southeast has three major tech hubs: the Dulles corridor in NoVA, the Triangle in NC, and Atlanta. They also have quite a few good schools with big graduate programs that feed into the market (VT/UMD, Duke/UNC/NCSU, GT/Emory). The software work in these places is often some integral component of a meat-space product, and that meat-space product is often in a complex problem domain in which the specialization of a PhD is valuable. For example, if you're developing software for a UAV, it's valuable to have someone with domain experience in control theory. The specialized domains in D.C. are often defense related, in the Triangle it's often bio-related although quite diverse, and in Atlanta it's often logistics-related. Certainly, Silicon Valley has tons of these sorts of jobs too. Google is full of PhDs. But the ratio of specialized domain products to consumer products seems to be higher in the southeast. And as a result, my perception is that the market's valuation of PhDs is higher. It's quite common to see companies in that market where not having a PhD is considered a severe liability.
    - vonmoltke 13y ago
      Don't forget Houston and the oil and gas industry. The geophysical and service companies are also full of advanced degrees.

rayiner 13y ago

Newly-minted PhD's should consider casting a wider net. At the company where I used to work in D.C., probably 1 in 5 of the staff was PhDs. Areas where the tech industry is more "meat space" than "net space" seem to have more PhDs per capita among the engineers.

aganders3 13y ago
> Areas where the tech industry is more "meat space" than "net space" seem to have more PhDs per capita among the engineers. Can you explain this a little more? I'm genuinely interested.
- rayiner 13y ago
  The southeast has three major tech hubs: the Dulles corridor in NoVA, the Triangle in NC, and Atlanta. They also have quite a few good schools with big graduate programs that feed into the market (VT/UMD, Duke/UNC/NCSU, GT/Emory). The software work in these places is often some integral component of a meat-space product, and that meat-space product is often in a complex problem domain in which the specialization of a PhD is valuable. For example, if you're developing software for a UAV, it's valuable to have someone with domain experience in control theory. The specialized domains in D.C. are often defense related, in the Triangle it's often bio-related although quite diverse, and in Atlanta it's often logistics-related. Certainly, Silicon Valley has tons of these sorts of jobs too. Google is full of PhDs. But the ratio of specialized domain products to consumer products seems to be higher in the southeast. And as a result, my perception is that the market's valuation of PhDs is higher. It's quite common to see companies in that market where not having a PhD is considered a severe liability.
  - vonmoltke 13y ago
    Don't forget Houston and the oil and gas industry. The geophysical and service companies are also full of advanced degrees.