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There is such thing as being over-qualified for many jobs. Just because you have the degree doesn't mean you are skilled enough to warrant the type of pay someo

by dm2 12y ago

There is such thing as being over-qualified for many jobs. Just because you have the degree doesn't mean you are skilled enough to warrant the type of pay someone with a PhD would demand. Social skills or management skills could be lacking, past work experience could be lacking, the person might not be good at finding the jobs which are obviously out there because programming skills are very desirable right now. When applying for a job sometimes you have to sell yourself and make the company know that you can provide value and won't slack off after being hired. This isn't always easy, just a degree doesn't mean jack shit. The education system is partially to blame. Spending almost 20 years at a desk being "taught" (pushed through) doesn't seem like the most effective way to prepare someone for life. People need experience and variety. Social skills, organization, self-motivation, and loyalty are all skills that are extremely important but are hard to learn in the current educational environment, at least in my experience.

andyjdavis 12y ago
Plus, simple like-ability is a huge factor. At least in organizations where the people you would be working with or directly for are involved in the selection process. "Do I want to spend all day with this person?" is a completely valid question when interviewing the person who will be at the desk next to yours all day, every day. That isn't to say that people with PhD's are any more or less likely than anyone else :D just that there are numerous non-education related factors that can factor heavily in hiring decisions.
curun1r 12y ago
As someone who hires quite a few programmers, I think part of the problem is that there are skills that are considered basic requirements for industry jobs that PhD students aren't likely to get as part of their studies. TL;DR Software engineering is a distinct skill set from computer science and it's very possible to excel in CS while largely ignoring the former discipline. For example, writing code in a team rather than on your own or in a very small group. This involves learning the importance of small changesets, coding conventions and readable/understandable code, among other things. Also, coding in the industry involves a lot of learning to use tools and techniques that others have developed and far less developing those things on your own. A ton of the code that gets written in the industry is glue code between well-known solutions or boilerplate for a well-known framework. None of this is to say that a PhD can't learn those things or even hasn't learned those things by the time they interview, but I can confirm from our interview process that there are a lot of them that haven't and I'd rather hire a fresh CS grad who will be cheaper and likely be more humble rather than struggling to convince a PhD that those things are important.
kjs3 12y ago
It's not even "over qualified". Part of being a PhD is (generally) picking some narrow, well defined niche in the field and devoting yourself to it for a couple of years. Unfortunately, that can leave you woefully under qualified at anything in the field other than that niche. See: http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

by dm2 12y ago

andyjdavis 12y ago

Plus, simple like-ability is a huge factor. At least in organizations where the people you would be working with or directly for are involved in the selection process. "Do I want to spend all day with this person?" is a completely valid question when interviewing the person who will be at the desk next to yours all day, every day. That isn't to say that people with PhD's are any more or less likely than anyone else :D just that there are numerous non-education related factors that can factor heavily in hiring decisions.

curun1r 12y ago

As someone who hires quite a few programmers, I think part of the problem is that there are skills that are considered basic requirements for industry jobs that PhD students aren't likely to get as part of their studies. TL;DR Software engineering is a distinct skill set from computer science and it's very possible to excel in CS while largely ignoring the former discipline. For example, writing code in a team rather than on your own or in a very small group. This involves learning the importance of small changesets, coding conventions and readable/understandable code, among other things. Also, coding in the industry involves a lot of learning to use tools and techniques that others have developed and far less developing those things on your own. A ton of the code that gets written in the industry is glue code between well-known solutions or boilerplate for a well-known framework. None of this is to say that a PhD can't learn those things or even hasn't learned those things by the time they interview, but I can confirm from our interview process that there are a lot of them that haven't and I'd rather hire a fresh CS grad who will be cheaper and likely be more humble rather than struggling to convince a PhD that those things are important.

kjs3 12y ago

It's not even "over qualified". Part of being a PhD is (generally) picking some narrow, well defined niche in the field and devoting yourself to it for a couple of years. Unfortunately, that can leave you woefully under qualified at anything in the field other than that niche. See: http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/ http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/