I had the total opposite experience - I loved my PhD. Getting a PhD is one of the last true apprenticeships. If you put a lot into it and are careful/lucky in y

I had the total opposite experience - I loved my PhD. Getting a PhD is one of the last true apprenticeships. If you put a lot into it and are careful/lucky in your choice of professor it can be a unique opportunity to spend ~5 years digging into an open-ended project at the edge of what people understand while being personally trained by a great scientist. Highly recommend a PhD as an end in itself - it can make you a better, more thoughtful person. Of course YMMV, that was my experience.