Is it worth doing a phd?

[wackadu]

anyone here got one?

[CaribbeanPirate]

In what? Maths: yes if you want to be a quant.

Have I got one / doing one. No, but seriously thinking about it.

[oraclesmith]

I've worked with a couple of people with PhD's and it didn't seem to make any difference to their prospects. I guess it depends what sector they're working in - perhaps the education sector and maybe government or high technology or other science-based organisations would take more notice than, say, a bank or a retailer.

Here is a true little story : someone I once knew went right through the education system - BSc to MSc and did a PhD in information theory or somesuch subject. The crucial part of her PhD was to produce some original research on the subject. She spent several years working at this PhD under the tutorship of a University professor. At the end of all this work she submitted her thesis and some time later received the news that someone in another country (France I think) had produced some research almost exactly the same and had submitted it first. After much deliberation, the body that decides on these things decided that her work didn't qualify because it wasn't original and she might even have copied Messr Frog's work ! She had a nervous breakdown and does not have a PhD to this day.

[Jabberwocky]

I have a PhD: stories like the above abound, but nowadays getting a phd is not such a big thing - even the originality requirement has been watered down. Today, you have to submit something commensurate with 3 years of research work; a lot of theses are just glorified literature surveys.

[Francko]

anyone here got one?

I have just started one. Why? I like to set myself long-term goal, this way you can achieve the best results rather than thinking only short term. Why (2) ? You would certainly regret if you want to and you don't do it. Why(3) ? It will certainly help you increase the knowledge of a specific subject and give you good researching skills.

Do I think it will be useful for:

- money. Not really, stay on the edge of what is technically in auge at the moment and you certainly will earn most of money with a contract as well as starting your own business (that's more risky obviously)

- career. Definetely not. Too much knowledge is only a burden and is always regarded as suspicious and dangerous in the corporate world. You'd rather focus on backstabbing your peers, being a blind self-confident arrogant tw@t, and enlarging your political weight if you are after this

- respect. Definetely not. People will start looking down on you and will constantly monitor every false step you do to prove that they are better than a Doctor as they are not (quite pitiful really)

In a few words, my opinion is that you should do it if you have a strong idea of an area that you particularly like and you don't have great expectations on what this can give you in reality, if not for your own self (if you approach the knowledge with a pragmatic and humble attitude and not like many of the accademic t0ssers who cannot find the zip of their trousers and yet believe to be the wheel of the world). Of course, there are some exceptions to what I generically stated (i.e. a quantitative phd in finance for example whereby the knowledge will directly benefit your career) but I felt that this is valid for the majority of situations.

p.s. and do it part-time - don't bet your life on it

[VectraMan]

I currently work with two guys with Phds, and I doubt it's made a huge difference to their careers (they're both permies for one thing ), certainly not enough to make up for 3 years they could have been earning. But having said that, it is pretty desireable for a high-tech company to have several Dr. so and sos amongst their senior technical staff.

I knew someone who got 18 months into a Phd, then abandoned it and started again with a new subject. I worked with someone else who finally got his Phd after about 6 years after putting off the final write up and getting a job for 2 years. Seems like a way of justifying wasting a chunk of your life. Perhaps you're better off just being a hippie and having done with it.

[AtW]

I doubled my rates after I received my 3rd PhD.

hth

threaded.

[threaded]

Tis true, I do have PhD. As I've discussed before my Prof got a Nobel prize for the project we worked on.

Which is nice to have on ones CV.

And explaining how one of them machines work is really good for company presentations, clients appreciate not having to listen to the same guff as all the other contractors they've interviewed.

threaded in "now for something completely different" mode

[wendigo100]

When I was a student apprentice in the seventies, a lad three or four years above me went on to do a phd, during which he ran off with a woman thirty years older than him who he was still with 15 years later.

I grew up believing that a phd does strange things to the soul.

[TinTin]

Not worth the time/money/etc

I have only met a dozen or so contractors of my age (40's) that have got degrees, let alone M.Sc's or Ph.D's. Having said that, I met a couple of gyus at an investment bank: one had a Ph.D in Astrophysics and the other in some obscure subject that I can't remember. Both on £ 50 k or so and quite happy whilst their coleagues (most taken straight from school with just A-levels) were on at least 50% more. Why were they there? More to do with snobbery/prestige (for the bank that employed them, that is)