EE Ph.D. or IBM job?

nwcrazy
Sun, 24 Feb 2013 14:02:02 +0000

"…The benefits of this route is of course that I’d be pursuing something that I love and advancing my knowledge. The downside is of course the length of time and the uncertainty that comes after graduation …"

You’ve answered your own question. So go for the PH.D.

In 5 years or so, you’re going to be 5 years older no matter what choice you make now. So the question is, from that point forward, what do you really want to do? It would seem you’ve answered the question- You love engineering AND you want to ADVANCE the field.

The reality is that if you go for the job, you’ll start to justify that it’s for you. You’ll tell yourself, it’s not a bad job, you make good money with benefits, and you’ve made some great friends, etc. In the end, “life happens”, and you will probably NOT go back to school to get your Ph.D.

So my advice is that you take the opportunity to go into a funded program now, because you can…

In 5-6 years, you’ll have more opportunities than you’ll care to know.