So my opinion is that the advice that PhDs can “make their own jobs” is largely a myth. It’s in the same vein of advice that anybody can be an entrepreneur if they just have a little grit and a great idea or whatnot.
Can PhDs freelance and/or work as an independent contractor? Of course. There are lots of companies that hire PhDs for all kinds of consultative services, especially if you have a “hard” skill like computer programming, editing/writing, web design, or quantitative analysis. But you could also do that with a master’s degree or even a bachelor’s depending on your level of experience. It’s not the degree that does it. You have to be good at what you do, and you have to beat the pavement for clients and build your business from the ground up…just like anyone else.
Some PhDs can talk their way into a full-time job with employers because they have special skills the employer didn’t realize they needed, sometimes by doing freelance work first for the employer. But that’s not special to PhDs, either - you can do that with a BA or MA and enough experience. You can also do that if you are a savvy person who’s good at talking.
A PhD, like any other degree, entitles you to nothing. You have to go out and find a job on your own. However, there are certain categories of jobs that PhDs generally fill:
- University and college professors. This is usually what PhDs want to do when they start their programs. Professors do some combination of research and teaching. The holy grail is a tenure-track position - which means you work for 6 years, ideally get tenure, and then have lifetime job security. This kind of job is largely going away, which means that the competition for the few remaining positions is fierce, even in the sciences. Generally science PhDs tend to postdoc for a long time (at least 3-4 years, sometimes as much as 7-9+) before they get their first tenure-track job. You have to publish a lot and get grants, and the hours are very long (you routinely work 50-60 hours a week, and not at regular hours, either). And even after postdocing you may never get a TT job.
Most professors these days are actually contingent laborers. They teach a few classes on a contract basis, and get paid an average of $3,000 per class with no benefits, no office, no job security. You can see that they are way cheaper for a college and so college administrations take advantage of the oversupply of PhDs this way.
Honestly, these days my advice for aspiring professors is kind of akin to the advice to aspiring artists or actors or musicians. Getting a professor job these days is kind of like that - you have to be amazing and lucky. And in the mean time, you’ll be doing low-wage work so you can have enough time to do all the stuff you have to do to look amazing. For some people, they’d rather do that than give up the chance of ever becoming an artist, so they are okay with that. And for others, they prefer job security and a steady income, so they’re not.
- Research positions in non-academic organizations. This could be anything - government laboratories, like the Department of Defense or the National Institutes of Health; other nonprofits, like think tanks (RAND Corp or RTI) or nonprofits that focus on providing research or applied knowledge (like Kaiser Family Foundation); or for-profit laboratories or companies.
The opportunities can actually be pretty great in non-academic positions for certain PhDs. Computer science and electrical engineering PhDs have it made right now in a wide variety of fields. A lot of physics and math PhDs go into data science, technology, or into quantitative finance. Sometimes certain biology or chemistry PhDs can go into pharmaceutical research or biotechnology. Economics PhDs also have it made in the shade. And honestly, I didn’t find any shortage of positions for psychology PhDs - this is particularly true if you have a clinical degree and want to work for the VA or some other social work organization but I have a nonclinical degree and found lots of jobs at market research organizations and technology companies as well as at think tanks and nonprofits. Political scientists with PhDs, particularly those with strong quantitative skills, have good prospects outside of academia. I also have some friends and colleagues with other social sciences and humanities PhDs who work outside of academia in a variety of roles (a lot of businesses are hiring anthropologists these days…to do cultural and social research on their customers so they can tailor their products!)
That said, I still wouldn’t recommend that anyone do a PhD unless they really, really want a job that requires a PhD (either being a professor - and they don’t mind knowing that they’ll be completing the requirements for 6-10 years with very low chances of ever becoming one - or becoming a researcher in one of the positions I mentioned above). And even then, a lot of the second kind of job will take someone with a master’s degree and several years of experience.