<p>I’m a good student looking into becoming a prof or research scientist in the government. This would require a phd. I’m currently working and i know my company doesn’t really like phds and neither do a lot of other companies. They think people with phds are too research oriented. </p>
<p>So what happens if i get a phd and fail at becoming a prof? will i starve?</p>
<p>There are plenty of companies that like PhD’s, they just don’t need a ton of them. I don’t recall what your area of expertise is, but any company’s advanced development program or R&D departments will need at least some PhD’s. Wherever you get your PhD, you will almost certainly have contact with these departments at these companies, as will your advisor, so you honestly shouldn’t have a terrible time finding a job.</p>
<p>Faculty positions are notoriously difficult to come by, and while a research scientist position is easier, it is still no cakewalk. However, like I said, if you have a good advisor, he/she can go a long way towards setting you up for a job, be it in academe, government or industry. Just make sure you stay on his/her good side.</p>
<p>Some people have the opinion that more degrees is always better, but you aptly pointed out that this is not true. A PhD is a career limiter. If you attempt to apply for an entry level (BS) position with a PhD, you’ll be turned down. Since you’re over qualified, the employer will assume that you’re just taking something for the time being and will leave as soon as something more suited to your education comes along.</p>
<p>However, fewer options does not mean no options. There are plenty of careers available for PhD’s, they are just not as many of them. Many labs are hiring, corporate R&D is an option, and there’s always academia. As long as you go to a top school, you should always have options in academia (though it may be low paying in a low ranking school and might just be teaching).</p>
<p>Edit: this is why people shouldn’t go to college assuming that they’ll get a PhD. I know people think a PhD makes you “better” than others, but it’s not competition. You should only pursue a PhD after you have surveyed your career options and decided that research is your life’s calling.</p>
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<p>Amend that to say it top advisor or school. Generally, the connections of your advisor supersede the name of your school when talking about graduate school.</p>
<p>My company hates PhD’s so much that they packed me up and sent me halfway across the country, paying all my expenses, just so I could get one.</p>
<p>A PHd also OPENS many doors that are unavailable to bachelors or masters degree holders. It is slightly analogous to saying that if someone were required for some strange reason to drive only a lexus or mercedes, that person is being robbed of the opportunity to drive a mazda or a chevy. Sure they are in fact being robbed of that opportunity, but they aren’t going to care about mazdas and chevys anymore now that they have the mercedes and lexus to choose from.</p>
<p>There are economic considerations to take into account as well. In science and engineering, masters candidates usually do not receive funding, while phd students usually receive stipends and tuition waivers, which has the effect of greatly reducing the opportunity cost. A master’s candidiate without funding will likely have to take out loans and pay interest on those loans.</p>
<p>If a company is considering both PHd and Masters degree holders for a position, they will often require the master’s degree holder to have 2-3 more years experience than the phd holder, which once again reduces the opportunity cost for the phd.</p>
<p>Whether the phd is a good return on investment is partly dependent on what field the degree is in. For example, I have researched statistics degree salaries at the master’s level and phd level, and the phd level salaries were much higher for the first 5 years of post-graduation experience than at the master’s level to the point where the opportunity cost deficit was wiped away within 2-3 years. Even after 10 years, after the master’s degree holders had mostly caught up to the phd salaries, the master’s degree salaries still lagged by about 20,000.</p>
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<p>A BS opens 6 new doors. An MS opens 1 more. A PhD opens 3 new ones, but closes 6. Before deciding on a PhD, you need to figure out which door your dream job is behind. You can always get a PhD later, but you can never undo earning one. </p>
<p>I see too many people that think “I want to be better than everyone else… and a PhD makes me better”, then they hate research and are miserable.</p>
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<p>You see very few jobs that require a PhD or an MS. Jobs either require a PhD or they don’t. If they don’t require a PhD, it’s often very difficult to get them to consider someone with one.</p>
<p>A PhD isn’t just a more qualified MS. It’s a totally different degree that signals a totally different interest in the types of problems that are addressed and how they are solved. These interests and techniques are suited to specific types of problems, and PhD’s are hired to work on those types of problems.</p>
<p>If you’re in a hard science (gonna exclude biosciences; don’t know any people in those fields) you will not starve. I knew people working on woefully esoteric things in Chemistry that ended up getting picked up by IBM, GE, etc with zero prior industry experience.</p>
<p>i’m in environmental engineering and currently working although i’m going to grad school very soon for water resources engineering.</p>
<p>In my field 80% of the companies are “standard” or “bread and butter” companies. They want nothing to do with phds. There are more specialized companies who require a masters but don’t really want a phd. It seems that with a phd i’d be able to be considered for these positions. A phd will open up academia or government labs but i heard these are extremely difficult to get into.</p>
<p>Do not, I repeat, do not get a PhD in environmental science. The field is a no-growth field for scientists with advanced degrees. There are hardly any positions available in academia and/or government labs (impossible to get into). So don’t plan on that approach. </p>
<p>Industry doesn’t value advanced degrees in the environmental sciences. To give you an example: new environmental scientists at my school, with a PhD earn $55k per year. The average starting salary for a new graduate with a BS in environmental engineering earns… $55k per year. That’s right: 6 years for no additional improvement in salary. An advanced degree in environmental science or a related field is a no-winner.</p>
<p>If you don’t like what you’re doing, then get a PhD in a different field. You can use your graduate degree to break into a related field, that has better job prospects.</p>
<p>pseudoghost points out something very important. Whether or not a PHd may be worth the investment is largely dependent on which field you desire to work in, and it is a variable that cannot be ignored when considering how useful a PHd might be. </p>
<p>For example, a PHd in finance is a very, very attractive option for those who enjoy intellectual stimulation, and the supply/demand case for finance PHd’s creates a very lucrative job market for the graduates.</p>
<p>A PHd in sociology? ummm, not so much. Although it may in fact be preferable to an MSW.</p>
<p>Salary isn’t everything. It is entirely valid pointin out that there are very few openings in lowendnewbie’s field and no much growth, but one doesn’t get a PhD or the salary. If you are going after a PhD, 9 times out of 10 it is because of the type of job you seeking, not the salary o the job you are seeking.</p>
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<p>A PhD in finance makes the same to start as an MBA or an MS in quantitative finance. Meanwhile, the PhD will have less interest from employers, will not get the MBA career service assistance, and applying to a PhD will get you into a lower tier school than applying for an MBA (someone who could get into, say Emory, for a PhD could have gone to Harvard or Stanford for an MBA). </p>
<p>That’s why virtually all PhD finance graduates go into academia. If you’re interested in academia, a PhD is the only way to get there. If you’re interested in anything else, an MBA/MS is a faster way to get further.</p>
<p>That illustrates exactly the point I wanted to make. Start with the career goal then work backwards to find the degree necessary to get there. There’s no use in pursuing a degree just to see where it goes.</p>