
Ask HN: Would you leave a well paid job to start a PhD? - jcfausto
Hello,<p>Imagine that you have a well paid job (that you like) and a stablished carrer with potential to evolve and suddenly an opportunity to enter on a PhD program (in a field of study that you have interest) with grant support arise.<p>Would you leave your job to follow the PhD?<p>Imagine that at least 4 to 6 years will be needed to complete the PhD and during this time, the only money that you´ll be able to get will be from your PhD grant.<p>What are your opinions about?
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patio11
This is isomorphic to "Would you leave a well-paid job to start a career as a
ballet dancer?" To which my answer depends: a) am I already rich? and b) do I
really, really want to become a ballet dancer? If I am not already rich and I
do not want to be a ballet dancer like I want to breathe, that would be a
really poor decision.

Most particularly, if I like watching ballet and would be happy to see more of
ballet in the world but I have a foggy idea of what ballet dancing
professionally looks like outside of public performances, I would think that
I'm probably overly romanticizing the ballet dancing option and, at the very
minimum, speak to three practicing ballet dancers to get their opinion on the
career prior to investigating it further. I would make special effort not to
speak to ballet dancers who achieve the level of success which allows them to
attempt to hire me to join their dance company. Those might be comparatively
few in number but disproportionately happy with the career path, since after
all they get to have beautiful young people prancing about all day on their
whim and don't need to pay anyone anything to make it happen.

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zura
Agree, although at some places being a ballet dancer is a formal requirement -
e.g. I was thinking to get a PhD some years ago only to be able to work in
places like Microsoft Research, but eventually decided that it was not worth
it... Also, there were no REMOTE PhD positions :)

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seanmcdirmid
Not everyone at MSR have phd's, some of our best people don't.

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zura
I see you're based in Beijing. I even remember it was explicitly mentioned on
MSR jobs page that PhD was not required for Asian sites (India and probably
China).

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Also in Redmond. Many are RSDEs, but there are also some researchers
(principals even).

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pjungwir
I left a Ph.D. program to take a well-paid job. :-) (Well actually it was to
go back to freelance development.) Things to consider:

\- Do you have a wife or children to support? Will you get married or have
children partway through your program? How will you pay for health insurance
for them?

\- Can you live on the grant amount? My Ph.D. stipend was about $21k a year.
Fine for a bachelor, tough for a family.

\- Do you "have something to say"? If you just want to learn more about the
field, you might want to consider a part-time masters instead. A Ph.D. is for
people who want to push forward the state of the art.

\- What is your end game? Once you complete the Ph.D., do you want to enter
academia? Consider that tenure-track positions are increasingly scarce, and
adjunct/part-time faculty positions might not pay much more than your grant.

\- How good is the program? Some advice I got was if you can't get into a
top-10 program, it's not worth going. Also if they aren't paying you to be
there, don't go. (This was for humanities though, and you do say you have a
grant.) You should see how the people who just finished their degree have done
on the job market.

\- How old will you be when you finish? I started my program late, and when I
realized I'd be _starting_ the tenure-seeking game in my late thirties, I
really had to reconsider.

\- Can you go back? If you change your mind, how hard would it be to return to
a position like your current job? (In my case I was interrupting a programming
career to get a Ph.D. in Greek & Latin literature, so maybe your degree would
have more value to your old career if you want to go back.)

I don't regret starting my program, but I also don't regret leaving after
three years with just the masters.

Best of luck to you!

~~~
ozuvedi
"PhD is for people who want to push forward the state of the art" \- that
statement alone is more than enough to forget all other items you've mentioned
as 'things to consider' :) that's what drives people (well outcome can be
different)

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Nimi
I did just that 2 years ago, when I was 29. So far, I don't regret the
decision.

But please bare in mind, I didn't really like my job as a software developer,
and upon being cautioned about the drawbacks of academia by a tenure track
professor I reached out to for advice, I simply shrugged and told him: "What's
the worst thing that can happen - I'll end up being a software developer for
35 years instead of 40?" He immediately agreed that if that's the way I look
at it, it probably makes sense to make the jump.

My contact info is in my profile, feel free to contact me if you want. And
whatever you decide, good luck!

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angersock
What exactly am I going to learn in a PhD that I haven't already learned in
industry, or that I couldn't learn in industry? Especially if it's a PhD in an
applied sciences field?

If I just want to do research, I can do that anywhere. If I just want to talk
to leaders in my field, that's what email is for. If I just want to deal with
soul-crushing bureaucracy and depressed co-workers, I can get paid better for
it elsewhere.

I might still consider it, but honestly I've found that doing teaching gigs on
the side and pursuing my own research with friends in academia works just as
well for my needs.

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jaoued
I did exactly this few years ago. I had a well paid job in a well established
company to do a PhD in something I was passionate about with someone whom I
admired and still do in the city of dreaming spires. Spent 4 years doing great
stuff, published 8 papers including Phil Mag A. and Royal Society but living
on a small grant. Best years of my life: I was young, single and poor but I
never regretted it.

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joeclark77
Do you want to be a professor? Or do you just want to be able to call yourself
"Dr."? Don't do a PhD unless you _really_ want the experience or need the
credential. You can certainly do research (write a book maybe?) without
locking yourself into academia.

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dllthomas
It depends on just _how_ interested I am in the research topic, I think,
relative to the work I would be doing otherwise.

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davelnewton
I would if I wanted to go back to school for a PhD.

I don't understand how this question is answerable in any meaningful way.

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ozuvedi
I wish I had that offer for PhD !!!

