The specialization of CS related PHd's were truly more hurtful then helpful (on the whole, not as a 100% "rule") when I recruited $120-$150k programmers (mostly finance / eCommerce giants). From the VP's (paraphrased) "They tend to be too narrowly focused on their field of study, and many times have a hard time adapting to our ___[area of need, actual job requirements and day-to-day, etc.]__" This was more on the actual PHd candidate themselves however. Equate this too a Lib Arts Degree, where, it depends entirely on the graduate to get the position they are going for versus relying on the degree for a job. A few different discussion on HN related that a PHd is for RESEARCH, and, if you are expecting a $20,000 bump in pay, that's a lot of opportunity cost with little actualization of pay off.
I had actually never looked (naively) at a PHd focus solely for Research, versus getting a "better" position within an industry.
The specialization of CS related PHd's were truly more hurtful then helpful (on the whole, not as a 100% "rule") when I recruited $120-$150k programmers (mostly finance / eCommerce giants). From the VP's (paraphrased) "They tend to be too narrowly focused on their field of study, and many times have a hard time adapting to our ___
Sounds like they were looking for programmers to do the kind of boring work that CS PhDs would get sick of really quick. Other companies would love to have exactly the same CS PhDs you were rejecting.
1) To make a permanent addition to the canon of human knowledge.
2) To have a job where you read a lot of interesting things and contribute to that field.