I am writing this in regard to the recent completion of my wife’s PhD, the turn of events surrounding it and the general reflection of how our perceptions of reality played out. This is going to be solely an uncensored brain dump and not guaranteed to be pleasing for some academic folks. You are warned.
I have a 4 year engineering bachelors, 2 year masters and a collective 5 years of IT industry experience. My wife has a 3 year science bachelors, 2 year masters and a 7 year PhD (6 of those years apart). I believe I have learnt enough to put down some informed thoughts about how educational degrees work and how one should take career decisions that would affect the whole life.
So, what exactly is the value of a PhD ? Who should do it ?
As far as I can understand, a PhD is a mandatory “certification” for any academic career, regardless of how much bullshit is involved to get it done. Bullshit is unfortunately everywhere in our lives, especially in industry, and academia is not spared either. Now the question is how to know if it is worth to you. What do you really want to do with your life ? Be a dedicated academic with triple post doctoral degrees and keep producing a gazillion grant-money-inducing papers which no one will read except peers looking to fill the “related work” column ? Be a scientist and work at a research lab ? Or just be a college professor ? If either of the above appeals to you, by all means enjoy 6-10 years of grad school, and not to forget, phdcomics. If you think there are better or different things to do with life which I think is the case most of the time, then get some real degrees needed to get into industry and grow there! I can’t even stop emphasizing how important real life experience is, and how money talks and bullshit walks. A well-planned and well-executed project in the smallest of the companies can really mean a lot than just another paper published in IEEE talking about a vague idea laden with unrealistic assumptions, no matter how “crisp and articulate” the writing is. We should not forget that academia depends on grant money coming mostly from government and using it produce 99% bloated publications is by no means fair. If you are not discovery-channel-crazy about pursuing science, please do your country a favor and get a real job which will contribute to the GDP at the least. I know it sounds like a hate-article, but trust me I have facts. I have a few friends from grad school doing excellent work in their fields and I am genuinely proud to know them. But consider my own batch, a bunch of 20-25 students who came to the US with dreams of a PhD. Except for a few, nearly everyone figured out what PhD actually meant for them (and ran in the opposite direction as fast as they could, including me) – a mechanism to read 10 papers and produce the 11th by just a small tweak in the collective idea. Just an epsilon, cause you can’t just have an invention or an earth shattering idea every week or month or even a year ! It is more an exercise of articulate writing, which is actually a great thing, but it defeats the purpose. And then the most well written papers get accepted in international conferences, where you get to meet more researchers aka future “citations”. I wish I had been to such conference at least once. Free trip, free food, and touristy pictures in front of the vatican or the Eiffel tower to post on facebook or flickr; what is not to like ?
A regular job on the other hand may not be a total dreamland. Most of the time it will probably suck. Corporate bullshit is abundant in large companies since not everyone has their hands full with real work. But it pays the bills and leaves extra. With just the right amount of education you can land a job that you like, with very good prospects of growth, both in terms of position and income, and all that matters in industry is competence. Making functional (positive ROI) products and services under time constraints is in my book more accomplishment than producing an almost-functional cool prototype for sake of doing cool work which can’t even be productized due to negative ROI.
Now, If you wanted to have activities on the side, a well paying job makes it all the more feasible. If you have wild dreams, make them come true using the money you can earn from the right job for you, and the earlier you realize it the better.
A friend of mine makes a legendary example of how life can be made exciting minus the bullshit. Repeated failures in college on subjects outside his interest did not deter him a bit. He chose to work on side jobs of odd hours and low pay alongside getting his necessary minimum degree. He dreamt big, but kept his steps simple and realistic. Today he flies airplanes and manages IT infrastructure of a small firm all by himself. His wife, coming from an equally simple background and education, is doing really well in another small firm. Being an efficiency-zealot myself, I am really really happy about the equation of output vs effort that is reflected in their lives.
In the end, I think life revolves around Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. You can’t measure something if you can’t experience it. And once you experience it, the measurement gets severely altered. But I am also hoping that this should not be the case for everyone, if someone wise enough cares to share some enlightenment.
Having a PhD is awesome, but only for 1% of the those aspiring for it. Ok, I made up that 1% thing, I know I overestimated. So decide whether you belong to that gifted slice, or just get out and thank me later for saving your life.
This is by no means a generalization, but just a copy-paste from my tired brain in one of those rare moments when I “see” a glimpse of the big picture, complete with humor, satire and the works. If you feel like pelting a tomato or a rotten egg, please do so, I will be glad, ’cause this cost me a freaking Friday morning to write !
And no, I don’t hate that my own beloved wife got a PhD. Only we know what we went through and I am dead sure we can make up that 6 years of lost time, even if that means making some hard sacrifices in the future. I would be really, really, really happy to be proved wrong that we let all those years of our prime age wither away for nothing.
#1 by Pooja on April 24, 2009 - 3:35 pm
Wow so much on your mind
Good read !
“If you think there are better or different things to do with life which I think is the case most of the time, then get some real degrees needed to get into industry and grow there!”
That is the crux of the problem. With ever changing industry its difficult to figure out what *real* degree means? So its best to choose the kind of work one finds intriguing and then figure out the minimum degree needed for that. I say that because I have a younger brother who asks me what degree will get him *high paying* job in the industry
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#2 by therider on April 24, 2009 - 3:42 pm
Pooja, you hit the nail on the head. Exactly what I meant to say. Degrees which can land a decent job without endless frustration should be a natural step. When/If you have extra money and time later on you can do a double PhD if you want
#3 by Francesco Gallarotti on April 24, 2009 - 10:37 pm
While I understand the frustrations and bullshit you talk about, saying that being in academia is not a real job is pretty silly. If I only had the time and money to invest in a PhD, I would have loved to be a college professor. Where else you find a job that gives you so much for so little effort? Plus it allows you to play with the cutting edge technology and experimenting with things that regular industry people can’t even imagine…
#4 by therider on April 24, 2009 - 10:47 pm
Dude, I in fact mentioned that being a professor is cool and if you want to be that, by all means do the PhD.
#5 by Paul on April 25, 2009 - 9:21 am
A PhD is hard and it’s far from being the most rewarding option for many aspects (social and financial). I cannot include the technical development reason there because that is arguable (depends very much on the field that one works in; for instance, web development is much better done in industry, while logic is studied extensively in academia). Sometimes, people like that technical aspect of certain fields studied in academia or they want to get into academia (you are right that a PhD degree is a requirement for any academic job).
For other reasons, for example, long distance relationships or financial reasons, it is not optimum to do a PhD. In my case, I think I fully paid my toll in doing it (just ask my wife about that
I don’t regret my decision in choosing the PhD path, but I do agree that the industry path might have been more rewarding for me. I only hope that, in time, academia will get closer to industry because a middle path seems to be the best solution. Industry can always use research done in academia, while some research could be better done in a mixed environment.
#6 by Speakbnidas on April 30, 2009 - 6:27 am
Loved reading thanks.
#7 by Anasuya on May 13, 2009 - 4:30 pm
I understand your frustration, but don’t forget,”a great teacher is a great artist and teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.” So teaching is not an easy profession, you have to pay for it!
#8 by Anasuya on May 13, 2009 - 5:07 pm
Did you ask your mother why did she take trouble to teach you alphabets? Did you ask your teacher what did he/she get when you got a “real job” ? Not everything can be thought in terms of GDP dude!
#9 by Rama on May 21, 2009 - 5:14 pm
Nice post, Joy! All your points are spot on, especially the following:
“In the end, I think life revolves around Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. You can’t measure something if you can’t experience it. And once you experience it, the measurement gets severely altered. But I am also hoping that this should not be the case for everyone, if someone wise enough cares to share some enlightenment.”
One thing I would add. All our decisions are driven by our priorities, and our priorities change with our experiences. At 22, a fresh college grad could be absolutely convinced s/he is capable of doign great research, and is willing to slave a few years in the research paper industry for it, but at, say 30, could have more “normal” priorities like money and career growth in some stable industry. It’s hard to get younger peopel pur themselves in the shoes of older people. Now some might actually do some good innovative research, but getting into a PhD program is overall a low percentage choice.
Also, you mention that building real products for the real world under time constraints is more rewarding. That is definitely true from a financial and (maybe even personal development) standpoint. By the same token, being a professor or a researcher is a less rewarding career option, period. Only, some people may value freedom and the opportunity to advance the boundaries of thought in a given field more than money. Money though obviously not unimportant, is less important to people who choose a PhD/academic/research career path. Now even these objectives may not be fulfilled, given the nature of the research paper industry that academia has turned into (I completely agree with your characterization here), but maybe it’s worth something to society and to the individual fields to have a lot of people slaving away at a topic just so we see that one innovative idea emerge. Industry encourages quick fixes and shortcuts, which is perfectly appropriate for that kind of work, but innovation is not necessarily encouraged. It’s ultimately about what makes people happy, and the better each individual measures up to his/her priorities, the more he/she will be satisfied.
Sorry to ramble. Have fun,
Rama
#10 by dSetia on May 21, 2009 - 6:52 pm
Interesting and bold post, Joy.
I think at the end of the day, as you said, one needs to consider if the reward is worth the cost (in time and other resources). Reward for both personal fulfillment and contribution to the world that we live in.
#11 by Parthosaurus on July 3, 2009 - 4:41 am
Joybabu! I am thoroughly impressed by the points that you have put up. The question that you tried to answer is “Who should do a Ph.D?” There are two contradicting answers possible. Answer1: Only those 1 % slice who are really capable, but they need a creative supervisor. As you said, they don’t exist in good numbers. Shall I say, extinct?
Answer2: Anybody can do a Ph.D because it is all about publishing research paper by changing a minute epsilon of the published result. In changing a minute epsilon, no creativity is required from the side of Research Supervisor.
Unfortunately, Answer 2 seems to be the most prevailent scenario. The whole academic system of the world has become like “that”, i.e., publish gallons of paper, make new academic friend who are editors of some reputed journal so that you send your manuscript to him and he says “Pass”, attend conference or better free country tour. Now, if anybody, who has no rapport with anybody, comes with an honest new innovative idea and sends a manuscript, it get rejected after two months you see the same work being published by some bigshot of your research field. Interesting, isn’t it? Now if somebody somehow manages to get his good work published, then comes a whole gang of “parasites”. What they do? They put their own thought process, figure out a new meaning of the work and publish it.
If somebody tries to change this whole “system at work”, he/she has to abort his/her academic carreer, because the “system” would made him/her do so.
Some more hate words, but I can’t help it. It is the way the whole “system” works.
#12 by Kbir on September 7, 2009 - 7:57 pm
Why do I smell jealousy??
I guess PhD is not limiting. It does not limit you to academic options alone.
It liberates you from the boring routines of just industry work.
Being really knowledgeable in the area you are really passionate about is reward in itself, but the scientific thinking that gets engrained with the PhD process that really enriches your life.
Kbir (PhD)