[hanniabu]

Right out of college I found my place at a startup working on R&D. I was the only engineer/technical person there so it was a great experience for me. I was given free reign over product development so out really helped me grow by forcing my to learn every aspect of the development process of going from idea conception, to prototype, to running a full swuite of tests, determining component reliability and life cycle, finding manufacturers/suppliers, and eventual winding up with a reliable, efficient, and cost effective product. After that job I could have undoubtedly gone on to work in R&D in the corporate world, but I decided to go into management for various reasons not related to work.

So my advice to you is see if you can get in on the ground floor at either a startup or small company that is in R&D and you'll be forced to learn a ton of provable marketable skills that will allow you to move on and work for a larger company without a PhD.