[rifung]

The article makes assumptions about job prospects for PhDs and which careers getting a PhD will enable, but is it strange that I want to get a PhD just because I want to be able to do research and learn about all the currently unsolved problems? I realize that I might not be able to do it for a living, but being able to take a few years off and get paid (although very little) to study something of your choosing sounds great in contrast to getting paid more but spending your time doing things other people want you to do.

Would I be better served just taking a few years off and studying on my own? That seems unlikely though since having an advisor is very useful/important..

[foldr]

The thing to bear in mind is that PhD programs aren't geared towards people who just want to work on interesting questions, get the PhD, and then leave and do something else. You'll be immersed in a culture where all of your peers see a tenure track position as the only job worth having. No-one will take any aspirations you may have outside academia at all seriously. Unless you are very tough and independent-minded, you will have your perception of your own goals shifted by this.

(There may be some exceptions to this generalization for fields that have very close connections to industry, e.g. CS.)

[rsfern]

I feel like the odd one out considering an academic career in my engineering PhD program. I don't think the attitude you're describing is all that common in many technical fields these days.

I'm sure it depends on the field, the university, and the department culture, but isn't that what admissions interviews and open house are for?

[chrisfosterelli]

This is why I'm doing my research Masters. I have no interesting in pursuing a long-term career in academia, but I love research and this path keeps me reasonably well-funded for the next few years to focus on a really hard problem that I find interesting.

I figure that I have the rest of my life to work in industry, so spending a couple years doing paid research into something I am really interested in sounds good to me!

[rifung]

This is the first time I've heard about this.. In the US our Master's degrees are unfunded and actually quite expensive, although they sometimes involve research too.

How does it work? I assume you're doing this in the UK?

[pm90]

There are many ways to get funding as a grad student for Masters in CS the US: most commonly via Teaching or Research Assistantships that not only pay your tuition but provide a stipend as well. Its true that MOST masters are not funded, CS seems to be the exception. All my peers in college who decided to pursue a Masters degree in CS had some sort of funding which reduced their expenses by a LOT.

[gambiting]

I've got friends who are doing PhDs in computer science(in UK) and they both had to do a Masters course first - but they have funding for the whole duration, including the masters course. I actually work as a C++ programmer, and they both make more than I do, doing a PhD is very well paid, at least in Computer Science.

[triplesec]

rarely is PhD well-funded in the UK. You're not living well at at all, and TA positions are not the norm as in the US. The US has much more money for these. Even in CS, the people you talk of must be very lucky with rare, google-level/industry-funded positions.

[TheOtherHobbes]

Most PhD listings I've seen offer around £15-18kpa plus remission of fees.

But there are a lot of incredibly badly paid software/technology jobs in the UK, so it's not at all impossible for someone to be earning less than that in industry.

[gambiting]

My friends are each making £30k per annum, the stipend itself is 25k but they make at least 5k a year just marking exams and giving practicals. With it being tax free, it's easily equivalent to a job paying £35-40k(they are both at a Russel Group university).

I, on the other hand, make £25k per annum, and that's before tax :P

[triplesec]

why does the UK not value tech jobs as well a the US?

[chrisfosterelli]

I'm in Canada. We have both course-based Masters and research Masters in Computing Science. The course-based ones almost never have funding available and are quite expensive, while the research ones are more competitive but well funded and act like mini-PhD's (at least that's my general experience).

[Hermel]

In my experience, the better option is to seek work with a better pay and then learn to enjoy that. If you find joy in doing things well, almost any job that challenges you will bring you happiness.