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I got my BS in CS 16 years ago. I always thought I'd go back for a PhD, but every time I started looking, I quickly lost interest. (I don't think I'll ever get one.) But, here's the important quote: > After I acquire my PhD, I surmise that I would go to industry. Go into industry first. Why do I say this? I've been involved in hiring for about 8 years, and I've only seen a very small amount of candidates with PhDs. (They usually come from inexperienced recruiters who don't know how to hire software engineers.) The candidates fresh from a PhD program usually have very little experience in complicated software engineering, and thus will work at the same level as a recent college grad. The only time they are useful is if their field of study directly applies to the work we're doing; but I've never seen a PhD candidate like that. The thing to realize is this: (Computer Science) != (Software Engineering). Industry mostly does software engineering; it only gets into "computer science" if you're writing a compiler, a database, ect. So, unless you pick a field of study that industry will need when you graduate, you'll end up being as useful as an entry-level CS grad. BTW: If you find something interesting, you can always leave industry to go back to school. It's critical, however, that you set up your finances to do that. Going back to school will be a huge paycut, so you need to make sure that you don't have a big mortgage, large car payment, ect. (That being said, assume that you'll work for 5-15 years before going for a PhD, so if you buy a nice car now, and pay it off, you'll start your PhD program with a free used car in good condition.) |
I would extend this thinking even further...
Most industry jobs aren't even practicing "Software Engineering". Algorithms, data structures, discrete math... that's totally outside of the day to day work for most "Software Engineers"
If you're building an app (web, mobile, desktop) it's largely plugging pieces together nowadays. You're likely using libraries that were built using "Software Engineering", but the end user practice of assembling those pieces into a functional user-friendly application is more akin to a construction worker assembling the 2x4s to build a house.