[k33n]

> it looks really really really bad on your CV to not finish a graduate degree.

That's something people who have no real world experience say. For one thing, nobody is forcing you to put any information on your CV. Lastly, only the lowest of the low judge such things so harshly that they won't even interview you.

[xfer]

> For one thing, nobody is forcing you to put any information on your CV.

And put what for the career gap? It's easier to just put the truth than to make something up for the gap years.

[ojnabieoot]

> That's something people who have no real world experience say.

I was speaking to my real-world experience!

[nharada]

This is one of those things that's hard to see until you're out though. Combined with the fact that inside academia there definitely is a bias against those who don't finish the program ("they couldn't hack it") this perspective is relatively rare for those who are in it, especially those without prior industry experience.

[ojnabieoot]

I am kind of frustrated that I am reporting my real-world experience after having been “out” of academia for 10 years and yet you and another person are assuming that I don’t have any real world experience and am just lacking perspective! Please read the comment! And that “bias” you mention 100% exists outside of academia.

[nharada]

You're right and I apologize, I did not mean to imply that just because your experience was different than mine meant it was invalid or not true.

My intent was to point out that the parent's perspective is not necessarily a common one inside of academia, and even though that unfortunately isn't the experience you had, it's regardless one that would mostly come about after grad school anyway.