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Usually the Ph.D. is aimed at being
a college professor and working toward
tenure. The CS Ph.D. now seems to be
aimed at such a professor but also
at a career as an employee. Sorry to say this, but Ph.D. or not, it
is getting clear that in the US
being an employee
is no good for a career. Can get hired as an employee in your 20s,
but the chances go down in your 30s, and
the chances go to near zero long before
your 40 year career is over. Exception:
If you rise high into management, then
you might be able to continue to get hired
until, say, 50. And high management positions
commonly don't last very long. E.g., a big tech company might hire 100
Master's or Ph.D. degree holders, promote
1 to management, and at age 35 or so fire
the other 99. Then the other 99 can wish
that they could convert their Ph.D., say,
in electronic engineering, to an electrician's
license or had followed the path of a friend
in high school who was mowing grass and
now has 5 crews mowing grass and is getting
into landscape architecture and commercial
instead of just residential clients. In broad terms, for a long career in the US,
be a sole proprietor with a geographical
barrier to entry. If want to do something
technical, then be a CEO of a startup that
takes advantage of your technical background.
For being an employee, regard that as a
temporary slot that will have to be replaced
by owning part or all of the business from
which you get your income. Then, a problem with a Ph.D. is that you spend
in grad school most of your 20s when you
are most employable. Then to go into the
job market in your late 20s or 30s can be
a big disappointment because, really, the
jobs are for subordinates, not narrow
subject matter expert researchers. Actually,
a Ph.D. can be highly resented, can be a
black mark on your resume. Be careful. |