[j2kun]

This is an important point, I think. It's not that English PhD's aren't hireable, it's that they drink the kool-aid where the only possible route is a tenure-track job in their field. On the other hand, some of my best mathematics and computer science teachers (with PhD's, not at a research university) have started in English.

I think it's really a culture problem. PhD students aren't encouraged to think about their career early on. My PhD advisor (mathematics) is very insistent that I know all of my options, and as such I have a huge list running of potential employers and avenues to seek furthering my career. I have a list of the "tricks" I need to try to get various kinds of postdocs, I go to both theoretical and applied conferences, I maintain a list of interested industry contacts, and I exercise my teaching, programming, and writing skills just enough to keep them in shape. I have backups for my backups for my backups if I don't get a tenure-track job, and I would be happy with all of them.

And this doesn't mean a PhD isn't worth doing! My experience, at least, has been immensely satisfying in most respects, and has unlocked many more of these options than I would have had just as an undergraduate looking for a coding job.