Should I do a PhD?
Tim Hopper recently posted a series of interviews with folks from both academia and industry, posing this question to them. (I’ve written about the topic myself.) If you are pondering the question, you could do worse than read the entire series. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
The opening question to everyone:
A 22-year old college student has been accepted to a Ph.D. program in a technical field. He’s academically talented, and he’s always enjoyed school and his subject matter. His acceptance is accompanied with 5-years of guaranteed funding. He doesn’t have any job offers but suspects he could get a decent job as a software developer. He’s not sure what to do. What advice would you give him, or what questions might you suggest he ask himself as he goes about making the decision?
Kudos to Tim for creating a great resource on this topic.