Drawbacks and benefits of doing PhD in computer science?

Question

There are couple of posts that are asking about PhD etc but they don't answer my question.

I have few years left till I finish my undergraduate course (MEng CS), but I already started thinking of doing PhD and honestly cannot make my mind about it. Some people say that it might be worth doing PhD after I graduate as the economic situation may still not be stabilised and after doing PhD generally you have more career options then without it.

I wonder if this is true, especially after I read this post. Please help me with that guys, tell me what is your opinion about it. I am interested in getting answers related to employability, skills gained/lost during PhD. I am as well aware that if I apply for an internship in the future some of the employers might not be very happy knowing that I'd like to do PhD, as this would be postpone my start date.

I extremely enjoy programming, problem solving and discovering new things/features and these are the main reasons why I think of doing PhD. On the other hand I don't know if this is the right move, if for 3 years (time of doing PhD), I could (maybe) work for a very good company that pays very well and is fun to work for...

Looking forward to know what is your point of view about it :)

Cheers

Answer 1

I can tell you first hand... it's far more difficult to return to college after entering the workforce than you may think.

If you have the time/funds available to do it now, then I would recommend stay and start your PhD.

Answer 2

If you want to do research, you need a PhD, period. But I'll assume that your focus is not on going into academia.

To get into the industry, much will depend on what you do your PhD on and how flexible you are when you go out to get a job. I've interviewed people who wanted to work on the subject of their PhD X where X was some very esoteric fringe subject bordering fundamental math. Now there may be 1 or 2 jobs like that around the world, but it'll be excruciatingly hard to find and get.

On the other hand if you can prove that you can focus on something, get really good at it and love the subject, by getting a PhD from a respected institution and delivering good work from in the form of papers and the thesis, then I would consider it a strong asset for hiring.

The important thing will be that you get a respectable PhD, not some generic fluffy topic from a TTT university.

Answer 3

I'll go ahead and give you my perspective, making it public that I haven't even completed my undergraduate degree (no, I'm not that young, I just started development work full time while I was in school, so I stopped. I am going back again, however). I digress...

PhD's, at least in the realm of software development (and technology in general), are really only going to be useful as a career tool if you want to get into the scientific or academic arena. You aren't going to go out to a bank or office or any "traditional" line of business development shop and have a competitive advantage by virtue of a PhD of any sort. In fact, some may view you as a "professional student" and be put off by the fact that you have it, though that's not an insurmountable hurdle if you're actually good and can interview well.

The fact is that a great majority of the jobs out there simply don't benefit by hiring PhD's.

As far as getting it for yourself, that's a question that only you can answer. If it's for personal pride and a sense of accomplishment, there's nothing that says that you can't do it, and if you think that having a PhD might impair your chances because of the aforementioned reasons, then there's nothing that says that you have to tell them that you even have it.

Answer 4

The best I've ever heard it put: "make your decision based on how you want to spend your days."

If you have not yet had a job doing software development, then it may be difficult to decide whether to pursue to PhD because you don't have any experience with the alternative: getting a job. Writing software for a biweekly paycheck is very different from writing software for a degree.

If you really enjoy solving problems and writing software, both the PhD and a paying job will fulfill that to some degree. I think it comes down to this:

Do you enjoy theoretical problems without the stress and pressure of having to deliver reliable code on a deadline?

OR

Do you dig the challenge of having to solve difficult problems quickly and efficiently so you can get your product/release to market?

Only you can answer these questions. I recommend a high-demand internship to find out which you prefer.

Answer 5

Speaking as someone who has interviewed literally hundreds of programmers and hired a good number of them, having a Ph.D will not give you any advantage in getting your average programming job.

On the other hand, there will be particular jobs that will require it. If you're interesting in going into those particular fields, or doing research, you'll need a Ph.D. But if you're looking at getting the Ph.D. because you think you won't be able to get a development job, that's crazy. Even in this terrible economy, I've seen high school dropouts making six figures (contracting, at least).

I can't recommend interning your senior year enough; experience is absolutely everything in this business.

Having said all this, I echo the comments of the above poster, that if it's an ambition of yours to get your Ph.D, independent of the economics of it, then now is the time...once you enter the job force, you'll never find the time again.

Good luck!

Answer 6

take your studies to the limit, there is always endless work life to do study because you are interested and not due to any career motives I know many people who start completely different careers to their study subjects So enjoy study, work can wait

Answer 7

I wouldn't automatically assume having a PhD would make it easier to find employment. PhD's aren't respected as highly as they should be in all parts of industry. Employers value practical experience above all else. That said there is nothing to stop you picking up practical skills during your PhD and having a PhD might give you options that you didn't previously consider.

Answer 8

How is your situation right now in terms of finding a job? If it's not looking too good and you want to further your studies into more theoretical fields, then shoot for a PhD. If you can manage to get a well paying job at a nice company, I would personally go for the real-world experience.

Answer 9

In general, a PhD is not gotten for economic reasons. It requires far more dedication and work than a MS(At least, if your adviser is worth his salt...) You are committing yourself to a life of quasi-poverty for 3-6 years(depending on your current financial situation).

A comment often thrown about is that the lifetime money made with a MS is more than the lifetime money made with a PhD.

I've never heard of a PhD being useful in industry except in very research-y type areas; e.g., Google or Microsoft Research Labs.

That said, one of my career goals is a PhD.

Answer 10

You do not need a PhD if you want to:

• Be an application developer on salary for a nameless corporation.
• Administer networks or systems
• Design the same 5 web-pages

You do need a PhD if you want to:

• Create stuff that doesn't exist yet
• Research why some things work and how to replicate it

For me, I wanted to build "star trek". Well, at least stuff that was kind of out of star trek. I thought at first this desire was simply a phase that I would grow out of, but eventually I said 'stuff it' and I went back to academia after 5 years in Industry. I'm now designing and building augmented reality systems that distribute their load across multiple processors on multiple computers.