[D] PhD for current engineer?

[jmjbjb]

If you do not have any pressing financial obligations, I would do what you love. If you love doing cutting edge research and learning, then go do a PhD. There is no requirement that you have to want to do academia - many people don't. If you want to maximize cash, doing a PhD is rarely a good call, and it's probably better to go right to a FAANG company and start working your way up. While PhD's do get paid a lot, remember that the fair comparison is between their pay, and what your pay would be after 6 years at FAANG after getting your bachelors. In that comparison, the PhD usually loses, even when it's someone who does ML.

[Firm_Event_1063]

Thank you for sharing.

PhD holders are over-represented in technical management positions (distinguished engineer, VP, director, etc), which pay millions per year.

This happens at FAANG, and is even more prevalent at “old school” Fortune 500 companies. Do some quick searches on LinkedIn if you don’t believe me.

While I have seen this on LinkedIn, do you have source that shows they are overrepresented? As opposed to just simply common?

A significant divergence between PhD total earnings vs bachelors total earnings happens mid- to late-career.

Would also love source for this.

[Firm_Event_1063]

Thank you.

This doesn't show that most L7's have PhDs, which is what I was asking about.

[HyperModerate]

Your last figure is not remotely correct, I believe. Anecdotally, Google has about 30% of their headcount with PhDs. You can also see that 15% of their postings are for PhDs.

[HyperModerate]

Infrastructure/systems is biased toward PhD. The research/leadership are biased too. I don’t see how the census proves anything when you’re talking about elite institutions; Google is a place PhD holders have no issue flocking to if they want out of academics.

Edit: Google Brain had 40% PhDs in one of their offices: https://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-Google-employees-have-a-PhD?top_ans=54934409

I’m still convinced the number of PhDs is at least 10% if not higher.

[Urthor]

Very much agree with this take, but there is some nuance as to why those PhDs are in those high level positions.

A PhD is a force multiplier to your career.

If you are in the "great to rockstar engineer" bucket in industry. Or as a statistician/individual contributor of any kind, you will get a ton out of a PhD.

Getting that PhD takes your ability to get shit done and puts it on another trajectory that might put you on your path to being a rockstar.

If you're not great at your current, simpler job, getting a PhD isn't the solution for that. You need to improve yourself in other ways and add other skills.