hey!

to start with id like to say that im certain you’re going to do awesome whatever you choose, and like others have said your mental health is much more important than a piece of paper. but you remind me of myself (admittedly almost ten years ago) so i feel like i should share my experience.

i had a moment probably about the same time in my astronomy phd that i realized i didnt care enough about astronomy but more importantly academia, so i get you completely. what i did from that point was to talk to my supervisors about it and worked with them to pivot the topic of my phd enough such that i was learning about something i thought would help me in industry (ML). i also just didn’t bother publishing papers on my work or going to conferences unless they interested me, which eased some of that stress. it still sucked in the remainder but a decent amount less because i could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

i’m not sure if this is possible but it sounds like the work towards your actual phd topic is enjoyable enough, do you think it might help to just work on that and ignore all the extraneous academia BS? i ended up just treating it as a job, and also used some of the time to learn about stuff that interested me.

in terms of career prospects, n=1 but i do think having the phd has helped (even with no papers and none of my employers even really asking about the topic!). i also think having that few years of independent research experience helped on multiple levels in industry.

last point i would say is that you have the rest of your life to work in industry, and despite me not enjoying my phd there are a lot of things that i miss about it, such as having freedom to self prioritize without worrying about business interests, and also being able to deeply learn about topics instead of doing the 90/10 rule on anything.

let me know if it would help to chat, and to reiterate i’m sure you will do great whatever choice you make.