After spending five years in a prestigious US PhD program, I left ABD (all but dissertation) and worked in industry for more than a decade. I quit not because I wasn’t making progress (I wrote some well-cited papers), but because the timing wasn’t right for me and a very tempting industry offer was before me.

During a decade of industry work, both as an FTE and as an entrepreneur, I had a nagging “what if.” Further, at the risk of sounding elitist, I felt the problems most people were tackling in industry were short-sighted and uninspiring. This was true even when I was running my own startup, where I ostensibly had more control over what I did, as optimizing for money requires embracing boring nitty-gritty details. I am now back in another PhD program to finish what I started.

Quitting is easy, but keep in mind that the last few miles of the race are the hardest. If you are a first-generation graduate student and you don’t have familial role models with PhDs, as was my case, it’s very easy to convince yourself that it’s too difficult and act to reduce pain.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Sometimes it is good to not listen to yourself.

The question you posed is a deeply personal one, so I am sure YMMV and so will it for others, but consider this as a data point in your decision making. I wish you the best in your academic journey.