I suppose that most of us – PhD students when started the PhD studies thought about „Is it worth ?” I had the same problem but I like working at the University so it was obvious for me that I have to do PhD. I know that it is possible to do PhD dissertation without PhD studies but if you are PhD student you have more opportunities to develop. In my opinion PhD studies are not very hard anyway you have to do assignments to pass courses. Some of them are not useful and you waste your time. In Polish realities, if you want to work at the University you have to have PhD. It is like a driving license for a diver. Most of my friends who study with me Master Degree said that they did not want to study any more at all and there was not positive reason to study PhD. I agree that when you do PhD your interpersonal skills and writing skills will improve. Moreover, you can meet other students who have a similar scientific interests so you can create team and work together after graduation as well. Writing the scientific articles is totally different from writing on blog or Instagram so it requires deep work to obtain the good level of writing. The author mentioned also, that PhD degree allows to earn better money. I cannot agree with it. In my opinion, nowadays in most cases the employers look for the employee with experience and knowledge and the education level is not relevant. I do not want to say that if somebody has a PhD degree, she/he will not earn more money but I would not write that “You’ll earn more over your lifetime than the average Master’s degree holder” or “You’ll have unique career options open to you that you won’t get with just a Master’s”. It is very sad that if you have a PhD degree you earn only a little more than somebody with a Master degree at the University. Sometimes you can feel the lack of motivation for work. I am also not surprised that the students finish the PhD degree and go away from the University.
Yes, I read this article and I have to comment on all five reasons. This will not be a commentary, I think, as expected by other students ... I already have my years of life, work and professional and scientific career so ...
Reason 1: You will earn more in your lifetime than an intermediate master.
Maybe a master's degree yes, but today very often people with high school, technical or vocational education are able to earn more than a medium-educated master's degree or doctorate. I have a friend who says, and I quote: "better to be a good technician than a poor master", and I think there is something to it.
Reason 2: You'll have unique career options that you won't get with the Master.
It's just, just ... well ... again only if you hit a really cool promoter. So I have one? Yes, I have a Master.
Reason 3: You will have confidence that comes from knowing that you are stuck with a degree rather than giving up.
I'm not stuck yet - because I'm not a doctor. In this topic I will speak once I get this title!
Reason 4: Your writing skills will improve significantly.
My writing skills improve day by day. I try to write clearly in Polish, but nowadays people don't understand it. They do not understand Polish. They understand technical, scientific, dialect etc.
Reason 5: You will have better interpersonal skills.
I have never missed these, although it is selfishness ;-)!
Reason #2: You'll have unique career options open to you that you won't get with just a Master's That is true because a lot of exciting opportunities are related to the HR requirement of holding a Ph.D. title, especially in the research and development area.
Reason #4: Your writing skills will improve tremendously I could not agree more. Now I have a reason to master my English writing skills under time pressure and with the requirement that "I need to write that article" and not postpone it in time because of the deadline.
I don't agree with:
Reason # 1:You'll earn more over your lifetime than the average Master's degree holder In my opinion, it is an oversimplification.
Reason #3: You'll have the self-confidence that comes with knowing you stuck with your degree, instead of quitting I think that you can sometimes stop for, for example, your business (so you can hire those with Ph.D.)
Reason #5: You'll have better interpersonal skills It also depends on your current interpersonal skills and the environment itself.
irst of all, my doctorate allows me to broaden my horizons. I managed to obtain research grants and thanks to that I was able to visit a part of the world. I was in many interesting places during my research and I did what I was interested in and still got money from it. . And most importantly, I had valuable relations with people from other countries. Open-minded people who have good knowledge and interests like me. This experience helps me to understand the needs of the labour market. From the formal point of view, knowledge is the goal of learning. However, a doctorate is an element of the system of organizing scientific research, not the system of knowledge production. It is not the same thing (and sometimes something completely different) - climbing the career ladder of a scientist can be done without a significant contribution to knowledge. Someone with no scientific title may contribute to the broadening of knowledge. And an important practical benefit, although probably not decisive for a PhD thesis, may be having discounts in public transport. However, as far as the goal of the doctorate is concerned. In my case, it's just that I've always wanted to have a doctorate... I would just like to point out that a doctorate slowly ceases to be a path leading only to the scientific world - more and more people treat it as a form of professional training, giving new opportunities to look for a job after gaining a title and the related professional competences.
I think that each of us once thought about it, probably subconsciously asking ourselves all the time such questions. I recently attended a ceremony to award the title of Doctor honoris causa to Professor Pierre Joliot, who is the grandson of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, and both of his parents are Nobel laureates (https://www.umcs.pl/pl/wydarzenia,4622,prof-pierre-joliot-doktorem-honoris-causa-umcs,82928.chtm#page-1). He gave a very interesting lecture on the appearance of modern science. He claims that in spite of the fact that in recent years the number of scientists was growing almost exponentially, there is a place for everyone. He believes that the current way of financing science is not very appropriate and too much attention is paid to the possibility of application of discoveries and the development of basic sciences is forgotten. He claims that curiosity and the joy of discovery are the most important in science. And I think that this is the main question we should answer, whether what we do attracts us and we feel a desire for further development.
Reason 1: You will earn more in your lifetime than an intermediate master.
It depend on yourself. PhD only confirms that you have knowledge about your field of research. If you have this knowledge and can prove it, you can earn on the same level...in computer science the most important are skills.
Reason 2: You'll have unique career options that you won't get with the Master.
That's true. Many firm looking for (only) specialist with certyficates or PhD.
Reason 3: You will have confidence that comes from knowing that you are stuck with a degree rather than giving up.
I have no opinion. Low self-esteem could change, but I don't think that PhD would have enormous inpact on it.
Reason 4: Your writing skills will improve significantly.
It's more like...you have to improve your writing skills to end PhD. It's a necessity.
Reason 5: You will have better interpersonal skills.
Similar to my second reason comment...I don't think that PhD will have too big impact on interpersonal skills. PhD doesn't change people much.
I went to study for a doctor’s degree because my mother forced me to=) But throughout my studies, I realized that this is a very good bonus, and it increases my professionalism. In addition, specialists with PHD are more valuable. This article helped me to be more confident that I made the right choice. But there are things with which I do not quite agree. For example, that the income is greater than for people who do not have a doctorate, but in some companies, but not in all. To a greater extent, companies pay for knowledge, not for a degree, and it is not always advisable to spend 4 years of their life to be an expert in a narrow profile. Therefore, the doctorate is important to me, but my work is a priority
After reading the article, I have mixed feelings, because I do not quite agree with what the author writes, namely:
Reason 1: You will earn more in your lifetime than an intermediate master. I do not agree with this statement, because I know many people without a PhD who are doing great financially (not everyone has their own business).
Reason 2: You'll have unique career options that you won't get with the Master. If you consider only scientific work (university, conducting research, etc.) as unique career options, then you may actually have a PhD. However, in life we can also have unique career options tailored to our needs and, above all, largely dependent on ourselves. I also don't agree with the author's opinion.
Reason 3: You will have confidence that comes from knowing that you are stuck with a degree rather than giving up. I believe that a person with a PhD has a similar chance of finding a job as a person without such a title. It is more dependent on whether a person with a PhD will feel good about it by working in the position of "derogatory" title.
Reason 4: Your writing skills will improve significantly. In this matter, I have a similar opinion as above, because writing skills will improve if we practice it. However, how we write will depend, among others, on our style, what we write about, who we write to. Writing to scientific journals differs significantly even because of the scientific field in which we are moving.
Reason 5: You will have better interpersonal skills. I believe that developing interpersonal skills does not depend on my academic title. Man constantly acquires interpersonal skills even during a simple conversation with friends or at work. I don't think PhD studies significantly create these skills.
In my opinion, PhD studies are designed to prepare future scientists for research work. Of course, while studying, we learn many new and interesting things, as well as those that do not interest us at all. Nowadays having a PhD has become very fashionable.
Hello everyone. This article is very interesting. Many of my friends have master degree and aren't going to earn doctorate. They don’t see any benefits from PhD. I think it’s worth getting PhD degree. We can learn a lot doing research, writing articles or work as team. I agree with author that our writing skills will improve. Writing a good article is not easy. Practice is the key to write better articles. When we start our adventuress to become PhD degree we earn a small amount of money. My profesor told me that when I become PhD I will earn much more money. I believe him. I agree with autor that after doctorate I could earn a higher salary over someone with just a master’s degree. In public facilities they pay extra money for a PhD. I could work in company as a researcher to improve products or create new one. The most benefit is that I can meet many peoples around the world that share with me the same passion to my research topic. I could make a business contact.
I will agree with Monika. I also work at the University and I could not refuse to continue my studies and do a PhD. While I wanted to do a PhD to broaden my horizons, develop my work and scientific career, I did not necessarily want to go to PhD studies. After a year of study, I still have a little mixed feelings. There are different opinions among my friends, some believe that why even do MA studies, others admire that I want to study and teach others. As for the article, I agree that writing or speaking skills are increasing. Writing a large number of publications helps to develop some language manners, which is definitely a plus. However, when it comes to better job opportunities or higher salaries, it depends on the city and area. I have a friend who wants to go to a normal job after a PhD (currently working at the university), I also have colleagues who work at the university and earn extra money. For sure, earnings in companies are much better than at universities, especially in Poland. I think that first of all foreign companies look at the education of their employees and in such companies the degree of doctor opens some gates to promotions or raises. And looking at situations from the lives of friends, it is primarily in IT companies that you need to be able to sell and present yourself. You can have good skills and a doctorate and still not get into the project because you have communication problems. And the other way. For sure, when I finish writing my doctoral dissertation and defend myself, I will be very happy and satisfied, but at the beginning I have to fight myself to get down to it properly despite the plethora of other duties.
As for the pointed out reasons, I think it is possible first one is caused by third one: people who got their PhD are as a group more persistent on their goals than general population, so it's quite expected that as a group they make more money. For other points, it's also similar: those who got through had no other choice, than to improve writing and interpersonal skills. In my case, I had no external stimuli for my PhD studies, it's just I thought it would be interesting thing to do. Turns out it really is, but of course much harder to stay on the track than I could imagine.
As already mentioned in discussion above, I also think that everybody asked themselves this question before starting a PhD studies, and weight the answers. I agree with some arguments in the article, a specially #4, in case of the rest of them I would say it’s depended of many other factors for example what kind of people you meet on your path, what is your area of interest, and sometimes is just: are you in a right place on a right time? For me one of the reasons why I start my PhD was to get to know interesting and stimulating people, and work on a project that could somehow help people - I found it both.
I also work at the university. I think PhD requires a lot of work and you have to really like what you do. Whether it brings financial benefits in the future, is influenced by many factors, also independent of ourselves. I think it is similar in many other areas. Not every hobby will bring profits and yet millions of people have them even if they bear the cost. I would be able to answer if it was worth doing a doctorate when I got one, today I know that it was definitely worth trying - At the beginning of my career I worked additionally in a private company so the financial conditions were attractive and the things I learned at university will be also useful in the company.
PhD is an interesting topic, especially in Poland. Usually, people who decide to start their PhD studies do not expect immediate improvement in their finances. PhD might help to earn more money, but is not certain. The studies allow to work on our own ideas and researches, what might not be possible without them. We can use the knowledge of our mentors, academy also provides us necessary equipment for our computations. Preparing articles and attending conferences develops our skills of writing, public speaking and networking. I can say for sure that PhD brings benefits, but usually not the financial ones.
I suppose that most of us – PhD students when started the PhD studies thought about „Is it worth ?” I had the same problem but I like working at the University so it was obvious for me that I have to do PhD. I know that it is possible to do PhD dissertation without PhD studies but if you are PhD student you have more opportunities to develop. In my opinion PhD studies are not very hard anyway you have to do assignments to pass courses. Some of them are not useful and you waste your time.
ReplyDeleteIn Polish realities, if you want to work at the University you have to have PhD. It is like a driving license for a diver. Most of my friends who study with me Master Degree said that they did not want to study any more at all and there was not positive reason to study PhD.
I agree that when you do PhD your interpersonal skills and writing skills will improve. Moreover, you can meet other students who have a similar scientific interests so you can create team and work together after graduation as well. Writing the scientific articles is totally different from writing on blog or Instagram so it requires deep work to obtain the good level of writing. The author mentioned also, that PhD degree allows to earn better money. I cannot agree with it. In my opinion, nowadays in most cases the employers look for the employee with experience and knowledge and the education level is not relevant. I do not want to say that if somebody has a PhD degree, she/he will not earn more money but I would not write that “You’ll earn more over your lifetime than the average Master’s degree holder” or “You’ll have unique career options open to you that you won’t get with just a Master’s”. It is very sad that if you have a PhD degree you earn only a little more than somebody with a Master degree at the University. Sometimes you can feel the lack of motivation for work. I am also not surprised that the students finish the PhD degree and go away from the University.
Yes, I read this article and I have to comment on all five reasons. This will not be a commentary, I think, as expected by other students ... I already have my years of life, work and professional and scientific career so ...
ReplyDeleteReason 1: You will earn more in your lifetime than an intermediate master.
Maybe a master's degree yes, but today very often people with high school, technical or vocational education are able to earn more than a medium-educated master's degree or doctorate. I have a friend who says, and I quote: "better to be a good technician than a poor master", and I think there is something to it.
Reason 2: You'll have unique career options that you won't get with the Master.
It's just, just ... well ... again only if you hit a really cool promoter. So I have one? Yes, I have a Master.
Reason 3: You will have confidence that comes from knowing that you are stuck with a degree rather than giving up.
I'm not stuck yet - because I'm not a doctor. In this topic I will speak once I get this title!
Reason 4: Your writing skills will improve significantly.
My writing skills improve day by day. I try to write clearly in Polish, but nowadays people don't understand it. They do not understand Polish. They understand technical, scientific, dialect etc.
Reason 5: You will have better interpersonal skills.
I have never missed these, although it is selfishness ;-)!
best regards
I'd agree with two of five points:
ReplyDeleteReason #2: You'll have unique career options open to you that you won't get with just a Master's
That is true because a lot of exciting opportunities are related to the HR requirement of holding a Ph.D. title, especially in the research and development area.
Reason #4: Your writing skills will improve tremendously
I could not agree more. Now I have a reason to master my English writing skills under time pressure and with the requirement that "I need to write that article" and not postpone it in time because of the deadline.
I don't agree with:
Reason # 1:You'll earn more over your lifetime than the average Master's degree holder
In my opinion, it is an oversimplification.
Reason #3: You'll have the self-confidence that comes with knowing you stuck with your degree, instead of quitting
I think that you can sometimes stop for, for example, your business (so you can hire those with Ph.D.)
Reason #5: You'll have better interpersonal skills
It also depends on your current interpersonal skills and the environment itself.
irst of all, my doctorate allows me to broaden my horizons. I managed to obtain research grants and thanks to that I was able to visit a part of the world. I was in many interesting places during my research and I did what I was interested in and still got money from it. . And most importantly, I had valuable relations with people from other countries. Open-minded people who have good knowledge and interests like me. This experience helps me to understand the needs of the labour market. From the formal point of view, knowledge is the goal of learning. However, a doctorate is an element of the system of organizing scientific research, not the system of knowledge production. It is not the same thing (and sometimes something completely different) - climbing the career ladder of a scientist can be done without a significant contribution to knowledge. Someone with no scientific title may contribute to the broadening of knowledge. And an important practical benefit, although probably not decisive for a PhD thesis, may be having discounts in public transport. However, as far as the goal of the doctorate is concerned. In my case, it's just that I've always wanted to have a doctorate... I would just like to point out that a doctorate slowly ceases to be a path leading only to the scientific world - more and more people treat it as a form of professional training, giving new opportunities to look for a job after gaining a title and the related professional competences.
ReplyDeleteI think that each of us once thought about it, probably subconsciously asking ourselves all the time such questions. I recently attended a ceremony to award the title of Doctor honoris causa to Professor Pierre Joliot, who is the grandson of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, and both of his parents are Nobel laureates (https://www.umcs.pl/pl/wydarzenia,4622,prof-pierre-joliot-doktorem-honoris-causa-umcs,82928.chtm#page-1). He gave a very interesting lecture on the appearance of modern science. He claims that in spite of the fact that in recent years the number of scientists was growing almost exponentially, there is a place for everyone. He believes that the current way of financing science is not very appropriate and too much attention is paid to the possibility of application of discoveries and the development of basic sciences is forgotten. He claims that curiosity and the joy of discovery are the most important in science. And I think that this is the main question we should answer, whether what we do attracts us and we feel a desire for further development.
ReplyDeleteGood article! Gave me a lot to think about!
ReplyDeleteReason 1: You will earn more in your lifetime than an intermediate master.
It depend on yourself. PhD only confirms that you have knowledge about your field of research. If you have this knowledge and can prove it, you can earn on the same level...in computer science the most important are skills.
Reason 2: You'll have unique career options that you won't get with the Master.
That's true. Many firm looking for (only) specialist with certyficates or PhD.
Reason 3: You will have confidence that comes from knowing that you are stuck with a degree rather than giving up.
I have no opinion. Low self-esteem could change, but I don't think that PhD would have enormous inpact on it.
Reason 4: Your writing skills will improve significantly.
It's more like...you have to improve your writing skills to end PhD. It's a necessity.
Reason 5: You will have better interpersonal skills.
Similar to my second reason comment...I don't think that PhD will have too big impact on interpersonal skills. PhD doesn't change people much.
I went to study for a doctor’s degree because my mother forced me to=) But throughout my studies, I realized that this is a very good bonus, and it increases my professionalism. In addition, specialists with PHD are more valuable. This article helped me to be more confident that I made the right choice. But there are things with which I do not quite agree. For example, that the income is greater than for people who do not have a doctorate, but in some companies, but not in all. To a greater extent, companies pay for knowledge, not for a degree, and it is not always advisable to spend 4 years of their life to be an expert in a narrow profile. Therefore, the doctorate is important to me, but my work is a priority
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I have mixed feelings, because I do not quite agree with what the author writes, namely:
ReplyDeleteReason 1: You will earn more in your lifetime than an intermediate master.
I do not agree with this statement, because I know many people without a PhD who are doing great financially (not everyone has their own business).
Reason 2: You'll have unique career options that you won't get with the Master.
If you consider only scientific work (university, conducting research, etc.) as unique career options, then you may actually have a PhD. However, in life we can also have unique career options tailored to our needs and, above all, largely dependent on ourselves. I also don't agree with the author's opinion.
Reason 3: You will have confidence that comes from knowing that you are stuck with a degree rather than giving up.
I believe that a person with a PhD has a similar chance of finding a job as a person without such a title. It is more dependent on whether a person with a PhD will feel good about it by working in the position of "derogatory" title.
Reason 4: Your writing skills will improve significantly.
In this matter, I have a similar opinion as above, because writing skills will improve if we practice it. However, how we write will depend, among others, on our style, what we write about, who we write to. Writing to scientific journals differs significantly even because of the scientific field in which we are moving.
Reason 5: You will have better interpersonal skills.
I believe that developing interpersonal skills does not depend on my academic title. Man constantly acquires interpersonal skills even during a simple conversation with friends or at work. I don't think PhD studies significantly create these skills.
In my opinion, PhD studies are designed to prepare future scientists for research work. Of course, while studying, we learn many new and interesting things, as well as those that do not interest us at all. Nowadays having a PhD has become very fashionable.
Hello everyone. This article is very interesting. Many of my friends have master degree and aren't going to earn doctorate. They don’t see any benefits from PhD. I think it’s worth getting PhD degree. We can learn a lot doing research, writing articles or work as team. I agree with author that our writing skills will improve. Writing a good article is not easy. Practice is the key to write better articles. When we start our adventuress to become PhD degree we earn a small amount of money. My profesor told me that when I become PhD I will earn much more money. I believe him. I agree with autor that after doctorate I could earn a higher salary over someone with just a master’s degree. In public facilities they pay extra money for a PhD. I could work in company as a researcher to improve products or create new one. The most benefit is that I can meet many peoples around the world that share with me the same passion to my research topic. I could make a business contact.
ReplyDeleteI will agree with Monika. I also work at the University and I could not refuse to continue my studies and do a PhD. While I wanted to do a PhD to broaden my horizons, develop my work and scientific career, I did not necessarily want to go to PhD studies. After a year of study, I still have a little mixed feelings. There are different opinions among my friends, some believe that why even do MA studies, others admire that I want to study and teach others. As for the article, I agree that writing or speaking skills are increasing. Writing a large number of publications helps to develop some language manners, which is definitely a plus. However, when it comes to better job opportunities or higher salaries, it depends on the city and area. I have a friend who wants to go to a normal job after a PhD (currently working at the university), I also have colleagues who work at the university and earn extra money. For sure, earnings in companies are much better than at universities, especially in Poland. I think that first of all foreign companies look at the education of their employees and in such companies the degree of doctor opens some gates to promotions or raises. And looking at situations from the lives of friends, it is primarily in IT companies that you need to be able to sell and present yourself. You can have good skills and a doctorate and still not get into the project because you have communication problems. And the other way. For sure, when I finish writing my doctoral dissertation and defend myself, I will be very happy and satisfied, but at the beginning I have to fight myself to get down to it properly despite the plethora of other duties.
ReplyDeleteAs for the pointed out reasons, I think it is possible first one is caused by third one: people who got their PhD are as a group more persistent on their goals than general population, so it's quite expected that as a group they make more money. For other points, it's also similar: those who got through had no other choice, than to improve writing and interpersonal skills.
ReplyDeleteIn my case, I had no external stimuli for my PhD studies, it's just I thought it would be interesting thing to do. Turns out it really is, but of course much harder to stay on the track than I could imagine.
As already mentioned in discussion above, I also think that everybody asked themselves this question before starting a PhD studies, and weight the answers. I agree with some arguments in the article, a specially #4, in case of the rest of them I would say it’s depended of many other factors for example what kind of people you meet on your path, what is your area of interest, and sometimes is just: are you in a right place on a right time? For me one of the reasons why I start my PhD was to get to know interesting and stimulating people, and work on a project that could somehow help people - I found it both.
ReplyDeleteI also work at the university.
ReplyDeleteI think PhD requires a lot of work and you have to really like what you do.
Whether it brings financial benefits in the future, is influenced by many factors, also independent of ourselves. I think it is similar in many other areas. Not every hobby will bring profits and yet millions of people have them even if they bear the cost.
I would be able to answer if it was worth doing a doctorate when I got one, today I know that it was definitely worth trying - At the beginning of my career I worked additionally in a private company so the financial conditions were attractive and the things I learned at university will be also useful in the company.
PhD is an interesting topic, especially in Poland. Usually, people who decide to start their PhD studies do not expect immediate improvement in their finances. PhD might help to earn more money, but is not certain. The studies allow to work on our own ideas and researches, what might not be possible without them. We can use the knowledge of our mentors, academy also provides us necessary equipment for our computations. Preparing articles and attending conferences develops our skills of writing, public speaking and networking. I can say for sure that PhD brings benefits, but usually not the financial ones.
ReplyDelete