Ask HN: Would you leave a well paid job to start a PhD?

This is isomorphic to "Would you leave a well-paid job to start a career as a ballet dancer?" To which my answer depends: a) am I already rich? and b) do I really, really want to become a ballet dancer? If I am not already rich and I do not want to be a ballet dancer like I want to breathe, that would be a really poor decision.

Most particularly, if I like watching ballet and would be happy to see more of ballet in the world but I have a foggy idea of what ballet dancing professionally looks like outside of public performances, I would think that I'm probably overly romanticizing the ballet dancing option and, at the very minimum, speak to three practicing ballet dancers to get their opinion on the career prior to investigating it further. I would make special effort not to speak to ballet dancers who achieve the level of success which allows them to attempt to hire me to join their dance company. Those might be comparatively few in number but disproportionately happy with the career path, since after all they get to have beautiful young people prancing about all day on their whim and don't need to pay anyone anything to make it happen.

I left a Ph.D. program to take a well-paid job. :-) (Well actually it was to go back to freelance development.) Things to consider:

- Do you have a wife or children to support? Will you get married or have children partway through your program? How will you pay for health insurance for them?

- Can you live on the grant amount? My Ph.D. stipend was about $21k a year. Fine for a bachelor, tough for a family.

- Do you "have something to say"? If you just want to learn more about the field, you might want to consider a part-time masters instead. A Ph.D. is for people who want to push forward the state of the art.

- What is your end game? Once you complete the Ph.D., do you want to enter academia? Consider that tenure-track positions are increasingly scarce, and adjunct/part-time faculty positions might not pay much more than your grant.

- How good is the program? Some advice I got was if you can't get into a top-10 program, it's not worth going. Also if they aren't paying you to be there, don't go. (This was for humanities though, and you do say you have a grant.) You should see how the people who just finished their degree have done on the job market.

- How old will you be when you finish? I started my program late, and when I realized I'd be starting the tenure-seeking game in my late thirties, I really had to reconsider.

- Can you go back? If you change your mind, how hard would it be to return to a position like your current job? (In my case I was interrupting a programming career to get a Ph.D. in Greek & Latin literature, so maybe your degree would have more value to your old career if you want to go back.)

I don't regret starting my program, but I also don't regret leaving after three years with just the masters.

Best of luck to you!

I did just that 2 years ago, when I was 29. So far, I don't regret the decision.

But please bare in mind, I didn't really like my job as a software developer, and upon being cautioned about the drawbacks of academia by a tenure track professor I reached out to for advice, I simply shrugged and told him: "What's the worst thing that can happen - I'll end up being a software developer for 35 years instead of 40?" He immediately agreed that if that's the way I look at it, it probably makes sense to make the jump.

My contact info is in my profile, feel free to contact me if you want. And whatever you decide, good luck!

What exactly am I going to learn in a PhD that I haven't already learned in industry, or that I couldn't learn in industry? Especially if it's a PhD in an applied sciences field?

If I just want to do research, I can do that anywhere. If I just want to talk to leaders in my field, that's what email is for. If I just want to deal with soul-crushing bureaucracy and depressed co-workers, I can get paid better for it elsewhere.

I might still consider it, but honestly I've found that doing teaching gigs on the side and pursuing my own research with friends in academia works just as well for my needs.

I did exactly this few years ago. I had a well paid job in a well established company to do a PhD in something I was passionate about with someone whom I admired and still do in the city of dreaming spires. Spent 4 years doing great stuff, published 8 papers including Phil Mag A. and Royal Society but living on a small grant. Best years of my life: I was young, single and poor but I never regretted it.

Do you want to be a professor? Or do you just want to be able to call yourself "Dr."? Don't do a PhD unless you really want the experience or need the credential. You can certainly do research (write a book maybe?) without locking yourself into academia.

It depends on just how interested I am in the research topic, I think, relative to the work I would be doing otherwise.

I would if I wanted to go back to school for a PhD.

I don't understand how this question is answerable in any meaningful way.

I wish I had that offer for PhD !!!