Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

"But universities have discovered that PhD students are cheap, highly motivated and disposable labour. With more PhD students they can do more research, and in some countries more teaching, with less money. A graduate assistant at Yale might earn $20,000 a year for nine months of teaching. The average pay of full professors in America was $109,000 in 2009—higher than the average for judges and magistrates.
...
Dr Schwartz, the New York physicist, says the skills learned in the course of a PhD can be readily acquired through much shorter courses. Thirty years ago, he says, Wall Street firms realised that some physicists could work out differential equations and recruited them to become "quants", analysts and traders. Today several short courses offer the advanced maths useful for finance. "A PhD physicist with one course on differential equations is not competitive," says Dr Schwartz.
...
Many of those who embark on a PhD are the smartest in their class and will have been the best at everything they have done. They will have amassed awards and prizes. As this year's new crop of graduate students bounce into their research, few will be willing to accept that the system they are entering could be designed for the benefit of others, that even hard work and brilliance may well not be enough to succeed, and that they would be better off doing something else. They might use their research skills to look harder at the lot of the disposable academic. Someone should write a thesis about that."

http://www.economist.com/node/17723223

[Barthheart]

This is not really surprising. People who go for a PhD in Physics are not doing it for the money, or teh glory really. They do it for the love of the science. Sure there's a small chance they might win a Nobel but that's rare and hard to do. I work everyday with these types of people. I'm a mechanical engineer with only a B.Eng. degree and make more than most of them.

If they really wanted to make lots of money they would have stopped at a Masters and gone into the high tech industry. One post doc. I was working with quit physics and went to work with Tesla doing battery research and 4 times his salary.

Oh and grads students are used as manual labour in research. They need to be as no one else would do the work. I joke with my friends that part of my job is making sure the physicists don't kill too many grad students with their ideas. I mean sure they're cheap and an endlees supply but the paperwork is a real bitch.....

[Shelldrake]

It is really bizarre that a PhD in academic science spends at least a decade as a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow training to do research and then once employed by a university as a professor spends most available time in teaching and administration. The amount of time I spend sitting on various committees and completing paperwork is depressing. If not for graduate students (especially PhD students) and postdoctoral fellows little research would be done, at least at my university.

[Longdan]

Climate scientists are trying to destroy Western Civilisation for free!  Get with the program.  The real money is in taking "donations"
from conservative "think" tanks and the Koch brothers and turning yourself from an TV Weatherman into a Climate Change denier
pseudo-scientist-guy.  Because the real scientists are too busy destroying the society that funds their research, this is where there
is real money to be found.  I may have found my third career!

[DicedT]

When I was getting my MA in Poli Sci, there were 40 students in the program. I think only one went on to get his Ph.D.

Michael

[Longdan]

What would you do with a PhD in PoliSci?  I once married a girl with a degree in PoliSci but she was crazy
and did something rather unrelated for a living.  I got a BSc in real science and used it to help undermine Western Civilisation
until recently.  There were tons of BSc's running about but almost nobody higher except in Ottawa, ...The Field of Dreams.

[Longdan]

But I found this: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/wanted-mcdonalds-cashiers-college-degrees-204344742.html

[Gusington]

Same as DicedT, of the group that I got my history MA with, I don't think any went any further. And now I work for the gub'ment with a bunch of people like Breezy and Bart. God help me.

[MIGMaster]

When I finished my BA in Anth/Soc, I graduated and worked as a milk man for 4-5 months, then did a stint as a tour guide. After that I worked with Young Offenders for 1.5 years and said any further education would be practical - I really don't like people  ;) I then promptly completed a network admin course. Now - somehow- I've ended up as a Casework Supervisor in who writes reviews for a bunch of Grogs. Work to live, not live to work, I guess !

[Longdan]

My first job was sitting in a hole in the ground waiting for the "Red Aggressor" to come and kill me.  The next were variations on that theme.
Then I went to school and grew my hair and got a real job.  After selling drugs for a while I decided to stop supporting the economy and
moved on into government since I had proven at my first job that I could follow orders, dig holes, sit still in them and do nothing for two years.
Later I moved on into what would be a fairly rewarding career talking to people who thought flying airplanes and having a great big freakin
watch were the coolest things a man could do.  Now I play games and drop in here on my breaks.  There is a beer store across the street.
Life is good.  Work is for those who cannot afford to drink beer and play games all day long.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Same as DicedT, of the group that I got my history MA with, I don't think any went any further. And now I work for the gub'ment with a bunch of people like Breezy and Bart. God help me.

I thought you worked for a power company.

[MIGMaster]

Depends on how you define "power"  ;)

[Gusington]

You are both correct. More than that I probably shouldn't say :)

[Centurion40]

Same as DicedT, of the group that I got my history MA with, I don't think any went any further. And now I work for the gub'ment with a bunch of people like Breezy and Bart. God help me.

I thought you worked for a power company.

Shush you!  No one's supposed to know!!

[Longdan]

The Power company rules the world.  They do not even try to hide it.
"We're the Power Company.  Whaddaya gonna do, burn your furniture?  F*ck You!  Rate Increases follow"