Don’t Do a PhD

One needs to think of a PhD like doing a startup.

Your output needs to align with the “market”. In academia, the market is the scientific landscape and the customers are other academics who read papers (market place of ideas).

You have lots of customers when your ideas are well received and people want to hear and read your work (success in academia).

Just like in startup, you have to iterate until you get the right product fit. You also need to market your ideas by writing and speaking well. Finally you need to build a brand so people can recognise your work as part of an overarching research program.

The value of a PhD is so individual and advisor-specific that it is almost meaningless to try to calculate statistics like placement from a program.

Do a PhD where you will be happy during your PhD, and also after in an industry or academc job, because you never know what the job market will be like after 5 years.

The best thing to do is to choose the path that maximises the options you care about.

For some reason most negative articles about PhDs refer to non-technical fields. As an engineer I, too, can't see why any company would want to hire somebody with a PhD in economic history, etc. Mathematics, science and engineering PhDs often end up in fields where their research skills and advanced knowledge has value to the organisation.

Maybe only in Europe, where it usually spans over 2-3 year. With my understanding, I would avoid it in North America.