Michael OL

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since December 15, 1999

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December 15, 1999, on Career Guide for Engineers and Computer Scientists:
I'm in what is hopefully the last year of my Ph.D. studies. Unfortunately I'm in a dying field - aeronautical engineering. Fortunately, I got a job first, and went back to grad school later. What are my prosects? Probably not a six-figure income, but neither do I worry about sitting on the sidewalk in Times Square with a cardboard sign handing from my neck. What folks have to realize is that labor is becoming a commodity, and paying the dues of academic life won't guarantee a cushy middle age and retirement. The dog-eat-dog world is especially unkind to inmates of the graduate school prison, because their artificially confined outlook is simply incompatible with material success. What about the people that dropped out of fourth grade, started their own lemonade stand, expanded that to a huge business and are now millionaires? Does their experience invalidate the career and financial prospects of the Ph.D.'s? Not at all! Having a degree is definitely an advantage, but stree...