ive just finished my penultimate year of an electrical engineering degree, and im in the happy position of having done rather better than expected in my recent exams, which form my final grade. this has however screwed up my life plans, as i now have the option of doing a PhD should i so wish. I know theres pros and cons to doing this, and i also know theres a few of you guys doing them at the moment. so given i dont have the intention of staying in academic permanently and id also rather like to eventually go the management route (albeit within an technical company), would a PhD be worthwhile? and would i be best moving to a different institution, or staying where i am now?
Cheers in advance!
just do the phd. Youll have it if you need it & youve only a few years if you dont.
I wouldnt do it again in electronics unless I was sure I needed it. You become over qualified for general jobs and you specialise yourself so much in the field you pick. Thats fine if youre sure thats what youre destined to do. If youre not planning on spending your life doing that particular branch of electronics then its nothing like a general education from a degree/masters.
Since you sound like you want to go into a non electronics future career then you have to ask why you would want to do a PhD. A PhD will add around 2k to a management salary but little else. Some will be scared youll leave for San Francisco and be wary.
If you do choose to do one you should go to the university that is offering a PhD in the field you think youll be working in.
A PhD from one uni is as good as any if you just want to be a doctor for the hell of it. But if thats your thought process than doing one just for the title is probably a mistake. The title is useful though in a lot of weird and wonderful ways from setting up businesses and dealing with banks to getting bumped on flights. Just drop it on a credit card you hardly ever use for those moments.
If youre in the penultimate year of a degree then a masters is going to be a thousand times more useful to you imo.
Ask people in the industry you want to go into if it is useful. If its not then dont bother, if it is then do it.
dont see how it could do you any harm and it could be useful if you want to go into some form of quant type role in the future
though on the downside youd be giving up another 3 years worth of salary
Quote from: Davethough on the downside youd be giving up another 3 years worth of salary
You get paid to do a PhD. Add in income tax and council tax exemption plus teaching salary and youre actually paid fairly well considering you walk out with a qualification.
Straight basic funding from a research council is ~14k so say 16k a year with teaching. Tax free everythinng means itll be around 18k equivalent salary. If you do something like power electronics as an EngD then youll be looking at 20k+ depending on location, plus another grand or two teaching, again all tax free. Note: you will do massive amounts of unpaid overtime in this.
On the plus side - a PhD isnt a bad thing to do if youre unsure of your next move and are capable of doing it. You can use it to pick a project that interests you, you will become very well versed in dealing with hugely complex concepts from tons of disciplines and you can travel across much of the world if you pick your conferences carefully. A lot of the people I work with in electronic engineering drifted into it this way by simply passing everything anyone threw at them without really trying and not really knowing what to do next. 1 out of 8 in my year are actually using their PhD in their field. Everyone else is going into management/consultancy/financial roles which they could have done with a very high end masters degree and the same qualities that made them suitable for a PhD in the first place.
yeah I know they get paid a bit - a mate of mine is getting about 17k pa - but this is only for the 3 years and she is going to need an extra 6 months to finish hers and isnt getting any more pay for this
Hed still be giving up a lot of salary to do it & wouldnt necessarily be at any earnings advantage when hed finished (given that hes already got a cambridge degree so with 3 years work experience ought to be in a fairly well paid position)
still not a bad move as any PHd who ends up working in the private sector is never likely to be badly paid.
yeah I agree - its a very double edged sword. Its hard to have perspective from where Im looking. All I know is that Im going to have a HUGE party in a couple of weeks when its over. Until that point Ive no feeling for what I actually think about it all. As you draw to a close you wonder were the last 3.5 years the right move. 7+ years at university is a long time...
On one hand you never really have to worry once you have it. I guess its the security that a degree used to offer when everyone in the world didnt have one. Thats probably worth a lot.
Note: Taking longer than the 3 years (6 months like I did gets hugely expensive). If I hadnt been running a property sideline Id have been forked. Almost everyone overuns the 3 years tbh so your mate isnt alone
I wouldnt worry about wasting a bit of time. Hes still young.
I think it depends wether you want to do research/teaching or technical/managerial. However some companies mainly abroad I have found ask for a PhD for the higher technical and managerial jobs, within the scientific community. If your thinking of industry, go for masters, like SteveF said it will be so much more useful and it will take less time to do.
Thanks for the advice guys! Im currently without my own computer until I get back home, so I havent had a chance to properly digest all thats written here, but I will do tonight.
Just a quick note - my course is already a Masters. The slightly odd bit (or maybe its the norm?) is that the third year exam results make up your class (1st, 2.1 etc) and the fourth year results are either pass, fail, merit or distinction. So when an employer asks for my final degree class, I already know what it is :)
ahh - youre doing an MEng :) In that case discount the comment about a masters. (Youre doing it the same way I did)
Are you training for chartered status at the same time? I know some universitys (ours) does Masters courses that include chartered engineer qualifiaction.
As far as I know to gain chartered status you have to have a few years experience. Some of what I do as part of my course (design projects etc) may count towards this, aswell as my vacation internships at various places. It will probably take a couple of years after I graduate to gain chartered status if I go into a company with a decent grad scheme Im guessing, but Im not 100% sure.
Hmm this all needs a lot of thought. Wheres the best place to find lists of PhDs available nationwide? Could I do one in the US, or would that cost loads?
Quote from: Chuck NorrisAre you training for chartered status at the same time? I know some universitys (ours) does Masters courses that include chartered engineer qualifiaction.
no they dont - the particular institute concerned simply accredits certain degree courses as being acceptable - the course doesnt include anything different
i.e. a computer science degree at plenty of universitys will be accredited by the british computer society
The requirements for chartered status within most engineering disciplines would be something like an accredited degree + x years of relevant experience in industry
sometimes you get cases where unis introduce new courses i.e. combining comp sci and some area of business, maths, electronics and the course wont necessarily have been accredited or will get partially accredited - normally something like an MComp/MEng will be fully accredited and exempt and BSc/BEng partially accredited etc..
either way you are not going to come out of uni with a degree plus CEng - who every told you that is telling porkies.
not sure about the other engineering institutes but BCS seems to require 8 - 10 years work experience + 12 months in a senior role.
yeah its MEng, PhD, + a year or two for chartered.
Straight from degree would be a lot of years to be chartered.
I didnt bother with chartering tbh - seemed kinda pointless.