I did a Master in CS, worked as a developer for 5 years, then went back to do a Ph.D. I stayed with it for a year before deciding it was not for me, and went back to SW development.
My key reasons for not continuing with the Ph.D.:
- Many problems you study are chosen because you will be able to publish something, not necessarily because they need to be studied.
- You don’t need to be a (Ph.D.)student to learn - you can work and still learn
- A Ph.D. in itself doesn’t make you smart
- Narrow problems vs broad problems - I prefer to work on something where all parts need to be good enough, vs on finding the best possible solution to a very narrow problem.
- Having worked before starting the Ph.D., I could compare working in industry vs studying for a Ph.D., and I realized it was very stimulating in industry.
As someone with a CS master's I almost wish there was an alternate PhD path where you didn't have to do research, like a Masters++ program. There were many classes I never got to take for my degree, like in category theory or AI or distributed databases.
Some of the PhDs in this thread have said they tried $BigTechCo and found it boring, but to me that just means you were working at the wrong company or on the wrong project.
I feel like my master's equipped me to be able to read and study theoretical computer science at a high level, that the PhD program would be a strain on me and my family without much reward.
Although I do daydream about being independently wealthy and getting a master's in mathematics just for fun
My key reasons for not continuing with the Ph.D.:
- Many problems you study are chosen because you will be able to publish something, not necessarily because they need to be studied.
- You don’t need to be a (Ph.D.)student to learn - you can work and still learn
- A Ph.D. in itself doesn’t make you smart
- Narrow problems vs broad problems - I prefer to work on something where all parts need to be good enough, vs on finding the best possible solution to a very narrow problem.
- Having worked before starting the Ph.D., I could compare working in industry vs studying for a Ph.D., and I realized it was very stimulating in industry.
- Much better pay for 5 years
I've written more on why here: https://henrikwarne.com/2016/03/07/ph-d-or-professional-prog...