Thread by @SAH16928046

How did getting a #PhD harmed your career?
This question was put to me on another forum.
I am sharing my answer for the benefit of this community.

Interesting to read such pessimistic accounts of life again and again! I think if the word goes out, most of the universities will be facing a shortage of students and hence that leads to a lockdown / shut down or a possible global academic research meltdown.

So let us not overdo this criticism!

I would like to answer this from a knowledge capital formation and a global development perspective, based on my interaction with PhD degree holders across various nations of the world.

The problems could be identified somewhere among the social acceptance and gratification levels, the psychological attitudes towards higher educated professionals, the R&D incentives provided to the Corporate sector,

the economic system and demand for intellectual/ human capital and the overall cultural values of a society/country, in addition to many other variables!

If you are living in a country like Germany or Austria, or in any of the other Middle Eastern Sheikdom (The GCC ), a PhD is the standard qualification on the way up.

Arab governments are mass-producing doctorates like burgers and cappuccinos.
Whenever I visit #Dubai or some other GCC Nation, I am shocked to see the number of Doctors (PhDs) circulating in those countries!

Why is this?

Because the state pays the fee upfront to overseas academic institutions. Hence, nobody minds crediting a 60,000-pound telegraphic transfer into their account per student (1 unit of output in accounting jargon).

And, even after that, these #Arabs usually don't want to join their private sector workforce! they all look for the government at 9.00 am - 2.00 pm jobs.

Result => wastage of money and zero innovation!

A PhD should help his or her country to innovate using scholarly advice or inventions. We don't see that in the Arab World.

In #Germany (which still has a large manufacturing sector) the PhDs are contributing through their laboratory research, academic publications and technological inventions.

I doubt if anyone in either Germany or Austria regrets doing a PhD.? It seems to be a social norm (in the Germanic Countries)to have a doctor next to their name.
The same holds for other countries, where PhDs are being utilized well, and gain respect after doing all the hard work

#Turkey is one country, which comes to my mind!
Turkish intelligentsia respects PhD degree holders.
And the other country could be Greece (Again a vast repository of PhDs in that country) or even Singapore (knowledge-driven economy).

China is mass-producing PhDs! just have a look around the USA, UK and Canada.
Most of their universities have turned into Mini China towns.
How China will use this knowledge capital is again a debate for another day.

At the moment I only read about ALI BABA.COM and similar blokes.
Chinese economy (a copycat) is not like Japan, where scientists were promoted to the highest managerial positions to do research.

Henceforth, if PhDs are respected, and they get the opportunity to channelize their knowledge into the economy (by taking their ideas from the lab to the marketplace), that should lead to fewer regrets.

It all comes down to how societies value education and educated people.

Concluding Remarks on this thread -->

If you are in the right society, you won't regret doing your PhD!

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