PV Gap

Beatrice Said:

PhD or Masters if I want to work in industry?

We Answered:

Starting out, the initial salary of a PhD in physics is significantly higher than of an MS in physics. And, if you graph the salary of the PhD and MS, you can see that they both increase roughly linearly over your career. However, surprisingly, the MS salary has a higher slope, so they both intersect roughly a decade out of school. After that, the PhD salary just can't keep up.

My thinking is that the MS earners go into management, which may not be worth the extra money. Depends on your personality.

These numbers are just statistics. There are people with PhDs who have amazing salaries, and those with MS who make little. Your mileage may vary.

Sometimes having a PhD helps during technical discussions, when it can be used as ammunition to back up your claims. However, these days management in most companies has decided that their MBA trumps a PhD from a top technical school. Another great situation for a PhD is when you need to represent your company to the outside world in some hot technical field - that piece of paper definitely makes people take you more seriously.

One nice trick is to get an MS in a top technical school. In the very rare situation when a technical discussion turns into "what degree did you get?", the answer "an MS from XYZ" usually terminates all doubts of your ability.

Me? Physics MS from a school that has 50 times more Nobel prize winners than my coworkers' school. There have been two situations where the lack of PhD had an effect: (1) almost was not hired into a group of PhDs doing exciting work but they assumed I had one and hired me, and (2) during a period of college-level teaching I was told I had no chance at tenure.

Frank Said:

how do i work out how many solar panels i need to run my house?

We Answered:

look for a diagram on the internet i would like to installed solar panels looks interesting you have to store the energy to some batteries

Mark Said:

Masters or PhD if I want to work in industry?

We Answered:

It is likely that you can get a great job in industry with just the masters degree. Getting your PhD is likely to take you more into research and academics and generally it is something you do for personal pride.

My daughter is in the same situation. She gets her MSc in a month and could step into industry or government service immediately. Its amazing what a good fellowship can do for you. However, she intends to get her PhD because she feels to make her only life worth living, she has to educate herself to the highest level possible. It helps she has the offer of a fully paid PhD in civil engineering and she will get a $2000 a month stipend. She could make $70,000 a year right now but it is her pride that drives her to go to the very top, especially now while she is used to living frugally.

I say that if you have the offer of a fully funded PhD with a stipend you should go for it. Don't worry about getting a job after it. People with a PhD in the sciences or engineering will never lack for well paid work.

For the lighter side of getting a PhD see www.phdcomics.com