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What are the pros and cons of a Ph.D?

What are the pros and cons of doing a second more applied PhD after a pure math PhD if I want to become a scientist either in the industry or in academia?

  • I like doing research, discovering the unknown and solving nontrivial problems. However, I don't see myself continuing my current PhD research in the future, mainly because this field is too pure and there are simply not that many positions available. Nonetheless, I find that my background in mathematics might be useful in other more applied fields, such as machine learning. I am slowly picking up machine learning by reading and implementing, but I feel I need more guidance to become a real researcher and be competitive in this alternative field. I don't have loans or other obligation. Knowledge is more appealing to me than money, and I am becoming more and more interested in machine learning. I think a systematic training can help me reduce potential waste of time in trails and errors in the future. Also, I think a degree in machine learning can provide a strong evidence to employers that I am competent, rather than having them bet on my transferable skills developed from my pure math training. That being said, such additional degree can probably increase my chances of getting my dream job by 90%. Some inspirational people are: 1. Professor Eric Xing at CMU: "first Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Rutgers. Not totally satisfied with the extend and nature of understanding of biological phenomina he could reach via pure experimental approaches, he moved on and turned to statistical machine learning and computational biology, and completed a second Ph.D. in Computer Science at U.C. Berkeley." 2. Professor Svante Janson at Upsalla University: first PhD in mathematics in 1977, second PhD in mathematical statistics at the same school in 1984. Now he is a very famous mathematician. 3. Economist Fischer Black: "Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1964. He was initially expelled from the PhD program due to his inability to settle on a thesis topic, having switched from physics to mathematics, then to computers and artificial intelligence." 4. Professor Prakash Panangaden: two Masters and a PhD in physics, then a Master in CS probably in quantum computing. These inspirational people spent five to fourteen years to pursue graduate studies. Some of them have two PhDs in very similar fields. I didn't do a Master, and my current PhD will probably just take 3.5 years. The first two years of my PhD were focus on coursework and comprehensive exams, so I only have less than two years of research training. Also, I want to do research in empirical machine learning, which is very different from pure math. So I feel underprepared for becoming a serious scientist. (If I do a second PhD, I will choose a program that have less coursework requirement.) What do you think are the pros and cons if I do another PhD? What are my other options?

  • Answer:

    There are very few pros to getting a second PhD in a field so closely related to your original PhD.  A PhD is expected to be able to branch out and explore new areas closely related to their PhD as a part of their research program.  It would be better to try and find a postdoc in an applied mathematics department or computer science department in order to change your research direction.  This way you will have access to top researchers in your new field to help guide you, but you won't be burdened with silly course requirements or examinations.  You will also make at least twice what you would as a graduate student. I highly doubt that having 2 PhDs would make a candidate look more attractive for real-world jobs.  Already with 1 PhD there is a concern of whether the candidate knows how to apply their knowledge to the business of the company.  There's no way spending 10 years in grad school would help alleviate these concerns. Finally, most top universities won't even consider somebody with a PhD for admission to a program if it is at all closely related to the original field.

Jack Huizenga at Quora Visit the source

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I have never seen a scenario where having a second PhD is in any way advantageous. The whole point of a PhD is to become a independent researcher who can teach themselves what to do. Also, it would be taking over-qualification to the maximum level.

Sang Young Noh

I guess it depends on what is your target job, and what other credentials you have. I will assume you want a job doing research-like activities in an applied industry, say, like the tech industry. A PhD in an affine field like computer science would give you a bit of automatic credibility, but you could easily get it if you have projects that are obviously programming heavy. For instance working on an academic cluster to solve some hairy modeling problems, or being an important contributor to some open source project. In general, a second PhD is probably not the best (i.e. not the most efficient) to gain this credibility, but you might just want another PhD. If that is the case, then by all means go ahead. For what is worth, research-like positions in the tech industry hire Mathematicians almost as easily as computer scientist.

Edgar A. Duenez-Guzman

The key phrase in your question is "working in the industry" I have the good fortune to work alongside dozens of PhD's, and there is absolutely zero correlation between extent or type of education and success in applied business scenarios. There is nothing inherently good or bad about getting a PhD in some abstract or obscure discipline - it's all about your story and the difference you want to make in the world. My advice would be *not* to occupy yourself in pursuit of a more "practical" PhD in order to land a particular position - begin working toward your employment goals now.  Time spent in pursuit of another advanced degree that will only bring you incrementally closer to the job you want, and are likely already well-qualified for is time wasted.  If you have a 50% chance of getting your dream job now, an additional PhD will only increase your chances another 5-10%, not by an order of magnitude.  You have reached the pinnacle of organized and structured education - time to get busy and show the world what you can do with it.

Erick Watson

Once you have the one PhD, I don't understand the rationale in getting another one with a different emphasis in the same field.  PhD level people should be able to teach themselves, especially when they already know the underlying principles.

Richard Pietrasz

If your ambition is to work in industry, you are already overqualified. There is one, and only one, position for which a PhD is a formal job requirement: university professor. Industry is perfectly content to employ MSc graduates. Are you sure you're not just looking for an excuse to postpone your entry into the job market for another four years? And those four heroes of yours: did they get those second PhDs before or after they started to work? The scenario of someone starting to work, becoming a professor and then doing a second PhD is quite common. Some even do a second one after they retire, just to keep the old brain cells alive and ticking over. But getting a second one before you even start working? I think you are enjoying student life too much.  I knew a professor who had PhDs in Theology and Philosophy and was working towards a third one in Classical Hebrew when he died. When I gathered his papers to publish a Collected Works, it turned out he had published very little. All his energy had gone into those damn degrees.

Michel Clasquin-Johnson

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