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Will a PhD in Mechanical Engineering hurt me when looking for product design jobs in industry?

  • I'm about to complete my MS in Mechanical Engineering and am at a crossroads. How will a PhD in mechanical engineering design affect the jobs available to me in industry? For reference, a dream of mine is to work for a company like IDEO. I also want to live and work abroad for a time, in Germany if possible. Do these desires conflict with a PhD?

  • Answer:

    In principle, if you want to work in industry, you should not go for a PhD. A PhD only works for these people who want a career in Academia or are determined that they want to do research. Otherwise, the work experience attained in industry is superior. I would think that this is even more so true for . Living and working abroad doesn't conflict with a PhD, in fact it is a good idea to try to get to do that with one of the best research teams in your field of choice, which may easily mean you have to do it abroad.

Achilleas Vortselas at Quora Visit the source

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Doesn't matter.  It just depends on what you want to do.  Getting a Ph.D will not hurt you unless you expect your job search to be the same as for someone with a bachelor's degree (just look up mechanical engineering jobs on Google and see bajillions of them pop up).  Job searches like that are meant to get as many people applying as possible, and if they advertise specifically for Ph.D's then they're getting less than 1% of people who would be looking for jobs in that area.  The advantage of a Ph.D for those who want to go into industry is that you have an enormous opportunity to network using your faculty and research contacts, and if you connect to the right people you can get exactly the job you want instead of one that's "close enough."

Jacob VanWagoner

Many knowledge intensive companies explicitly boast about the proportion of their employees with PhDs. There will be some people who disapprove; there will be others who use it as evidence of your abilities. After all, it is hard to say that 'PhD is useless' when we have the examples like Brin & Page

Rupert Baines

There are many reasons to get a Ph.D. in engineering. For me, the decision was based on passion - I loved what I was doing, and had a great opportunity to do it and receive my graduate degree. But, if you are truly interested in a product design career, you should be sure to do some actual product design while pursuing your Ph.D. In all likelihood, the content of your Ph.D. is not going to be relevant to a non-research product design position. And it is tough to get a product design position if you have not demonstrated an ability to design great products. Happy to talk to you more about this off-line, as this is the path I took (Ph.D. ME, followed by 10 years at IDEO doing product design).

Craig Lawrence

Of the 30-40 mechanical engineers I know that work in product design firms (like IDEO), i estimate ~5% have masters degrees and none have PhDs That isn't to say you can't. If you focus less on your credentials and focus more on being awesome, you could be a compelling hire. Also, design firms tend to pay less than large companies, which conflicts with the perception that PhDs will command a higher salary. As far as working in Germany, I'm sure has truckloads of PhDs

Chris Loughnane

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