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PhD for a PE
- Thread starter renee04
- Start date
A PhD is not all that useful for a practicing engineer.
You know the old joke you continue to learn more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing.
What it will do for your career is make your understanding of the undergraduate material in your area of expertise almost letter perfect. You will know how to approach almost every problem and will know how to solve that problem in the most efficient and effective manner.
Of course so does a few years experience in the area.
A Master’s is most likely the highest degree necessary or desirable for a practitioner. You can expect a two for one return on the time spend in a master’s program in advancing your career.
Thus a 2 year master plus 2 years experience will put you about on par with someone with 6 years experience. Going the extra 2 years for a PhD will put you at the ten years experience level in six years. Since on the job performance starts to account for more than total years experience by that time the effect is largely blunted.
About all that a PhD will accomplish is give you some additional letters to add behind your make and make you more marketable. This might be an advantage to a consultant especially one who wants to have a narrow specialty. As an employee it doesn’t make that much difference since any potential employer would be sacred of losing you to a university position or some other higher profile position.
A PhD would also limit you to your area of study. You would be too knowledgeable in that area to be used as a generalist, so if you became an engineer because you like to build things then a PhD would take you out of the field and out of project management and into an office specialist role. (That of course may be just what you want so it works both ways.)
If you want a PhD because of some burning desire to become more knowledgeable in your field then go for it but if it is simply a career move then I wouldn’t recommend it.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
You know the old joke you continue to learn more and more about less and less until you know everything about nothing.
What it will do for your career is make your understanding of the undergraduate material in your area of expertise almost letter perfect. You will know how to approach almost every problem and will know how to solve that problem in the most efficient and effective manner.
Of course so does a few years experience in the area.
A Master’s is most likely the highest degree necessary or desirable for a practitioner. You can expect a two for one return on the time spend in a master’s program in advancing your career.
Thus a 2 year master plus 2 years experience will put you about on par with someone with 6 years experience. Going the extra 2 years for a PhD will put you at the ten years experience level in six years. Since on the job performance starts to account for more than total years experience by that time the effect is largely blunted.
About all that a PhD will accomplish is give you some additional letters to add behind your make and make you more marketable. This might be an advantage to a consultant especially one who wants to have a narrow specialty. As an employee it doesn’t make that much difference since any potential employer would be sacred of losing you to a university position or some other higher profile position.
A PhD would also limit you to your area of study. You would be too knowledgeable in that area to be used as a generalist, so if you became an engineer because you like to build things then a PhD would take you out of the field and out of project management and into an office specialist role. (That of course may be just what you want so it works both ways.)
If you want a PhD because of some burning desire to become more knowledgeable in your field then go for it but if it is simply a career move then I wouldn’t recommend it.
Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng
Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks Rick and Heckler for the advice and info. Rick, I already am a generalist. I have my P.E. and over 10 years of experience. I've taken a variety of classes and never finished a Master's. I'm starting and this time finishing a Master's in civil/environmental/project management in March. It will take 18 months and then I was looking for a PhD program. I'd like to finally specialize and teach. I've taught before and loved it. Learning is a hobby of mine.
Renee
Renee
At a small boutique (20 people) that I worked at, several of the senior associates had PhDs. The firm makes it money and reputation tackling those "trickier" or "more difficult" problems that other firms have troubles with.
A PhD is not easy to obtain. A person with such a degree has a certain skill set that most other people do not.
Rick points out that there may not be "many" opportunities where a PhD is required. I agree. I also believe that a person with a PhD can still do "normal" stuff that an average "practicing engineer" performs, is it not so?
A PhD is just that, a degree. What you do with it is up to you. I have many diplomas and certificates in areas I am currently not working in. But, I still have them, and may use them later.
Renee, if you have a passion to learn, and want to specialize and teach, good on ya.
A PhD is not easy to obtain. A person with such a degree has a certain skill set that most other people do not.
Rick points out that there may not be "many" opportunities where a PhD is required. I agree. I also believe that a person with a PhD can still do "normal" stuff that an average "practicing engineer" performs, is it not so?
A PhD is just that, a degree. What you do with it is up to you. I have many diplomas and certificates in areas I am currently not working in. But, I still have them, and may use them later.
Renee, if you have a passion to learn, and want to specialize and teach, good on ya.
CarolinaPE
Mechanical
I remember a colleague in grad school (who was going for his PHD) tell me he heard the phrase "overqualified" a lot when interviewing for jobs. I know that is anecdotal evidence but I think in the majority of positions it will make you overqualified. That being said it is likely you will never come across a position where you are underqualified due to education. I have a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical, some positions the M.S. has paid off, others it has made no difference. Knowing what you want to ultimately do and if the PHD is required for that or not is key. A PHD makes perfect sense if you want to be a professor at a university. I know with my masters I worked hard for two years, not making a dime and gave up 2 years of full time salary. It is a tough call to make, one with a lot of sacrifices but if you plan on using it I say go for it.
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