How does a PhD make you a better worker than someone without one?

roses

My opinion is only based on the people i know who have done phds but i have found that all these people know what to do is research theoretical issues. they do not know how to apply knowledge to the real life business world and they are not team players! this is based on the 5 people i know who have done phds.

melancholly

roses wrote: »

My opinion is only based on the people i know who have done phds but i have found that all these people know what to do is research theoretical issues. they do not know how to apply knowledge to the real life business world and they are not team players! this is based on the 5 people i know who have done phds.

it's really quite obvious and has been restated on this and other threads involving studentphil repeatedly - a piece of paper with a qualification will only get you so far - you need experience and a good attitude. i know people with phds who started on 6 figure salaries and others who ended up on the dole looking for work - generalisations about 'all' those with a phd are just daft.

this thread started when phil tried to belittle the achievements of someone who worked hard to get their phd - and while no certificate will guarentee anyone a job, the idea that a phd is a series of essays which proves nothing is offensive. this thread isn't about whether a phd will help in getting any (undefined) job in any (undefined) industry, it's about phil trying to make himself feel better by undermining the achievements of others.

tr3mor

I vote we change the title of this thread to "How does being studentphil make you worse than someone who isn't?"

Any starters...?

Hapless_2

studentphil wrote: »

I have tried all this advice and it just is not working out and I just don't know why.

If you want to be a success in life, get of your @ss, get of the net and do something about it, If you want a job paying £50,000 a year and you don't have the qualifications or experience, you may have to spend 10 yrs at £10,000 to get it! You don't get a good job sitting down and whinging, no one is going to come up to you and say.."here phil, you got no Phd, no experience but here is a job worth x amount and it's yours" if you think that then even cloud cuckoo land won't have you.
Yes hobbies and interests are important, my main interest is gardening and plant biology, but I have no degree in this so no one is going to pay me tens of thousands a year to do it or hand me a Phd in Botanical and Horticultural sciences are they?

Voyager2002

Poppy9 wrote: »

or it could show a reluctance to leave a safe 'school' enviroment.

Hardly!

Before beginning my PhD, I had a "safe" job in local government.

The first year of the PhD was challenging intellectually, and served as a preparation for field research. My fieldwork was in Colombia. On the way there (in London, just before going to the airport) I heard that a senior manager at the institute where I would be based had just been kidnapped by narco-guerillas. On the 'plane, I read a local newspaper about a rebel attack on an army convey, that -- tragically -- was escorting a party of students on an outing to a national park. In my first three months there I was mugged three times. Later, when there was a big crackdown on the drug trafficers, helicopters were flying over my home and peering into my windows (some kind of weird laser beam) while the streets were full of police with heavy machine guns.

My experience was a little more extreme than the average, but virtually all PhD students are studying something in the world, and so have to go there and investigate at close quarters. And usually this involves far more raw emotion and personal challenge than you would get in most jobs.

cupid_s

Phil, do you know what a PhD involves, I mean really? The fact you think it is just a collection of essays is shockingly ignorant.

Diminutive

You know what's quite amusing. I clicked on this topic, having not seen it before, and it took me to page 14 or whatever. Just from the title, I KNEW the OP had to be Stupid Phil. In yet another Student Phil attacking the university system that he so strongly believes has failed him, when yet it is he who has failed as a university student.
The real argument here is not whether a PHD adds to the employability of a person, it is whether Student Phil can find enough reasons in his mind to justify why he has failed at university and soon presumably to be the real world of work too. Of course, if he fails to get a job, if it's not his universities fault for not reading his mind in terms of his disability, then it has to be the fact that other people have PHD's. We can safely presume that, from what Student Phil himself has told us, he isn't going to be in an academic position to even remotely be consider for a PHD. So now when Student Phil fails to get a job that satisfies his need as a person, he will blame it on the fact that he doesn't have a PHD. In which turn he will blame his university for not cuddling him enough for him to get a first/2:1 in order for him to get a chance at that PHD. It's all a game of blame, justifying failure. Unfortunately you need to accept your failures in order to move on and grow.

tr3mor

Diminutive wrote: »

You know what's quite amusing...

I think the only person who doesn't realise this is studentphil himself.

He'll be in for a shock when he's got to get a job and can't blame others for his shortcomings.

studentphil

cupid_s wrote: »

Phil, do you know what a PhD involves, I mean really? The fact you think it is just a collection of essays is shockingly ignorant.

In Arts it is doing a piece of reseach that amounts to about 100 000 words. That involves lots of reading papers and writing clearly. You are also meant to attempt to get papers published and do to confrences.

studentphil

Diminutive wrote: »

You know what's quite amusing. I clicked on this topic, having not seen it before, and it took me to page 14 or whatever. Just from the title, I KNEW the OP had to be Stupid Phil. In yet another Student Phil attacking the university system that he so strongly believes has failed him, when yet it is he who has failed as a university student.
The real argument here is not whether a PHD adds to the employability of a person, it is whether Student Phil can find enough reasons in his mind to justify why he has failed at university and soon presumably to be the real world of work too. Of course, if he fails to get a job, if it's not his universities fault for not reading his mind in terms of his disability, then it has to be the fact that other people have PHD's. We can safely presume that, from what Student Phil himself has told us, he isn't going to be in an academic position to even remotely be consider for a PHD. So now when Student Phil fails to get a job that satisfies his need as a person, he will blame it on the fact that he doesn't have a PHD. In which turn he will blame his university for not cuddling him enough for him to get a first/2:1 in order for him to get a chance at that PHD. It's all a game of blame, justifying failure. Unfortunately you need to accept your failures in order to move on and grow.

It is my fault for ever dreaming or hoping to achieve anything in life. It is my fault for being so useless and picking a course I hate and not being able to do it.