<p>One thing that a lot of people seem to worry about is being overqualified for a job, that having a PhD in engineering would limit one to basically R&D jobs and close doors for other posts like manufacturing, since non-R&D stuff can be done by people with BS and MS and the managers won't hire people with PhDs who will demand more salary. But why would it be a problem, if a PhD can just ask for the same pay as BS and MS folks? Every job application has a "desired salary" section, so couldn't a PhD just ask for a low pay? I'm just curious about the answer to this.</p>
<p>I personally like doing research and would one day want to do a PhD, but I also would like to get out in the real world and earn money as well, so I am torn between getting a MS or a PhD. If the concerns of overqualification after a PhD didn't arise I would be much more inclined to do a PhD, but since there is, I am still thinking. Please help!</p>
<p>Most hiring managers assume (probably correctly) that PhD’s who take an industry job are just using it as a safety net with the hope of finding an R&D job, and so they will likely jump ship if they find it. Given the amount of effort it takes to train an engineer, this is less than desirable.</p>
<p>Being seen as overqualified might be a problem, or it might not be. I’m an engineering manager and I’ve worked managing both research teams and development teams (at different times). </p>
<p>When I managed the research team, I had a mix of employees who had PhD’s doing research and some non-PhD employees doing mostly software development, working together as a team. I would frequently get resumes from job candidates with a PhD seeking the software development jobs that didn’t require a PhD. After a bad experience, I was somewhat cautious in hiring PhD’s for positions that didn’t require PhD’s.</p>
<p>In this bad experience, the guy with the PhD resented that he was asked to do software development work and not research, since the other PhD’s on the team were doing research. But he had been hired for a software development position - that was the work that needed doing when I hired for that position. Despite having a PhD, his resume wasn’t strong enough in the particular technical area to have been hired for a research position in the team. His bad attitude caused friction within the team, and I was relieved when he voluntarily left the company.</p>
<p>This hasn’t stopped me from ever hiring another PhD for a software development position, but it did teach me to make expectations very clear during the hiring process, and not move forward with those whom I sensed might have an expectations mismatch problem. </p>
<p>Don’t let this dissuade you from getting a PhD though if you are interested in doing research. It is very difficult to get a research position without a PhD.</p>
<p>Technically speaking, unless specifically required as a condition of employment to divulge your highest level of education, I don’t think there’s any real requirement to list all your education on a resume. Most will list all undergraduate and graduate degrees, but the thinking is that by doing that you stand a better chance of getting the job. In the event that you have reason to believe you’d have a better chance of getting a job having listed fewer degrees… well, a resume is a marketing document.</p>
<p>There are some clear disadvantages with going down this road. For one, you’ll have to deal with what might otherwise look like a gap in employment. Fortunately, if you had a research assistantship, it should be fairly easy to count that as work experience (and why not?) Otherwise, internships might help break up the 2-4 year hole in your employment record.</p>
<p>Additionally, some people may feel that this is dishonest, even if it’s not technically just grounds for dismissal or rescinding an offer (in some places, it might be just grounds for dismissing an offer; in lots of places, employers don’t even need a good reason to fire you, so long as it’s not discriminatory - this wouldn’t be. That said, I’m not sure how many employers would fire somebody just for having a degree they didn’t claim to have when they were hired.)</p>
<p>This falls into the category of tailoring one’s resume to the position. Do you list your PhD on your resume if you win the lottery and then decide you want to be a bartender? If you don’t make it a factor in the relationship between you and your employer, IMHO, the employer has no business policing it.</p>
<p>EDIT: I suppose the pitfall here is that it would require you to have a good understanding of whether the PhD would be a plus or a minus in the eyes of any given employer. Figuring that out might be tough, but I don’t know how much easier/harder it would be than the research you should be doing anyway in order to tailor your resume.</p>
<p>Of course that misses the point. If you are trying to get a job that doesn’t require a PhD or where it would be detrimental to have a PhD, then why on Earth would you get a PhD? Sure I could go bag groceries with my PhD, but why would I want to do that? If I did do that, why spend so long in school when I could have been making money? It just doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>sacchi gave about the best answer possible. It will overqualify you because for most employers, it isn’t just about salary but how they expect you to fit into their team, how long you will be there and what your aspirations are. If there is any sense that the job is just going to be a placeholder until you get your real goal, that will hurt, and a PhD would signify that to most people hiring for non-PhD jobs.</p>
<p>Basically, employers expect you to do the most given the limitations of your degree. Which is why employers like to match the job requirements with a person’s degree, because if the degree demands more than the job requirements, the employer will assume that the person will be unhappy with his/her growth potential. </p>
<p>So yes, overqualification is a problem, and I do think it’s something to consider when going for a PhD. What’s more troubling though is that there are an increasing number of people going for advanced degrees now than there exist jobs requiring those degrees. Generally speaking, a person with an MS can usually be put in to a position requiring a BS, and vice versa… however, the PhD is a different animal. It’s generally frowned upon to put a PhD in a BS/MS position. </p>
<p>That all being said, if research is your true passion then I think you should definitely go for it.</p>