<p>It is worse than that. If you get the PhD. and cannot find work relevant to your degree and that is a very strong possibility you will be in big trouble. Outside of academia and high level corporate/govt research jobs the PhD labels you as “overqualified” to almost all employers someone settling for this job and will leave when a better one comes along and as a snobby academic with no idea how the real world works to others. </p>
<p>Neither are necessarily true but employers have this book of rules that say people are not hirable. If they have a large gap in their resume, ever been fired, any bad references, bad credit, too old, not local (for less specialized positions), too inexperienced, have a non relevant advanced degree is high amongst them.</p>
<p>That was why several people I went to grads school with were debating hiding their PhD and whether leaving it out and the employer later finds out would they be fired for lying on the app. However, that leaves another problem: what to do about the 5-7 year gap in your work history.</p>