Value of a PhD
I’m joining grad school soon and want to decide if I want to drop off at Masters or apply for a PhD later. As I see it, MS people get enough research roles and unless you’re like the top 5% of PhDs, your work ex would be far more valuable than the years of PhD. Am I right? My work interest is in the area of ML - Deep learning applications in particular (Healthcare, vision, etc)
Yes your understanding is right. Broadly, right after the school when you join, following are the expectations- B.S - Assigned anywhere in industry, M.S - In industry at a specific area of interest(possible that you get a area not of you interest too.) PHD - In academia/industry at a specific area of interest(You definitely get to work at the area of your expertise). Value for investment wise - B.S > M.S > PHD All claims made considering a practical scenario, exceptions apart.
Being in the research field for a while, I can tell you that the financial paypack of a PhD is usually negative, esp if you take into account that you won't be earning much money in the 4-5 years of study. PhD is fun though, so it's not all about money.
Run away from PhD. Besides financial downside explained above, it is very hard to get academic job even if you are from top 10 universities. Also you want to do research why not do it in industry? The have access to data, tools, compute power and users to test. Many faculties in ML and systems are leaving academia and join industry for the same reasons. I believe the academic model of research in engineering and computer science is broken but that's the topic for another discussion..
PhDs are awesome!
Typically a PhD is a net financial loss. It’s a ticket to academia but not much else. I’m glad I stopped at MS.
My PhD (ML) was really beneficial in my career in industry. I’m not doing research but I’m a senior ML engineer. Phd takes around 5 yrs but that 5 yrs later will pay back if you are good at your work. Right after PhD you start L4 usually and in 4-5 yrs you can get to L6 n L7 if you are smart. However you have to know that if you don’t work in research labs you don’t invent sth but you use your ML knowledge and experience to solve problems. The solutions are not often novel but product work is challenging enough to keep you motivated.
PhD is for primarily for pursuing a career in research and academia. Some won't find academic jobs and will be happy in industrial research. But you have to enjoy the original motive which is research.