Introduction
It is a great accomplishment to get a bachelor degree in engineering. You are now joined a renowned profession and have good knowledge of engineering principles and ready to apply them in various engineering applications. In common practice, engineering consulting companies hires engineers with a bachelor degree. Sometimes, they would require a master degree for certain position responsibilities and background knowledge. In downturn economy, engineering professionals with a master’s degree are more requested than professionals with bachelor degrees. Unfortunately, in many countries engineering professional with a doctorate degrees (PhD) are struggling to get a good job. So where is the problem, is it in the hiring managers in such companies or is the problem with the engineers who got the PhD. In this article, we will touch base on the benefit on getting PhD in engineering and what are the pros and cons in this.
Should you earn a PhD in Engineering?
You need to think about this question for a moment. If you are looking to be a university professor, then getting a PhD is not an option any more. It is a job requirement.
If you are looking for industrial experience and in the same time want to learn more in a specific topic by doing the higher degree (PhD), then you have to really be interested in pursuing the degree. In other words, if you feel that you want to get this degree, go for it. Remember that “to be sorry for something you did is way better than being sorry for something you wished to do and you did not”.
Is earning a PhD in engineering considered to be a bad decision?
In contrary to bachelor degree, earning a PhD in engineering is not a mandatory requirement to practice engineering profession. However, getting a PhD in engineering is considered to be corner stone to hire university professors. As the statistics mentioned, 25% of the engineering professionals are working in academia, yet still 75% of them have to be in the professional practice.
For those professionals who got their a PhD and want to continue in industry have to face the challenge that they might hear these sentences “you are overqualified now”, “these guys are too much theoretical and know nothing about practical applications”, “they will get high salaries, we can get two fresh graduates instead of hiring one of them” and so forth.
What is benefit of getting PhD and practice engineering?
So, by getting a PhD degree, you for sure learned many advanced skills. Among them are to be initiative, critical thinking, problem solving, independent research, reviewing all relevant issues.
In engineering profession, you are not afraid by new challenges. On the contrary, you will find yourself more motivated in such challenging tasks than the other daily routines. You will be able to apply research principles in finding solutions for any complicated engineering problem.