Is it very likely and permitable to work on the Street for four monthes in each year when I am doing a PhD? How exciting life may a prof's life be expect to be? Being a prof, will I be able to make more good friends and learn more real things than on the Street? I hate solitude indeed.

Academia can be as competitive as any top firm.Making tenure is infamously difficult.

Stuff the PhD... take the position, make money and if you have to go back - head to any Ivy business school for your MBA! 1/2 the time, twice as many contacts, work experience and $'s!

its a simple problem, if you want to make money take the job. my personal belief is that to make real money in IB a phd is not a great help, how many of the top earners on a typical trading floor have phds?its what you want to do. with a FO offer, doing a phd for money is silly. do it for personal challenge, and the chance to be an academic.both paths you will have sufficient money in the long term, so dont let the carrot tempt you!

No.Doing a PhD is usually full time after the first summer. Usually you can spend maybe one summer, at most two, the on the street.That means like 10-12 weeks each time. Your PhD advisors wont likely be happy with you hanging on thestreet so much. QuoteOriginally posted by: peaceIs it very likely and permitable to work on the Street for four monthes in each year when I am doing a PhD? How exciting life may a prof's life be expect to be? Being a prof, will I be able to make more good friends and learn more real things than on the Street? I hate solitude indeed.

It is a personal choice. However, if you think that you'll be richer, more famous and more respected by doing a PhD than you may need to think again.If you want to do research at any price, go for it.

in general, one should only do a PhD if one cannot imagine life without having done one. It's highly unlikely to increase your lifetime earnings, and is a long hard slog which requires true dedication to get through successfully.

Quoteis a long hard slog which requires true dedication to get through successfully. So true...wish someone had told me this before....

I agree with crassus.Another thing:Let me ask you something peace: If there is this "Goddess" coming to you saying "peace dude". I am the one for you. What would your reply be? "Well baby, let's see I still have my doubts. Maybe if I do some more "market research" I think I can still get a better "Goddess" than you. Give me 3/4 more years and maybe..just maybe I will find a specie better than you. So you decide to let her wait, with a huge chance that she will find another average dude like you (no offense...but there is always a smarter dude than you...) and the BIG risk that after 3-4 years "market research" you end up with with a "lesser Godess". Or would your thinking be as follows: "Well I know what I want, I'll take here proposal and if and only if after n years we break up I'll still have the time to do a market research anyway.Opportunities come like a freight train..and it only nock (ones) when you least expect...

The only valid reason of doing a PhD, I believe, is if you truly want to and if you don’t do one you think you’ve wasted your mind/knowledge and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. If you’re think you’re going to earn more money, pull more women, become a better person and get more respect all with probability 1, then you’re sadly deluded. It might happen, it might not. It might increase your chances, it might not. Just don’t think the PhD is the answer to your prayers!! That it certainly isn’t.The only other reason possibly of doing one is if you feel capable of doing one and don’t know what else to do with your life or if you want to be a lecturer.

QuoteOriginally posted by: playerThe only valid reason of doing a PhD, I believe, is if you truly want to and if you don’t do one you think you’ve wasted your mind/knowledge and you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. If you’re think you’re going to earn more money, pull more women, become a better person and get more respect all with probability 1, then you’re sadly deluded. It might happen, it might not. It might increase your chances, it might not. Just don’t think the PhD is the answer to your prayers!! That it certainly isn’t.The only other reason possibly of doing one is if you feel capable of doing one and don’t know what else to do with your life or if you want to be a lecturer.Well, it's also the only real route into academic research. You can't get many postdoc positions without the "doc" part first.I'd agree that it should not be used as a means to a better job in th ecity, though.

Personally, I would say over 80% of my friends who decided to take a PhD were unsure where the path would take them - majority wanted to work in the city, didn't know what to do after their bachelor - thought ....I know, I've good grades so I'll hit the PhD route, give me some time to think of what job or venture project I can cook up and then obtain a position in the city after - meanwhile keeping the professors convinced that you love academia! If they had a good position straight after their bachelor or masters for a top hedge fund/ leading investment management firm etc...the PhD for certainly the majority wouldn't have been an option - Choice - £35-40k +bonus + experience of wall street / city (all internal training programmes) + contacts (chance to double remuneration in second year) + sponsor for professional examsor Isolation / living of beans and a tiny grant in some damp accomodation puzzled by your research for 3 years? Choose the PhD if your serious about that route!

I have got a PhD as well. All the things people say here are absolutely the truth, and I wish that somebody has told me this before I have done it.Also, don't expect you can get a degree in 3 years, even though you work hard or you are very clever. 3 year is the ideal case. Most of the supervisors do not consider students' time is important and you may not get full cooperation from them.

I honestly don't think any of these advices, however flawlessly argued and clearly presented, are of much help to you. Many people who run into this type of situation, present company included, often know the answer to the purported question. anyways, here's my 0.02:1. Take a coin, heads ibank, tails PhD. flip it and let it land on the floor. 2. Approach to see which side is facing up. 3. The feeling you get right before and after you find out is what you should go by.

I think, to be honest one has to add something:research can be very exciting, even a "dry" subject.I know PhD was the good choice because:1 I can speak about my work for hours 2 Sometimes i cannot sleep cuz i'm so excited to try some new formula3 I stop my hollyday to go back to uni sooner in order to verify a new idea but this has its flip side:1 people speaking with me are quickly bored to death2 i'm always tired3 my familly hates meHtHB.