*sad laughing noises*

Me @37: I'm tired of my high paid IT work, imma quit and get a PhD in plant genetics...

Me @42: fuck

?
You sound like a sure thing for bioinformatics.
I mean, the pay isn't great but it's generally six figures even without a PhD
- Lol yeah... more maths, but you are correct
Me @22: Boy, IT work sure looks fun and I love computers already so let me take out some student loans to become a cybersecurity specialist!
Me @29: Retail is fine too.
- Getting a degree to work in IT seems weird to me, but I was admining before IT classes existed
- Same. Sometimes I wish I had instead spent all the money I saved and blew on college on anything else. I could have lost it all gambling. I could have spent it all on strippers. Or drugs. I could have bought a helicopter and thrown fistfulls of $100 bills out the window and my money would have still been better spent.

We live in a messed up world. Research regardless of whether it's successful or not should be making researchers some of the most highly paid citizens of our society. Documenting how things don't work should be as valued as documenting how things do work.

Labtechs shouldn't be making the equivalent of Mc Donalds workers (even though Mc Donalds workers should also be paid more).

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The labtech problem is largely the fault of Quest and LabCorp in the US
Documenting how things don’t work should be as valued as documenting how things do work.
This, all the way this!
Exactly where 'publish or perish' fails science and enriches publishers.

The 2008 crash I got a job at a call center and was working next to a person with PhD making $10/hr.

I worked with an Indian gentleman with a MD doing basic labtech work. I have no idea why he settled for it, but it was no stress and he didn't have student debt so...
That was basically my dad, but at the meat counter at the local grocery. :(

My entire 20s and 30s.

Me currently starting my 30s.
- Hey it's a start.

I once had a guy at the local science museum tell me that attempting a PhD will either give you a mental illness or alcoholism.

Terrible take. You will get both, and a caffeine addiction
- Pfft I got all three and I’m a college dropout. You mean to tell me I should have a PhD by now?
- Nah, I already got a caffeine addiction from the GCSEs.
I already had mental illness before I started!
- Huh. Maybe I should put this ADHD to good use and get a PhD.
My anxiety became worse after I joined PhD. I started having panic attacks. I am glad I decided to drop out. After dropping out, I found that I had BPD. So turns out I already had mental illness and PhD just made it worse.
- BPD or PhD, close enough

Yeah, I learned my lesson after completing my master's.

It's all a scam based on pre-existing connections with the right socio-economic circles. I won't be here to see it, but hopefully the next iteration of human society will be less regressive.

Is master's degree common in the West?
Bachelor's degree is much more common where I'm from. After that people are usually keen to get a job and start earning.
- It's almost impossible to find a job as a graduate even with a master's degree. The industry has gone to shit.
- It's becoming far more common, yes. I'm not really sure what all of these people are doing with master's degrees nowadays. But at least in the US, a master's degree seems to be the new bachelor's degree. Higher education is all a racket.
  Granted, I do say this as someone with a master's degree. My master's degree actually was incredibly useful to me though and not something pointless like underwater basket weaving. Mine helped me make a healthy wage (at the expense of student loan debt, but it all works out).
- It's definitely somewhat common. Teachers in my state generally get one as part of the certification process. Management, especially middle or upper level can have an MBA. Some student athletes get them depending on how their scholarship eligibility works out. There was also a surge of masters degrees in the 08 recession, due to people avoiding the bad job market.

My coworkers laugh at me because I want a PhD so I can have the title of Dr. They think it's ridiculous. Now I HAVE to get a PhD. The hunt for suitable and affordable master's programs is tough. 💀

Dude, it is ridiculous, unless you live in one of the few countries where the title gets you special treatment. You're clearly not in such a country as you're talking about the cost
- I wouldn't want special treatment for it though. Like, I want the title and satisfaction it would bring. A PhD is a huge achievement and I would be getting the degree to better myself. I want to accomplish great things for myself and myself alone. I'm also in IT, so a PhD would only help me in my career if I wanted to go into academia.

1 out of 3 ain't bad.

If a genie promised me at least one third of things I tried would be successful, I'd be trying a lot more things.

I'm gonna get a PhD and be $100k in debt and change the thing so obscure that nobody else has bothered studying it yet so that in 50 years someone cites the paper in an essay.

you hurt me, you know
- I hurt me when I didn't study anthropology instead. At least then I'd be poor and could comprehend what I'm reading without googling half the words.
I wrote a paper to call someone out on their incorrect work from their early career while they are now in their retirement.
I hope they didn't see my paper or that they just didn't care. Sorry mate.
- I'm going to pad my H-index score by refuting all of the 19th century science saying that plants grow because ghosts stretch them overnight.

When you realize the world isn't worth saving due to 10% of the populace controlling the fate of the other 90%

Idk, sounds like the world is at least 90% worth saving to me

Me @27 IT is boring and the wages suck, I lack human empathy so I'll try Defense Contracting

Me @36 Well the money is great, but the risk of Engineers spilling national security secrets every day is stressful AF.

It’s easy, just pre-emptively fire any engineers who play world of tanks or war thunder.
- I actually have a multiple choice question on my General User training that goes something like:
  If someone attempts to elicit classified information from you, and a heated argument erupts, what action should you take?
  A) Inform Company Security of the event
  B) Provide a non-answer and defer or distract from the current line of questioning
  C) Prove them wrong by giving them the classified information
  D) A & B
  So far no one has chosen C, thankfully.

This is a large driving force behind my ever developing depression