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comment by mk
mk  ·  4971 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mark Taylor: Reform the PhD system or close it down
>So is the PhD overrated? Absolutely. Private-sector experience can be much more valuable, especially when seeking jobs further down the road. The PhD does opens doors and can serve as a stand-in for experience early in a career. I think you can judge the quality of a professor by how highly he or she regards his or her academic credentials... and it's an inverse relationship.

I agree with this sentiment. The PhD indicates such a wide variation of ability and achievement. It might be useful if academia wouldn't accept faculty that hadn't spent time in the private sector. It would probably be more valuable than postdoctoral research.