I’ve always wondered, because whenever I see people talk about PhDs they talk as if the only thing to do with them is to sit in academia for the rest of your life, but I see industry research jobs all the time that want a PhD. Why is that not an option?
It's absolutely an option in certain types of life sciences, subfields of Computer Science & Engineering that aren't overly ossified/theoretical, and some fields of Mathematics.
Outside of those categories, things get bleak quickly.
It depends enormously on the subject you get a PhD in. Some niche corner of physics, which happens to critical for EUV chip fabrication? Vs. the plays of Sophocles (ancient Greek playwright, lived ~2,400 year ago)?
Or even some other niche corner of physics which happens to not be particularly useful to anyone who thinks they can use it to get either money or better weapons :)
