Bacaw

Thank you everyone for offering your perspectives. I realize this can be a contentious topic, so I especially appreciate you all for putting less popular opinions out there. Perhaps I could elaborate more on my current situation and future goals. @bayessays mentioned that PhDs get the same boring jobs as M.S. graduates, and I am certainly aware that is true to a certain extent. I work with several of them. My current role certainly does not require a PhD. There are many great things to acknowledge about my current role: the work-life balance is good, and I have learned some skills (my ability to code is immeasurably better than it ever was in school). However, my firm will outright admit it is not very analytically mature, and it will take a very longtime to move forward. I realize many companies likely share the sentiment, but I also know many others (mostly in tech) are on or near the cutting edge of analytics. I want to pursue a role that will challenge me more, but I know I will need to sharpen my skills to land such a role. Although many employers include my current one emphasize personal development time, in reality no employer will really offer all that much time for development opportunities. One option would be to spend more time outside of work learning new techniques and technologies, but there is certainly a limit to the amount of time on top of work I could happily allocate to this goal. As I mentioned before, I strive to be a balanced individual, and I have many hobbies, interests, and goals beyond data science. I find a PhD appealing for this reason: learning and research would be my job. I am fortunate to know many PhD students that work hard on their research but have a variety of outside interests that make them more well-rounded individuals. Maybe I should further describe what attracts me to PhD study as well as what deters me from staying in academia beyond completion of a PhD. Things I find appealing: learning and applying cutting-edge techniques as well as researching new techniques, (some) freedom to pursue specific interest areas. Things I do not find appealing: grant proposals, competing for postdocs, a less secure future. I want to tackle difficult problems, but in an industry setting. I understand staying current is difficult to do long-term, but I am under the impression I could be far more valuable by spending a few years broadening my skills beyond elementary statistical modeling and machine learning. The opportunity cost is very valid, but I would not be considering a PhD program as an option if I only cared about money. I have comfort in the fact that 1) I have already saved and invested a substantial amount in my few years of professional work and 2) I could be well-compensated once again following my studies. I think there could be a great uptick in my quality of life and sense of fulfillment by being back in a university setting, unless I am grossly misunderstanding what PhD studies look like (which of course is what motivated me to make this post). As one last remark, the program I am looking at is considered to be an interdisciplinary program in Statistics and Data Science, meaning it overlaps with Computer Science among other fields. I will continue to research the department, but my understanding is that this program would be less like a traditional statistics PhD program.

Quick background info: I hold a master's degree in statistics, which I earned immediately after undergrad. I have worked as a quantitative analyst and data scientist for the last three years in the finance industry. Quick summary of my dilemma: I enjoy my professional career, but my work often feels stale or mundane due to a relative lack of complexity. I am considering a PhD to advance my professional career. I would consider myself a data science enthusiast, but I would stop short of calling it my passion. I am trying to shake feelings of inadequacy in a pool full of individuals more passionate about research and academia than myself. --- For the past three years, I have pondered the option of leaving the private sector and returning to graduate school for my PhD. My master's degree in statistics provided me with a fantastic foundation in statistical modeling and machine learning. However, at the same time, my graduate degree also revealed to me the much more vast realm of knowledge well beyond my understanding - deep learning, NLP, etc. I feel there is very much a ceiling to the data science roles in industry I am well-qualified for currently. Three years into my career, I am growing tired of logistic regressions and random forests. Simply put, I am bored with my current work. I want my work to be more mentally stimulating. I want the fulfillment that comes from tackling more difficult analytic problems. I believe a PhD would provide me the guidance to expand both the breadth and depth of my knowledge. I very much miss the rate at which I was learning new things in school compared to in my professional career (I am still learning in my career, albeit at a slower rate and without much emphasis on techniques to solve problems beyond what I can already solve). I realize a vast amount of information is available on the internet to sharpen my skills, but I believe the leap I want to make requires more structure and guidance through a formal education. With that said, I am very much focused on a professional career. My struggle comes with knowing that many other PhD students set out with aspirations in academia - which quiet honestly are not for me. I believe that most folks in academia would consider their subject matter to be their "passion", however I would be more inclined to say that data science a strong interest of mine, but more of a means to an end. I see myself as a well-rounded individual (or at least I try), and I value a balance in life that allows me to pursue many interests, life goals, and recreational outlets. I am having trouble shaking the feeling that I would not be devoted enough to pure, scholarly study of my subject to successfully complete a PhD. Is this a common feeling for professionally-focused students? Or would it be more wise for me to continue my career as a masters-level data scientist?

After spending the last year working in the private sector following the completion of my M.A. in Statistics, I have found post-graduate life to be less satisfying than I originally anticipated. I have started to consider the possibility of returning to the academic world and pursuing a PhD. I miss being in a learning environment, and I find my professional work less fulfilling than the work in school. I believe that if I choose to return to graduate school, I should be doing so soon. If I wait too long, I fear that I may be too rusty to perform at the level of rigor necessary for a PhD program, or that I may become too content with my current professional income to revert back to frugal grad school living. Could anyone offer some general pointers on how to approach the subject of applying for a statistics PhD program with a M.A. and prior work experience already in hand? For reference, my master's was a traditional two year program with a one year sequence of math/stat coursework, a second year project, and a teaching assistantship, not one of those "applied track" self-funded programs. Specifically, -Given my background, is it necessary I have specific research in mind and find a professor willing to work with me prior to applying? Or is it still acceptable for me to apply to a program that has multiple faculty members focusing on sub-areas of statistics that align with my interests, with the intention of forming a research idea upon my arrival? -How would my application be perceived compared to undergraduate students? Would I be held to a higher standard due to my lengthier experience, or would I have a "leg-up" due to my experience?