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I'm currently enrolled in a top social science PhD program in the US and recently passed my qualifying exam. My research primarily involves statistical methods and occasionally computational techniques (e.g., NLP, network analysis, but mostly at an applied and superficial level). Given the uncertain prospects of the academic job market, I'm considering how to best position myself for industry roles, such as data scientist, user researcher, or machine learning engineer, after graduation, as a back-up plan.

I'm contemplating enrolling in a part-time STEM master's program, like the OMSCS, to enhance my methodological skills and broaden my career options. However, I'm concerned about the time commitment and its potential negative impact on my research progress. Notably, previous PhD graduates from my department have secured similar industry roles without an additional degree.

So, my questions are:

  1. Is pursuing a part-time STEM master's degree a worthwhile investment for securing industry jobs like data science, user research, or machine learning engineering (especially considering the time cost)?
  2. For a social science PhD aiming to transition to industry, what are the most important factors or skills that employers value?

I'd appreciate any insights or advice from those who have navigated similar paths!

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    Regarding your second question, you might consider doing a postdoc at a company interesting to you.
    – A rural reader
    Commented Jun 2 at 21:10
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    @Aruralreader What is a industry postdoc? Either you make an internship prior to finish a PhD or you get a proper job in industry. Getting the first job is the hard part.
    – usr1234567
    Commented Jun 3 at 14:12
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    There are postdoctoral programs in industry, I can vouch for that. Have a look at companies with substantial R&D interests.
    – A rural reader
    Commented Jun 3 at 15:24
  • I've seen people get a MS in a relate field along the way to their PhD. Most commonly, I've seen people get MS in Statistics, which is a similar situation to yours.
    – Richard Erickson
    Commented Jun 3 at 18:19
  • Is Pursuing a Part-Time Social Science PhD While Doing a STEM Master's a Good Idea or Just a Waste of Time? If you think you can pass Calculus... and the 2~3 classes after that, then why aren't you going for a degree in engineering?
    – Mazura
    Commented Jun 4 at 0:45

6 Answers 6

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Can this decision wait until you understand your PhD workload? You don't want to end up all stressed and miserable, with no time left for yourself. If a master's delays your PhD by over a year, it's probably not worth it. So you might even delay this decision till after your PhD.

There are also options between pursuing a STEM MSc and doing nothing. For example, you could:

  • Direct your PhD research towards quantitative methods.
  • Apply social science tools to a high-tech industry of your choice.
  • Get involved in interdisciplinary research with STEM academics, perhaps as part of your PhD.
  • Take advantage of STEM courses at your university (e.g., informally).
  • Do a coding bootcamp, a Kaggle competition, a hackathone, a tech meetup, an online course or similar.
  • Develop a data-science app as a side project.

If such activities enhance your PhD, they can boost your employmet prospects more than chasing two unconnected degrees at the same time.

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    This student has already passed their qualifying exam. They know the workload. Why wait?
    – Astor Florida
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:50
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    @AstorFlorida - do they really understand the workload? Taking classes is the easy part, particularly since that is what students have been doing for a long time already. Heading off into the unknown and figuring a bunch of new stuff out is not a trivial thing and is underestimated by, well, just about every PhD student I've ever known.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Jun 3 at 14:55
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    @AstorFlorida I guess the main tasks and the work loads vary over the years. If PhD progressions were easily predictable, there would have been few dropouts and eternal students.
    – schrödingcöder
    Commented Jun 3 at 15:37
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Doing anything while doing a full time PhD is a bad idea. A PhD is just that: full time, and any time not spent on your PhD should be spent on your self/friends/family in order to preserve your mental health.

If you don't think a social sciences PhD is valuable for your long term career, you shouldn't do one. It's not worth it just for the sake of being called Dr.

If you do think it's valuable for your long term career, then you should treat it like a full time job and give it your full attention.

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    I disagree with the second paragraph. PHD degrees are not training for a job; they are not vocational degrees. See Why do students go for a PhD even when chances of getting academic jobs on its completion are slim?
    – Astor Florida
    Commented Jun 3 at 13:41
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    @AstorFlorida The second paragraph does not say PhD degrees are training for a job or vocational degrees; it recommends only doing a PhD if it is valuable to a long term career. The answer you link to is a list of different ways a PhD might be valuable to a long term career. I do not see any disagreement here.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Commented Jun 3 at 15:11
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    @AstorFlorida And some are worthless for long term careers, and some are beneficial. It depends on the PhD. But overall if you don't see yourself working a job that specifically requires a PhD... it is not helpful.
    – Questor
    Commented Jun 3 at 23:27
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    @AstorFlorida It's utilitarian to a degree, but it's not a ridiculous thing to point out with the impact on your overall career that taking yourself out of the job market for the 4-6 years a PhD requires will inevitably have. That doesn't mean it's not worth it - I still got one that ended up only barely relevant to my current career - but that the long-term financial impact is worth factoring into the decision whether or not to pursue the degree. Questor didn't say "don't do it", after all, just that just having a PhD in something isn't helpful to your long-term career.
    – Idran
    Commented Jun 4 at 15:45
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    @AstorFlorida... If you don't see yourself doing something related to your PhD... than you wasted 5-6 years of life studying something that you will not use. That's wasted sweat, tears, time, and money. As to your second point... How does not going after a degree you aren't going to use suddenly equate to substenance farming? Every step between substenance farming and today was done by people doing research in fields that they were going to use in their life.
    – Questor
    Commented Jun 4 at 17:19
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A PhD is a full-time job. If you need additional skills for you PhD work like statistics or programming, you should learn them as part of your PhD. PhD students should be capable to find ways to learn required skills. They can attend courses, summer schools, read books, etc. They do not need a fixed curriculum as a bachelor's (STEM) student would need. In doubt, they should talk to their advisor.

I think you should not obtain a second degree. After your PhD you should highlight what you did (tasks) and learned (skills) while doing your PhD. Keep this in mind, you can steer your PhD topic to include topics that might be relevant for an industry job.

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I absolutely encourage you to do both. Here's what I see:

(a) You are finished with your qualifying exams, and are working on your dissertation.

(b) The coursework is related to your field of study and your dissertation.

That is, taking these courses will improve the quality of your dissertation. If you are learning the material anyways, might as well get the extra degree along the way.

Things to consider:

Will this cost money? During the last years of my phd, I had funding 20 extra credit hours. Maybe you get a 2-for-1 deal on your credit hours.

Is there a time limit on completing your phd? If so, the workload might be too high. If not, taking an extra year should be ok.

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    Good advice for some students— I knew a couple who became parents and completed an excellent PhD on time. But probably not for most
    – schrödingcöder
    Commented Jun 3 at 15:43
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Alternatively to "enrolling in a part-time STEM master's program", you might instead just take some relevant STEM courses, whether or not (probably not) they're required courses for your social science program. Then, if you later decide you want/need a STEM MS degree, you can probably transfer those course credits to the STEM program. I had no problem transferring graduate course credits from two different colleges to a third, though in the same (physics) program. So I'd guess your similar-though-not-identical situation would also permit credit transfer. But you should of course check that out first.

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You can take advantage of the opportunity to grow your skills as a doctoral student/candidate without taking on an additional degree (along with the related work & headache). Align with relevant shareholders at your extant university, as there may be internships, assistantships, etc., available to you now. The connections you make now will serve you better than taking on the stress of another graduate program.

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  • My apologies, but do you mean university "shareholders" or stakeholders?
    – schrödingcöder
    Commented Jun 5 at 5:19
  • I mean shareholders/stakeholders.
    – Natasha N Johnson EdD
    Commented Jun 6 at 12:13

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