Does having a PhD in an engineering field such as electrical engineering give you an advantage in terms of salary or level in big tech companies?

Self

Architect

> Is having a PhD useful?

Yes, these people aren't spending 6-10 years of their lives accomplishing nothing 😛

Tactically speaking, for software engineers with a relevant PhD (i.e. some branch of Computer Science), they will join at the mid-level at FAANG/Big Tech, skipping the junior level. I know several ML PhDs who joined Meta as E4s (mid-level at Meta).

I don't know about electrical engineering, but I imagine at pretty much every tech company, you will get a 1-2 level bump if you have a PhD in whatever engineering pillar you are going into.

Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero, PayPal

Alex Chiou

Having a Phd does give you a bump when you start working, but **it's almost never worth it in terms of opportunity cost**. 

i.e. if you're doing the PhD in order to come in at a higher level, you are making a mistake. You'll make way more money (and you'll advance your career faster) if you just start working after your undergrad or Masters degree.

The reason to do a PhD: 

- You really, really enjoy the field of research, and you want to be on the cutting edge
- The work you want to do in the industry requires PhD-level expertise
- You might want to do academia

Meta, Pinterest, Kosei

Rahul Pandey

Thanks. I thought that they would consider a PhD overqualified or irrelevant!

Often refers to the "Big 5": Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. They have all broken the 1 trillion dollar mark at some point and are premier career destinations for software engineers.

Is having a PhD useful?

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