Joining this conversation late and wanted to thank you all for your comments. Very enlightening.

I am mid-way though my PhD studies (in speech recognition) and plan on looking for a post-doc position in Japan when finished. Would like to teach in a university someday and Japan would be great, but I will play this out one step at a time. Too many unknowns.

vix86 Wrote:Its worth noting though that the MEXT scholarship doesn't let you enter as a normal student. The MEXT is for "research student." These are students who are enrolled and taking classes plus getting credit, but are non-degree seeking. A lot of students (not just MEXT) tend to enter as 研究生 and then study for a year while taking classes and take the entrance exam, then they enter as a normal student. All the of the classes taken as a research student transfer into your program once accepted.

This might be the winning combination: enter a PhD program in the US or UK, get your advisor to connect you to a colleague in Japan, and then get the MEXT scholarship. It's supposed to be relatively easier to get in sciences than socsci or humanities.

However I would think that if you're not thinking about an academic career, a PhD in Japan might not be such a bad idea after all. Your advisor could possibly help you get a job after the PhD, and a Japanese professor would probably have better connections... the other disadvantages mentioned in this thread would still apply of course.

Irixmark Wrote:

Blahah Wrote:Whilst Irixmark's advice is generally good, I think it depends hugely on the field you are in. For maths, in general, MIT and Cambridge are far better for your prospects than anywhere else in the world. It was the same for me when choosing where to go - Cambridge and Toronto are way better than anyone else in the world in my field (plant science, specifically photosynthesis). That matters much more than the general reputation of the place when it comes to getting future post-docs.

Totally agree. For my field it's almost the opposite: Cambridge is definitely not the place to go to. I just wanted to emphasize that you need to get your PhD from a place that's actually leading in your field and whose graduates actually get a job like the one you're hoping to get.

I just wanted to emphasize the part about graduates from a university finding jobs like the one you hope to find. In my field (philosophy), the highest ranked university in the world is NYU. Nevertheless, the schools with the best placement records are Stanford (ranked 9th) and Princeton (ranked 3rd). The placement success of Stanford and Princeton is a result of both universities taking graduate advising very seriously. Once a student reaches the all-but-dissertation stage, they relentlessly do what it takes to make sure their students place somewhere and, ideally, somewhere good. Therefore, it is prudent to check out a university's placement record beforehand.

vileru Wrote:... In my field (philosophy)...

I just wanna ask, is a PhD in philosophy useful anywhere other than academia?

Irixmark Wrote:Of course, the issue is likely completely different if you're not aiming for an academic position but want a PhD to get a private sector research position.

Anybody has info about this?
More specifically, what's the chance of getting an engineering research job in industry in Japan with a MASTERS degree from a Japanese university? And is it worth it?

I would really appreciate answering that. Also thanks for the previous posts.

undead_saif Wrote:

vileru Wrote:... In my field (philosophy)...

I just wanna ask, is a PhD in philosophy useful anywhere other than academia?

I can't tell if this is a serious question or an underhanded insult. However, for the benefit of the doubt, I'll answer it seriously. Yes, a philosophy PhD is useful outside academia. With the recent academic job market (or, should I say, lack thereof), many philosophy PhDs have found work outside academia, mostly in publishing and finance. Publishing is no surprise, but finance is startling to most people. Coincidentally, however, philosophy teaches analytic and theoretical skills, which are essential in finance (and it also teaches lower living standards, which may explain why philosophers tired of academia take up lucrative finance jobs). In addition, hospitals and large corporations often have ethics boards. Usually they're staffed by incompetent lawyers or business executives, but it's now becoming more common for philosophers to enter their ranks. At any rate, how can a degree entirely based of thinking, in both it's breadth and depth, be not useful?

a Phd in most subjects is not particularly useful if you're not going into academia.

Not saying you can't get a job if you have a Phd (obviously you can), but it's really not necessary to go so far into academia if you don't intend to stay.

The most you really need for jobs are masters degrees, but they are only required where the job area is very competitive, such as development (and you must have one that's very specific usually). Perhaps also in some some sciences where you need a very specific set of skills too.

Irixmark Wrote:Of course, the issue is likely completely different if you're not aiming for an academic position but want a PhD to get a private sector research position.

First I wanted to add that your input in this thread has been very beneficial and insightful. Thanks.

I also wanted to echo undead_saif's question on this. Does a degree from a country tend to modify the equation between deciding if you want to do a degree in the US vs Japan, that much?

Anecdotally, my friend knows a guy that went to grad school here in Japan (Masters I believe), and got recruited by Google Japan. His situation is a bit more unique since he had prior industry experience which may have helped in getting recruited, but nonetheless. My goal is to hopefully enter the industry as R&D. (IT and work at one of the Western companies here in Japan. Google is dream lol.)

vileru Wrote:Therefore, it is prudent to check out a university's placement record beforehand.

This is a stupid question, but I've never considered checking something like this. Are placement records usually ranked in the USNews Weekely ranking issues? It could be this is a statistic I simply overlooked whenever looking at some of the best programs or grad schools.

IceCream Wrote:a Phd in most subjects is not particularly useful if you're not going into academia.

This needs to be repeated I think, especially when its in relation to the IT industry. Unless you are pursuing a job in R&D, I've heard (repeatedly) that grad school degrees tend to hurt your chances with HR. Most companies tend to view graduates as overqualified for many of the jobs; not to mention the job scene hasn't exactly recovered yet so makes even rougher.

vileru Wrote:

undead_saif Wrote:

vileru Wrote:... In my field (philosophy)...

I just wanna ask, is a PhD in philosophy useful anywhere other than academia?

I can't tell if this is a serious question or an underhanded insult. However, for the benefit of the doubt, I'll answer it seriously. Yes, a philosophy PhD is useful outside academia. With the recent academic job market (or, should I say, lack thereof), many philosophy PhDs have found work outside academia, mostly in publishing and finance. Publishing is no surprise, but finance is startling to most people. Coincidentally, however, philosophy teaches analytic and theoretical skills, which are essential in finance (and it also teaches lower living standards, which may explain why philosophers tired of academia take up lucrative finance jobs). In addition, hospitals and large corporations often have ethics boards. Usually they're staffed by incompetent lawyers or business executives, but it's now becoming more common for philosophers to enter their ranks. At any rate, how can a degree entirely based of thinking, in both it's breadth and deepness, be not useful?

LOL Actually I'm serious to the point that I put the question directly, I have great interest in philosophy. Thanks for replying, and good to hear that!

vix86 Wrote:Anecdotally, my friend knows a guy that went to grad school here in Japan (Masters I believe), and got recruited by Google Japan. His situation is a bit more unique since he had prior industry experience which may have helped in getting recruited, but nonetheless. My goal is to hopefully enter the industry as R&D. (IT and work at one of the Western companies here in Japan. Google is dream lol.)

Good to hear so, if I do a master's degree, I'll be having 2-3 years of industry experience, though I'm not sure they'll be related.
And it's my goal too, to enter the industry as R&D

undead_saif Wrote:

vileru Wrote:... In my field (philosophy)...

I just wanna ask, is a PhD in philosophy useful anywhere other than academia?

Philosophy especially at a place like NYU is probably not what you think it is. It's light on metaphysics, not about personal opinions or views, and heavy on formal logic. When I was a graduate student we didn't have an evolutionary game theory course in economics, but they offered one in the philosophy department... now the matter might still be different if you're doing your PhD in Paris

vix86 Wrote:

Irixmark Wrote:Of course, the issue is likely completely different if you're not aiming for an academic position but want a PhD to get a private sector research position.

vileru Wrote:Therefore, it is prudent to check out a university's placement record beforehand.

This is a stupid question, but I've never considered checking something like this. Are placement records usually ranked in the USNews Weekely ranking issues? It could be this is a statistic I simply overlooked whenever looking at some of the best programs or grad schools.

Actually this information isn't easy to come by in many places, which generally means they either don't know or don't care how many of their students they place (this is true even for Oxford). Some places list their recent placement, including private sector positions, on their graduate program's website. If not, you should just email the graduate program director, saying you're considering applying, but you don't want to waste anybody's time and would like to know where the graduates of the last three years have gone. The more vague the answer, the more careful you should be!

vix86 Wrote:

IceCream Wrote:a Phd in most subjects is not particularly useful if you're not going into academia.

This needs to be repeated I think, especially when its in relation to the IT industry. Unless you are pursuing a job in R&D, I've heard (repeatedly) that grad school degrees tend to hurt your chances with HR. Most companies tend to view graduates as overqualified for many of the jobs; not to mention the job scene hasn't exactly recovered yet so makes even rougher.

This isn't first-hand information, but my former roommate works for Google and was considering returning to graduate school (he already had a Masters from years back) because practically only people with PhDs would rise to positions where they actually manage projects. His boss even told him that would be a smart move.

A PhD in finance or economics is tremendously useful outside of academia -- there are way more jobs for econ or finance PhDs in the private sector than in universities, and the pay is good, too: usually around $100,000+ starting salary, sometimes a lot more if you're in a major bank. PhDs in maths and physics also get excellent jobs in the financial sector... and in computer game development.

One idea would be to check out the salaries of assistant professors in US universities in different disciplines to see which ones are the highest. In some disciplines you can make more money with a PhD outside of academia, so universities have to pay more to recruit good people. That's apparently true for medicine, life sciences, economics, finance, law, lately maths as well.

Not true for engineering (oddly, a PhD seems to hurt your job chances outside of R&D), any other social science, and humanities. Their starting salaries at universities are pretty much the same and all fairly low. Also doesn't work in the UK where everybody gets paid the same within the same academic rank.

No idea how much of this applies in Japan though... but Japanese banks and insurance companies must employ econ/finance/stats/maths/physics PhDs simply because of the jobs that need to be performed and the skills required.

vix86 Wrote:This is a stupid question, but I've never considered checking something like this. Are placement records usually ranked in the USNews Weekely ranking issues? It could be this is a statistic I simply overlooked whenever looking at some of the best programs or grad schools.

First off, that's definitely not a stupid question. Anyway, placement records are not on the US Weekly rankings. You need to go to each specific program's website to find placement records. Generally, all decent programs publish their placement records on their department websites. If they don't, be very suspicious.