Academia is not the only option for PhD

It has been puzzling me all the time, even after I've come here for PhD, that how is PhD accepted in industry. There are many negative sayings about PhD: "Permanent Head Damaged", because PhDs are usually stubborn and confined in a narrow field; old aged, and often immersed in old fashioned papers published decades ago; idealist, whose theories and ideas are built in the lack of technological support; etc. So it's exciting that today there is a doctoral career exploration workshop, with most of the speakers graduating from doctoral programs of Penn State. And I should say, I really learn a lot. Or to be more exact, I actually knew those stuff. I simply got lost after I dived into the mess. And the speech today helped me out, and reminded me of my strength as a PhD.

So why does a company hire a PhD. Apparently the company has a different expectation for PhD. The company won't pay a PhD to program. Some of the things that a PhD is expected might be:

1. Direct a team. Think of ideas in what directions should your team go. Be creative and innovative.
2. Theorize your product. Apply the theories in your domain to practice. It's important that your products are well theoretically founded, so that it is convincing for investors and customers. Be rational and persuasive.

We should be aware that the graduation program is not to get us damaged, but to get us fully prepared.
Keep on asking ourselves internally what is my goal, what is my value, what is the need of the world. Find a joint point of the three aspects, and we can make a difference.

For me, I actually already have a very clear path. I'm to study the cognitive aspect of computer systems. The problem for me is what I can do to improve the usability of a system. And I would start from how people perceive information, and apply that understanding to the design of systems. As I have a GIS background, I may focus on GIS as the study case, but I should also not limit myself in GIS. Therefore my strength should definitely not be interface design or system programing, but to provide guidelines to those guys, in a theoretical level, and suggest evaluation methods before the final product is issued to the public.

So what I need to do in the first step is to enrich myself with the theories of human cognition. Also to leverage my strength, I should apply those theories to the GIS field. So a deeper understanding of GIS users and their thinking, reasoning, and behavior is required.

Finally, building a friend network is as important as academic achievement. I should not lock myself in the lab all day long any more. I should get out, talk to people in other areas deeply, and get inspiration.