I have a PhD in pure math. Nothing I learnt specifically in that PhD is needed for my job, and in fact, I do a job where most people who do the same thing as me don't have a PhD. So its value even for signalling is limited.
However, I'm glad I did the PhD.
The 4 years I spent on it were time in my life well spent. I enjoyed the work and it didn't bother me to be earning less than I otherwise would have.
The main skill I gained from the PhD was being able to read technical papers - typically involving stats or financial math. I have needed to do this on and off for my work, and I've found that lots of people who have good high school or college math find this much much harder than I do.
I study math for fun. I find the ability to do this precious and life affirming. When I read an interesting article in Quanta, I can look at the papers cited, if it's a field I have some background in, and make more sense of them than the average reader. In ten years of doing this, I have once published a short paper which added a small improvement to a recreational problem. So studying math isn't really about external achievement - I am the equivalent of someone who plays the guitar at home but will never have a gig or record a song. But I feel very lucky to exist in a time period when I had access to this educational opportunity, and when so much interesting math is available to read and study essentially for free.
However, I'm glad I did the PhD.
The 4 years I spent on it were time in my life well spent. I enjoyed the work and it didn't bother me to be earning less than I otherwise would have.
The main skill I gained from the PhD was being able to read technical papers - typically involving stats or financial math. I have needed to do this on and off for my work, and I've found that lots of people who have good high school or college math find this much much harder than I do.
I study math for fun. I find the ability to do this precious and life affirming. When I read an interesting article in Quanta, I can look at the papers cited, if it's a field I have some background in, and make more sense of them than the average reader. In ten years of doing this, I have once published a short paper which added a small improvement to a recreational problem. So studying math isn't really about external achievement - I am the equivalent of someone who plays the guitar at home but will never have a gig or record a song. But I feel very lucky to exist in a time period when I had access to this educational opportunity, and when so much interesting math is available to read and study essentially for free.