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What now?

I wear many hats.

My main hat is in the quantum tech industry, but I also help physics and math PhD students transition into non-academic careers. Sometimes these two hats nicely complement each other, but occasionally they are in tension.

One of these areas of tension happens when people ask me whether they should start a PhD to get into the quantum tech industry. They ask this because many of the job postings they see have a PhD requirement.

Yes, the industry needs PhDs, but as a career move, I don’t think it’s the best bet.

I’m not saying PhDs aren’t valuable—they are!—but quantum tech is changing too fast for a PhD to be a reliable path—if getting into this specific industry is your main motivation.

Five years ago, almost anyone with the word “quantum” in their PhD thesis could get their foot in the door into a technical role. Now, many PhDs struggle to find jobs because their expertise doesn’t match what companies need when they graduate.

Quantum tech companies these days are mostly interested in:

  1. “Real” software developers with actual real-world experience.
  2. People with quantum backgrounds who are happy to give up research and work on the business/client/education side of things.
  3. Post-doc/senior-level researchers with very specialized expertise, like compilers or error correction/fault tolerance or hardware development.

A PhD won’t help you with 1.

A PhD will help you with 2, and if you already have (or almost have) one, go for it!…but I’m not convinced that setting out to do a PhD to get a role like this is good use of your time and resources. If you’re already technically-minded, there are faster ways to get your foot in the door for a role like this (self-study, hands-on projects, and networking).

For 3, obviously a PhD is needed here. If you already have (or almost have) a PhD in one of the spcialized fields that are in demand right now, you are in luck! But in fast-moving industries like quantum tech, it’s difficult to predict what will be desirable in 4-5 years’ time. A PhD in an area of quantum tech that seems promising now might leave you with expertise that isn’t in demand by the time you graduate. Sure, you will have transferable quantum-related skills, but as industries mature, the depth of expertise required goes up. Your specific skills might not cut it.

Yes, some people got lucky, like those working in quantum tech now, but that’s selection bias. In my case, I randomly stumbled into quantum info and quantum optics 20+ years ago. It did not cross my mind that 10 years later it would turn into an industry. At the time, most people didn’t even think quantum optics was a very promising appraoch to quantum computing, but I stuck with it because it was interesting and I liked the people. I think a lot of my colleagues are in similar situations. We didn’t pick our degrees to get into this industry.

As I said above, I’m not saying a PhD isn’t valuable. But the way to apprach one is either:

  1. Do it because of your commitment to research for its own sake. Because the work itself pulls you in. Because it’s something you can’t not do.
  2. Or, do it to develop specialized skills that have applicability in a broad range of industries.

Don’t do it to get into one specific industry. Especially not one as fast-moving and unpredictable as quantum tech.

As for the workforce problem in quantum tech, this is definitely a problem that needs solving. But I’m not sure telling people to do PhDs is the best way to solve it.