<prompt> Human: Im finishing up my first year of a doctoral program in chemistry and I have the option of doing research for another year and getting a masters or finishing the program which would take at least four more years. I make 32,000 a year on stipend which is comfortable but if I get a masters I have an excellent job opportunity in a cheaper location based on connections. If I leave grad school early I could become an engineer for a very well known tech company with excellent benefits and make a decent amount of money 65kpackage right from the start with a science masters. However, I could make a lot more with a science PhD but Im not sure if it is worth it. A masters at 23 and a good job would be a great start to financial security whereas the PhD seems like a risky financial move that may or may not pay off. If I stay in my chosen field it would require at least one post-doc to get a well-paying job 90k starting at around age 29.Is it a terrible idea to leave early and take a career detour?Assistant: Im in biotech MS is bioinformatics, but originally had pursued a PhD in genetics and dropped out by choice and fpr multiple reasons so I think I can actually give some perspective for once.A PhD in these fields is great. It opens up a lot of opportunity. You can go into academics and teaching my original career goal. In industry, if you want to land jobs making actual decisions about where the projects go, the ones with titles like Scientist, you almost always need a PhD. Sometimes you can get there with an MS and buttload of experience and talent, but its hard. On the downside, youre in school for a long time before you can really get your life started. Most of my friends from my PhD program didnt do things like buy homes or have kids until into their 30s. Starting salaries arent dramatically better than with an MS, but the growth potential is higher.With an MS you can, however, still get into labwork and still make a perfectly good career and salary out of it. Your growth potential will be more along the lines of lab management, data analysis, etc. Leadership roles are there, its just different ones.I spent a lot of time agonizing back then about whether I would regret not finishing my PhD, but it turns out that Ive come to a pretty happy place in my career. Im not the boss, but I am a senior and not to brag reasonably respected member of my team. I like what I do. It turned out that I didnt really like the completely self-directed aspect of academic research. The goals of my projects now are usually laid out for me, and I then decide how best to achieve them. Its just enough structure, but still independant.Plus, at 32, I have a home, a good start on a 401k, two kids, and my SLs are paid off. I dont think any of my PhD classmates can say that yet.Human: Thank you for your advice!For me, it would be leaving biotech synthetic chemistry and going into engineering at a tech company so a complete 180.Mostly it is whether I want to stay in pharma or not and lately Ive been thinking if I can get a good job elsewhere I should.  <response>: if I can get a good job elsewhere I should.Pharma and biotech are doing really well right now. If you do stay in your program, my advice to you is to learn as much programming as possible, especially anything related to bioinformatics. This is whats being looked for these days in industry. 