Title: Hi there,<p>I&#x27;m at the end of my MSc. studies in CS. At the moment, I can choose to graduate in a month or two, or stay-on for another 9 months doing research in interactive theorem proving that will potentially lead to a PhD opportunity.<p>I&#x27;m doing my MSc in a foreign country and I&#x27;m very unhappy here. Another ~9 months seems like a huge hurdle to me. The current situation is if I choose to graduate soon, I will likely surrender my chance for a PhD.<p>I don&#x27;t particularly <i>love</i> studying. I think interactive theorem proving is quite cool, but the actual practice of studying&#x2F;research hasn&#x27;t been that enjoyable to me, but I enjoy having the knowledge once I&#x27;ve acquired it. In many ways it seems like &quot;the future&quot; to me, and it&#x27;d be really neat to be one of the first passengers on that train, so to say.<p>I have no desire to become a professor&#x2F;researcher. After I acquire my PhD, I surmise that I would go to industry.<p>The issue here is one of bad information: I don&#x27;t have industry experience and I don&#x27;t really know how any of this stuff plays out. I&#x27;m worried that if I chose to forego the PhD, I&#x27;ll really regret it in a number of years. I&#x27;m afraid I won&#x27;t be able to find interesting work with just a MSc, and I&#x27;m really afraid of getting a boring software engineering gig.<p>I&#x27;m concerned that without the expertise&#x2F;knowledge&#x2F;academic maturity that I would gain from a PhD, I&#x27;ll be stuck doing things that bore me after a number of years, with no room to grow to more interesting things. Equally concerning to me is that I think I&#x27;d likely be miserable during the PhD process. It seems very lonely, and I don&#x27;t find much enjoyment from, say, sitting in my office reading papers all day. I much prefer creating things. I also think I&#x27;m just not that bright and that a PhD would be a huge intellectual challenge for me. I&#x27;m also absolutely sick of living like a student with little financial freedom.<p>Does anyone have any guiding advice?
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