Im half way through an industry year, working for a pharmaceutical company and my eyes have been opened. I have just realised that in pharmas if you want to get anywhere PhD's are an essential. A degree simply puts you at the bench and you end up being someones gopher, with minimal prospects. I was struggling to make my mind up whether to do a PhD or not but my mind is now made up. If you think you can hack a PhD (which I hope I can) then i reckon its well worth going for it.

I am an undergraduate student intending to do a PhD. From my (limited!) experience, a PhD is necessary to establish a career in research. You're right about a degree only putting you at the bench. Also, I think a PhD would be a lot of fun, if you don't mind giving it your all.

That's a good question but I suppose if you want to get anywhere then a PhD is essential as it shows the commitment and inner drive to succeed! Very good attributes for management level and will definitely improve your prospects! I read that it's supposed to increase your salary in later life compared to graduates but I suppose that depends on experience & how good you are at selling yourself!

I would suggest thinking about the reasons for doing one very carefully as it's not something to be entered into lightly! You actually have to enjoy what you're doing otherwise you won't get through it especially in the quiet/troublesome times! You probably don't want to hear this but it's a fact that if you're just doing it for the sake of doing it you could be depriving someone who really wants to do research of a place!!

I would also suggest talking to loads of different people to get their perspective/experiences and see if it's something you can do! If the answer is yes then it'll be worthwhile and fun! Good luck!