Will leaving a PhD after one year or having a full PhD be better or worse for job in industry? I am a UK student, 23 years old, and started a PhD in theoretical physics last October 2018 at a top 15-20 university (my undergrad Maths degree was at a top 5 uni where I got a First Class Honours 1:1), I have since come to realise that I do not want to pursue a career in academia but want to go into industry.

Considering that a PhD in these disciplines cannot replace work experience and to mitigate that at best, you could train programming skills and general knowledge in the area which you are going to apply to (although you would have nothing to show for it, and which would be learnt on the job anyway). Then would a full PhD in theoretical physics/pure maths (~4 years) be considered a downside in the eyes of an employer compared to a graduate with 1 year of PhD, when applying for a data science/analyst/consultant/actuary job? 

Any advise, especially from STEM PhDs and PhD dropouts who later went into industry, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!
You do not want to pursue a career in academia. It is good that you have worked this out early enough to do something about it.

Was "the next step in the career" the only reason for doing your PhD? Or is it a genuine delight to you to be learning and to be looking forward to making a contribution to knowledge?


If there is no delight then if I were you I'd drop it at once. But I am not you, and that is not advice.
If there is delight then if I were you I would pursue that wholeheartedly. There is little enough delight in the world as it is and we shouldn't throw away what we have. But I am not you, and that is not advice.
If you are half way between the two - it is always possible to start a doctorate at 60. A friend of mine did. So bear that in mind.


But here at last is some genuine advice. It comes in two stages.


Take a total and irrevocable decision to abandon all your academic pretensions and go straight for business. No second thoughts, no looking back, that is what you are going to do.


Live with that decision for a week. But do it seriously. Remember that you are not trying to decide, you have decided. That is the key.


Take a total and irrevocable decision to complete your PhD and only go into business after that. As before: no second thoughts, no looking back. 


Live with that decision for a week.



The reason why this exercise in self-deception works so well is that it frees all the important parts of your psyche to engage with a definite and unambiguous future and not some sort of vague undecided limbo. And they are able to tell you what you feel.

At the end of those two weeks, look back on how you felt. When did you have regrets over what you had decided, and what were they? When did the choice feel righter? In which week were you most looking forward to life?