How many courses should I take in my PhD I finished my masters at University X and I am continuing my PhD in the same university which allows me to transfer up to 20 credit hours of my masters coursework to my PhD course requirements which is 27 credit hours. So now I only need to finish 7 credit hours and I will be done with the PhD course requirement. I heard from couple of friends that I should take more courses because finishing my PhD with a small number of courses might potentially hurt my future by making my PhD less in value. If this is true, how many courses should I take to make a good PhD courses count?

I am interested in both industrial and postdoctoral positions after I finish my PhD.
Your success in a PhD program will be judged based on your research, not your course work.  You should take the minimum number of courses required to get the degree, and spend your remaining time performing research.

The exception would be if you are seeking a job at an institution where you would teach multiple disciplines, and are required to have taken a certain number of graduate courses in each discipline.  This would not be unusual at American community colleges.