As far as doctoral degrees are concerned... if you have to ask, you definitely shouldn't. People who go into it for the prospects, rather than for sheer compulsion and love of the work, typically don't make it through the degree.
I'd have to disagree there; I did an MSc and then a PhD in Europe (I think you're in Scotland?), and met lots of people who weren't doing PhDs for the love of work. Some of them wanted the letters after their names as a way into very high-paying jobs in finance.
I actually think we produce too many people with PhDs, especially in my field (biology). Many graduates can't find permanent jobs, and they often end up doing things unrelated to research.
There's been some debate in the States about the use of PhD students as cheap labor and their relatively limited prospects when they get their degrees.
And of course, there's Austin's point about constant grantwriting --- even the PhD-level scientists who
do get academic jobs end up chasing financing eternally (in the US, anyway). As far as I know, Europeans don't have to scrape up money for their salaries.
I recently read that there 's a growing group of people who've left full-time science jobs in favor of part-time jobs, who do science by squatting in friend's lab or at home.
Val
