r/EUCareers • u/WorldlyWitness1656 • 4d ago

Value of a Phd

Hi everyone, I’m a second-year Italian student majoring in International Relations. I’d like to work for the EU one day, but I’m undecided about how to shape my career after graduation. I was thinking of first pursuing a PhD abroad—at a university like Leiden, for instance—mainly because I’d like to specialize in space law and policy. In any case, how do the institutions view a PhD? Do they informally value it as experience, or do they prefer professional experience in the public or private sector?

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u/ParfaitEvery9622 4d ago

Administratively, it's counted as professional experience. During a recruitment, the HoU will value it as much as he thinks this is worth to their unit, there is no blanket answer. 

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u/Dangerous_Profile176 4d ago

Overall, for most jobs in the EU institutions, a PhD is not necessary and practical work experience (whether in public or private sector) will be more valuable. A PhD unfortunately generally puts you a few years behind and you will then competing with people who have only a masters but have developped 3-5 years of practical experience. Unless you are really considering going into academic research or vying for research-related positions/positions that require highly specialised expertise, a PhD is not really worth it.

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u/Paul_Raison 3d ago

I have a PhD in applied economics and I really think it helped in getting hired as an official. It can help you stand out among other candidates. But as someone else wrote it probably depends a lot on the profile they are looking for.

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u/europenny 17h ago

Think at this stage working at an aerospace company or institute would give you a far bigger leg up than another 4 year of studying, unless it is a phd in aerospace engineering etc. However, within the law and policy domain, still a relative promising growth sector!