I have a PhD and I worked for several by industry research labs. So when the OP mentions " he went “oh well, if you must make me code…” That pretty much made me go “no hire.” He clearly is being either dishonest or taking shortcuts, PhD's want to have a job that is interesting if it's to piss code all day I would have stopped at my Master degree. Pissing code, as much as many would like to think is not exactly challenging if you have a PhD (I'm not saying that having highly optimized, readable code isn't but having something that works is not that hard) so if the whole interview process is centered around how well you can write something in A/B/C/D language yes I understand the interviewee.
One funny thing: "Most places will actually pair you up with a mentor who is not your boss" this has to be a joke, I worked for HP-Labs and other big labs never ever had a mentor, usually if you have a issue you are pretty much welcome to discuss it with your colleague, have them review your proposed solution but boy you are on your own when it comes to do implement it.
Again the OP has no clue clue of what he is talking and it's sad because his research interests are security related:
"You are much more likely to land an interesting job at the coasts. West more than East."
I can prove easily that if you have a PhD in a security or somehow related (formal methods) you have more chances to land a job on the east coast: DARPA,IARPA, MITRE, DoD all these agencies are funding 80% of the security research of the country ! Easier if you are a citizen indeed, but I'm a foreigner on H1B and I still work on a DARPA funded project ...
One more joke:
"Most industrial positions will not care about your publications" seriously this guy is ridiculous or just unable to think outside his google circle, most labs are indeed more than interested in your publications because it means for them potential patent application, more contacts in conferences and the end goal a better reputation and more easier to build a consortium to respond to call for proposals or BAA(http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=8). But coming from someone who has not many publication I understand, for information here is his publication list http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/h/...
Anyway I'll stop commenting the rest of his post, his post is not all bad but it's based on his personal experience and he does a generalization out of his limited experience.
I've seen approximately zero correlation between degree status and ability to write code. The best programmer I've ever worked with has a PhD... but so have at least two of the terrible ones.
I also submit that if programming is "not exactly challenging" then you are working on the wrong products and/or at the wrong level of abstraction.
There are legitimate reasons to prefer research, or management, or marketing, or sales over development, but lack of challenge is not one of them.
One funny thing: "Most places will actually pair you up with a mentor who is not your boss" this has to be a joke, I worked for HP-Labs and other big labs never ever had a mentor, usually if you have a issue you are pretty much welcome to discuss it with your colleague, have them review your proposed solution but boy you are on your own when it comes to do implement it.
Again the OP has no clue clue of what he is talking and it's sad because his research interests are security related: "You are much more likely to land an interesting job at the coasts. West more than East." I can prove easily that if you have a PhD in a security or somehow related (formal methods) you have more chances to land a job on the east coast: DARPA,IARPA, MITRE, DoD all these agencies are funding 80% of the security research of the country ! Easier if you are a citizen indeed, but I'm a foreigner on H1B and I still work on a DARPA funded project ... One more joke: "Most industrial positions will not care about your publications" seriously this guy is ridiculous or just unable to think outside his google circle, most labs are indeed more than interested in your publications because it means for them potential patent application, more contacts in conferences and the end goal a better reputation and more easier to build a consortium to respond to call for proposals or BAA(http://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?page=8). But coming from someone who has not many publication I understand, for information here is his publication list http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/h/...
Anyway I'll stop commenting the rest of his post, his post is not all bad but it's based on his personal experience and he does a generalization out of his limited experience.