I am so confused about what I'm doing in the near future. I want to get out of this hellhole but there's a slight chance I could finish my PhD with someone, who's actually not a bad dude.(My current supervisor is... not helpful) But I will have to stay here and work very hard and not get paid, but PhD is over in less than a year. I'm fucked with system implementation tho, since I'll be changing directions and have to start fresh.
I could also get a job and move away, and be paid a decent wage. But then there's no telling when I'm gonna finish the PhD.

Which would you choose if you were me? Which one should I pursue?

Really go for the PhD. Really. The fact that I'm officially a system administrator and not a programmer when it comes to papers stinged a lot of time in my life. Especially when doing very well it stings. There even was a moment when someone blabbed out that I was just a system administrator after winning a general discussion. I saw people lose respect straight while looking in theur eyes when I told what I've studied. I just partied a lot when I was younger and had different priorities but was programming since small kiddo. So. That's it. Get your fucking PhD so no one can say your statements are questionable for not having right papers. Also, work life is way longer than study, it's better to put some extra energy in study if it helps your long work life. Also, financially, high educated people grow in general with bigger steps than lower educated. I'm sure that you're elite, it would be a shame not having the right paper that should be yours. Just do it.

@retoor > 'I saw people lose respect straight while looking in theur eyes when I told what I've studied.'.

That's fucked up.

Skills are way more important than some paper in my book.

Hell, there are way too many idiots who graduated universities nowadays, so yeah... I'd definitely !trust the paper alone.

N: 'I know Kung Fu'.

M: 'Show Me'.

kind of thing.

@D-4got10-01 oh yes, totally. How is it possible of some people to graduate, really. Some people are just good at school, we'll see how they do at dem workforce.

@retoor My guesses would be either they're cheating, or the lowered bar.

Yes, they could be genuinely good at it, too, but we were talking about the bad ones, so this just doesn't apply.

It's difficult to work off of the information you gave out. We don't know your inner life details, rather only the bits you chose to share with us.

So no matter what anyone says, take it with a mountain sized grain of salt.

I'd move out and get a decent wage paying job tbh. @retoor A PhD is not a fucking guarantee that everyone would take you seriously for the rest of your life. Your validation comes from within, not from other people.

@NoMad finish the PhD if you don't do it now you're not going to finish it, and by the sound of it you'll regret it.

@retoor as someone one who got his piece of paper, I would never have considered the people skilled at the end, except maybe one or two. And I question anyone's competence if they bring "studies" into a skill debate. In the end though, having a basic degree of anything does give a lot of opportunities, the only reason I continued with my studies since I started working as soon as I turned 18 by being recommended for the position (ignoring all the voluntary work I did for school). And it's a general IT degree, not even a programming one.

@D-4got10-01 yep, they upmark grades so F students get C’s and get their diplomas or they reduce difficulty so anyone can pass. That plus they probably don’t teach much on the job stuff. I bet most if not all these grads who end up sucking when hired spent the last 4 years without learning anything useful