My PhD Story

 I worked with a guy who was helping his Fortune-500 company win a DoD contract.  One of the stipulations in the contract....from the hundred-odd people that his company would provide to support the 'need'....three of them had to be PhD-level scientists (of sort).  

He looked over the requirement in the bidding and told the government this was an enormous waste of skill and manpower (adding over a million a year in extra costs).  The response was....at times, to argue facts or bogus things....you needed some guy/gal with 'doctor' and PhD behind their name.   Requirement stood.

So he bid....getting the contract for the company.

He then went out to recruit and hire the 97-odd regular folks.  This was not a problem.

The three PhD-level folks?  Well....that took a while.  One gal said fine, but she wanted the company to professionally move her horse (figure in the $3,000 range) for the two-day trip.

Another PhD person asked for a personal secretary (of their choosing).  This was not stipulated in the gov't contract....so it was going to cost money out of the profit margin (big negative).

Another candidate owned a antique car, and wanted the company to move their car as part of the relocation move.

One candidate wanted a travel allowance (in the $20k range each year) as part of his deal....but could not explain where they'd be going.

My associate ended up hiring three PhD folks to fill the role, and assessed the work-space situation next.  Each PhD person wanted a private office, and square footage became an issue because the three private offices weren't precisely the same amount.  He had to work with what the gov't gave him.

In the end, over the three years that he managed this program....it became a daily task to just keep the 97-odd folks away from the PhD folks.  

Certain projects had to be signed with the three, and that was the only real value in the end.  

All of this made me wonder....across the entire US government....how many welfare-hire situations exist....where a PhD guy is hired with no real purpose in life?  Ten-thousand?