During parts of the Cold War, near DC, some knowledge of some STEM topics, e.g., assembler, Fortran, PL/I, C, the algorithms in the relevant book by Knuth, the fast Fourier transform, Kalman filtering, Maxwell's equations, algebraic coding theory, antenna theory, optimization, especially with a Ph.D., could generate a relatively good career in US <i>national security</i>.<p>Maybe now, not just near DC or in US national security, if can get a job in some organization that is doing important work, then there is a chance that can see an important problem and use good STEM field knowledge and computing to get a very valuable solution -- none of the effort part of the job description.<p>And IMHO computing and the Internet are continuing to explode, that is, have not yet nearly been fully exploited. Then maybe pick a promising problem, use some STEM field knowledge, computing, and the Internet to get a valuable solution, and start a business.<p>Ph.D.?<p>(1) Aim for a Ph.D. in <i>engineering</i>.<p>(2) Take some courses you believe might be helpful for your Ph.D. research and/or your career later.<p>(3) For your research, find, pick your own problem, maybe from practice outside of academics.<p>(4) Complete your research on your own and hand the results to your department or advisor(s). At some universities, the official requirement for a dissertation is<p>"an original contribution to knowledge worthy of publication"<p>So, at such a university and more generally, to remove nearly all doubt about your dissertation, publish your work.<p>Maybe for your first job, accept an assistant professor position in some engineering school and from there make contacts for a good career outside of academics.