Livre d'Or

The thing is, you seem to be arguing that your PhD wasn't that bad because it only made you depressed and broke and miserable for four years, and had no career benefit and gave you only minor personal satisfaction. This really doesn't seem a strong case why a final year student should in fact go against my advice and apply for a PhD anyway!

I mean, yes, a different PhD in a different location might have worked out better for you. But I think going straight into software engineering when you graduated would have been better still.