Earning a PhD is though, and can be very hard, depending on your advisor. But even if you've managed to finish it, you face a relentless fight for permanent positions, which according to the statistics, you're going to loose.
Once you've dropped out of academia, the prestige of the PhD will matter for nothing. What could maybe matter, are some skills/contacts which you hopefully acquired during your PhD studies. But whether this justifies doing a PhD is IMO questionable. A topic in statistical machine learning sounds good. But then again, I did my PhD in pure math, and would not have a problem getting a quant position.
If you don't manage to finish your PhD, which is quite possible, you certainly don't have any prestige, and you will in addition face the pain of failure, which can be huge in that context.
In short, don't underestimate the task of doing a PhD, and don't overestimate the impact of having one.
Once you've dropped out of academia, the prestige of the PhD will matter for nothing. What could maybe matter, are some skills/contacts which you hopefully acquired during your PhD studies. But whether this justifies doing a PhD is IMO questionable. A topic in statistical machine learning sounds good. But then again, I did my PhD in pure math, and would not have a problem getting a quant position.
If you don't manage to finish your PhD, which is quite possible, you certainly don't have any prestige, and you will in addition face the pain of failure, which can be huge in that context.
In short, don't underestimate the task of doing a PhD, and don't overestimate the impact of having one.