EDIT: This has been closed and I realise that I may not have been specific enough with the original title. I ask two questions here: The general one (Does a PhD help get a job?) which has been asked elsewhere, and the specific one (Is it possible to get work outside of the specific research field?). Assume I've already decided going to do the phd. I'm just stressing about the research topic.

Well, I'm one year out of university (Mechatronics engineering and Software Eng double bachelors), worked for a few months then got retrenched (yay economy!). It's looking less and less likely that I'll get a job worth having with the job market as it is, so I'm thinking about going back to uni to do a PhD. I figure that by the time I'm done, the job market will have improved and hopefully I'll have something on my resume that is more attractive than spending three years doing customer support for accounting software.

So, my question is to people who've done PhD's. Would you say that they were worth the effort? How important is the research topic to future job-seeking success? The idea I have is a computer-sciencey/neural-networks/data-mining thing which I think is very interesting, but not a field I want to be in forever. My potential supervisor claims that employers don't care so much about the topic of the research but rather the peripheral skills that are developed through a PhD; time managment, self-restraint, planning and whatnot.

How does this mesh with people's real world experience? I'd appreciate any advice before signing my life on the line for the next three years.

See also:

• Should developers go to grad school?
• Best reason not to hire a PhD?
• How to find an entry-level job after you already have a graduate degree?