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I've never considered being a PhD dropout a bad thing. There are so many legit reasons for not finishing a program.

I've been in recruiting discussions where we specifically wanted an ABD in CS (we wanted ability, but also eagerness to work in a new subject area).

Although, it's conceivable that being both ABD and not specifically in CS is seen as a bridge too far.

Why did you want an ABD but not a PhD holder though?

Interest in "something new, anything new" tends to substantially increase in the past 2ish months of a PhD.

Not sure if this is a reason for or against.

Intimidation.

That seems to be an unnecessarily narrow band of candidates you want. You would be missing out on possibly good candidates just because they got a PhD.

Just to clarify, I don't think it's inherently a bad thing either. But these were the words given to me by physics grad students at the time.

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