I am going into the fourth year of a PhD program and my research, which is in a STEM field, has clear applications in the tech industry.
I have my Master's degree, but have decided not to finish the PhD.
Is it important to be enrolled while applying for jobs rather than be unemployed? Will the people hiring view me differently?
Note: being enrolled brings some significant demands on my time.
Answer
Being unemployed can significantly decrease your likelihood of successfully landing a job. The preceeding link is one of many stories covering that angle. The best graph describing how bad it is comes from this Atlantic article:
The upshot of most of these is that employers have a psychological bias towards employed people. Whether this is "fair" or "appropriate" or even "smart" not is really not the question, the finding is pretty difficult to refute: you are far more likely to land a job if you are currently gainfully employed.
To bring this back to your original question, I would strongly recommend you begin your job search before you leave the program.
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