Studying Business – The Academic Route: Is it Right for Me?
In this first article, I will discuss whether the academic route is right for you. Getting a Ph.D. is a long journey. It takes dedication, resilience, and most importantly passion to survive and thrive in this choice. But nonetheless, for those for whom this is the right choice, there is nothing that compares in the end.
To begin, we must understand this is a journey. To embark on this venture means to seek progress even when there is no end in sight; the journey to get there is more important than the destination.
Research is “studious inquiry or examination” especially the “investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws.”
Even the famed findings like that of Fisher Black, Myron Scholes, Eugene Fama, Kenneth French, William Sharpe, and more are not to be trivialized in the amount of effort and wit behind each individual paper. It is clear that each is a culmination of the millions of tiny steps of those taken before, including the individual journeys each of those researchers took themselves.
As such, most famous findings are, in truth, a monument built upon the vast small contributions of those before, many of whom may not even find their names listed on the rolls of Nobel Laureates. To take upon yourself this mantle is not a means to seek out fame or fortune, but to follow the path towards the infinite horizon that is truth, no matter where that leads. The journey to get a Ph.D. is a self-directed and self-motivated endeavor.
A Ph.D. is not just a better MBA with the permission to put “Dr.” before your name or have others call you “doctor.” A Ph.D. is a research degree, designed to prepare you to be a professor and to do research in a very specific field. While it is true that many Ph.D.s work in non-academic jobs, this is not their intended purpose. If this is what you seek, a different degree, such as a Master of Public Policy, MBA, etc., might suffice without the misery of five or more years of school.
A Ph.D. is not a route to fortune either. While it is true that the average professor in economics or finance will make over $100,000 a year, this varies quite a bit by institution, tenure track or not, and more.
For instance, if you are a finance or economics student pursuing a Ph.D. for the money (which would be hard to ignore given the nature of your degree), you are far better off with an MBA: the average starting salary for an MBA graduate is $115,000. This salary can be earned in roughly the same minimum time after graduating from college as most MBA programs are one to two years, and require an additional one to three years of work experience.
To dive much deeper into these differences is well beyond my expertise, but it nonetheless an important topic to explore in later installments.
In summation, the Ph.D. is not the right path for everyone. Doing a Ph.D. is a journey, and an arduous one at that. Perhaps you, the reader, feel ready to take that upon yourself.
In considering whether you wish to pursue a Ph.D., you must ask yourself a few key questions, and follow them to their honest conclusions. Are you driven to endlessly seek out the truth? Are you excited when you are a part of a discussion about something you wish you understood more about? Do you endlessly refer to the fields you are passionate about in regular conversation? If so, I encourage you to read on.
