Articles

How MBAs Can Improve Career Options For PhDs

2011-05-01

Very few people hold both an MBA and PhD; it takes dedication, resources, and intelligence. Do a quick cost benefit analysis. What are you looking for? Are you looking to add specific concentrations to your portfolio of skills, gain insurance in an insecure job market, network with persons from diverse backgrounds and skill ranges, or are you an entrepreneur at heart?

PhDs and MBAs can be viewed in measures of depth compared with breadth. A doctorate learns a very narrow range of information about one field, but that knowledge can be more extensive than almost anyone else on the planet. Their questioning and methods are precise. The business degree's aim is to spread knowledge and application between fields of accounting, finance, leadership and management, business design and communication to smoothly handle any unforeseen event. Both schools breed different strengths and cultures. Speak the language of both areas and twice as many jobs are open to you.

Jobs in academia and research can be difficult to find. Get a degree from a top business school, on the other hand, and the corporate world is knocking on your door, with salary offers and bonuses that quickly cover the cost pf schooling. If you wish to integrate your field of study into the corporate world, businesses will hire you because they feel you have the flexibility to learn the mechanisms and then handle whatever situation they throw at you. You can quickly rise up the corporate ladder because you understand and can manage more of the moving parts - divisions of labor and teams - than a mere business grad. The entrepreneur's route often requires bootstrapping to get ideas off the ground. You can either hire experts to do what you cannot or use your business education to do everything, keeping costs low by controlling high overhead.

But even if you decide to stay inside the research world or in academia, jobs can be scarce, tenure illusive, and competition for grant money cut-throat. Because fields of study are getting narrower and deeper, collaboration is needed to make real breakthroughs. MBAs learn and practice skills that may sound soft, like management, team-building, and leadership, but at the end of the day their skills get the job done. They do this by cutting through the bickering to call upon each team member's individual strengths to troubleshoot or make the next breakthrough. Networking in business school can turn into lucrative funding. Successful communication makes an effective grant proposal. A financial education means you will use resources and think efficiently to get the best results. Dual degrees provide the right edge to beat the competition.