Ph.D in Management 

at School of Business, Gurgaon

CAREER OPTIONS AFTER A Ph.D

Let me first try to dispel the most commonly held myth, "Ph.D is a training to become a university professor". This is not true. If a professor graduates 5 Ph.Ds in his lifetime, and if all of them get employed in academia, then the size of academia needs to increase five fold. However, this does not happen.

The proportion of Ph.Ds that join academia is not very large, and is definitely not the most preferred option or the last resort. Before delving into this issue further, we need to understand that a Ph.D is just not a degree. It is the training that is valuable than the actual "Dr." stamp itself. In a good Ph.D, it is exected that the candidate would have engaged in state of the art research. He or she would have understood deep research issues and would have made a modest effort to solve a few problems.

Furthermore, he would be used to putting long hours at work, solve extremely complicated problems, and handle frustrating situations with ease. These skills are just not required to be academic, they are required in almost all other disciplines such as industrial R&D, finance, and public service. The addition of a Ph.D to a resume is two-fold: knowledge and skills. Any job can utilize either of these to different degrees. Let us look at the common career options.

Traditionally, the most preferred jobs for Ph.Ds have been industrial R&D Labs, university positions, and start-ups. Industrial R&D facilities typically have large exclusive Ph.D-only groups. These groups engage in research, design new products, and also take part in long-term strategy decisions. The average salary in an industrial R&D lab is much more than in pure development centers. In India, research lab salaries are about 50% more. This means that a person with a Ph.D joining a research lab at 27 years of age is significantly better paid than his classmate with 5 years of experience after B.Tech.