Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

Dear Seema,

Ask not what can your Ph.D. do for you. Ask instead, what can your Ph.D. do for others.

Advanced education is a worthy thing. Truly it is. But before you get all bent out of shape about a doctorate, consider the point that one’s level of education and one’s ability to communicate are
often inversely proportional. The more you gain of the former, the less you are often equipped to contribute through the latter.

Do you really want to earn a Ph.D.? Or are you being pushed toward it by others?

What will you do with your doctorate, if you manage to get it?

How will your research benefit others, benefit you, and benefit your potential employer?

Will you remain in academia AFTER you get your final qualification?
Or will you move out into the big, bad world?

Getting a doctorate will equip you to learn more and more about less and less. If this is what you truly want, then by all means, go for it body and soul and good luck to you.

But bear in mind that while you’re spending seven years or so studying, the rest of the world is out there getting on with life. Also ask yourself if you’d be better off learning as much as possible about as much as possible, thereby making you a much in demand generalist.

A doctorate does not make anyone smarter than anyone else. It merely indicates that one has been indulged by funding and the education system to pursue some form of academic nirvana while the rest of the world is busy earning a living and working.

You may want to ask lots of current marketing Ph.D.s what they got out of the experience, and what they get out of it (the two are not the same thing), and then move on from there.

But the final choice must be yours.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA