Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

So you want to be an expert in Marketing, but don't know what the most contemporary topics are in your field?

I suggest you pick a topic that is of high interest to you. You're going to be spending a lot of time on this, so you need a topic that really gets your juices flowing. Besides, if you're going to become an expert on a subject, you'll probably want to make it part of your long-term career plan ... and if it's not something that turns you on, you'll have lots of years of a not-so-satisfying career.

I second what mgoodman says. Find something that interests you. Better yet, something that interests you and you have a connection to (say that involves a problem at a company you worked for, so you have a contact in the industry to help you get info from).

Stop. Take stock. Pause. THINK!

The real gold here in terms of your success with a Ph.D lies in your passion, not in a suggestion from any of us.

By asking someone to help you pick a topic you're showing how little you understand of the process. In my mind, this raises a red flag and it raises a question: how will you getting your Ph. D. help others?

I've worked with Ph. Ds and many of them spend so much time and effort learning more and more about less and less that they lose sight of the point of furthering their education.

Avoid this trap and do some thinking of your own and make the thinking that you do do HARD thinking.

I hope this helps.