<p>I am about to graduate with an undergraduate degree in History, and I have decided to go into the business world. I am going to pursue a masters degree in Finance in order to either A) get relevent work experience leading to acceptance into an MBA program, or to B) get into a PhD program in Finance. </p>
<p>So, I was wondering, what are the job prospects (long and short term) like for an MBA (with a major in finance) vs. a PhD in finance. Obviously, with a PhD, I could teach for a living...but I'm talking about the non-academic world. From what I've read, PhDs used to be much more academically oriented than their DBA colleagues, but this is changing. </p>
<p>Anyone with any insight - it would be much appreciated.</p>
<p>Nowadays there is practically no difference between the DBA and PhD in business. Same job market, same targeted publications, same tenure process, same advisory procedures, same everything. </p>
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<p>If you already know you don’t have any interest in academia, then don’t get a PhD in finance. It’s not worth it. It takes too long, you run the significant risk of not even graduating at all - in contrast with an MBA program in which is nearly impossible to fail - and the skills you learn, particularly in how to publish academic papers, are not useful in industry. You should pursue a finance PhD, or any business PhD/DBA for that matter, because you actually are seriously considering a career in academia.</p>
<p>if i am trying to get into money management, a PhD in Finance wont look any better on my resume than an MBA? I wont be better prepared to succeed? </p>
<p>it seems like you are saying that those extra years in a PhD program will only be to help me as a writer/scholar…but not in the business world. Am I hearing you right?</p>
<p>Since this issue is being discussed here, I thought I’d share a story.
I was talking to a guy the other week who received a PHD in finance and also taught for a couple of years before moving out of academic world. He said the same exact thing as sakky. Since I told him that I didn’t wanted to end up teaching after my PHD, he advised that I rather go for an MBA.</p>
<p>I’m saying that it’s not worth the extra time, and, maybe even more importantly, the extra risk that you won’t even finish the degree at all. Not everybody who starts a PhD finance program will actually manage to complete the degree. The attrition rate is high - lots of people flunk the qualifying exams or are unable to ever produce a satisfactory thesis even after years of research. Some people float around for 7,8 years and still don’t graduate, and perhaps never will. </p>
<p>On the other hand, it’s practically impossible to actually flunk out of an MBA program, and you know exactly when you’re going to graduate: in 2 years. </p>
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<p>It’s not merely the ‘extra’ years in the PhD program, but rather, all of the years are not particularly useful in an industry context. As an MBA student, you’re going to be learning practical industry skills from the very first day, especially the all-important ‘networking’ skill. But as a PhD student, you’re going to be reading and writing academic papers right from the start, and that’s not a highly translatable skill. Industry people don’t really care about academic papers. You tell industry people that you’re published in the The Accounting Review or Journal of Financial Economics and nobody really cares. </p>
<p>Note, that’s not to say that there is no industry value to those activities at all. What I’m saying is that those are low-yield activities. You are probably better off taking that time and devoting it to an MBA program, if you know you don’t want to teach.</p>
<p>Now, it’s perfectly fine to enter a PhD program if you’re considering, but are not sure, about an academic career. Many of these people will quit the program once they determine that academia is not for them. But if you already know from the very start that you don’t want to be in academia, then a PhD program will just be a waste of time.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your sincere advice. It’s only 3:30 in the morning and you’ve already done your good deed for the day, lol.</p>
<p>Seriously though, thank you very much. I’m meeting with the head of our economics and business department soon, and I’m trying to gather as much information as possible before meeting with him. This has been very helpful.</p>