D*a
发帖数: 6830 | 1 原标题： A bridge to business
Peter Fiske
Nature 530, 243–245 (11 February 2016) doi:10.1038/nj7589-243a
PhD holders should not underestimate their value to industry and the
business sector, says Peter Fiske.
Subject terms: Careers Business Education
The glossy poster at my university career planning and placement centre both
intrigued and perplexed me: “PhDs: come learn about a career in management
consulting — recruiting reception tonight!”
As a PhD student in geology, I was dimly aware of the name of the consulting
firm that had organized the event; one of my friends had accepted a
position with the firm after he graduated. I had heard that he was earning a
great salary and travelling a lot, and that he was aiming to go back for a
master's degree in business administration (MBA). Until I saw the poster, I
had no idea that a strategic-management-consulting firm would even consider
hiring non-MBA types, let alone recruit PhDs specifically.
I applied for a position and landed a series of interviews that culminated
in a day of them at the company's offices in Los Angeles, California. I did
not receive an offer in the end, but it was an illuminating experience.
Mostly, I was surprised that someone with a freshly minted PhD could
immediately earn US$160,000. And that was in 1994.
Fast forward 22 years. Now, as the chief executive of a US technology
company, I have recruited PhDs for both technical and business positions. I
have found across all scientific disciplines that those with doctoral
degrees possess many of the skills that are in highest demand in today's
economy. If you have earned a PhD, you know, for example, how to analyse
data. You also understand how to examine those results to gain insights. In
some important ways, you are better prepared than MBA holders to make
valuable contributions to the business world. You have learned resilience in
the face of uncertainty and with limited resources.
Yet you and many other PhD graduates — along with the programmes that
trained you — remain largely unaware of or uninterested in opportunities
outside academia. In turn, only a few companies, such as the consulting firm
whose recruiting poster I saw 20 years ago, have pre-emptively recognized
the value that you and your colleagues can bring — and they are reaping a
harvest of talent as a result.
You are doing yourself a disservice. As a doctoral degree-holder, you need
to appreciate your degree programme for the transferable skills that it
confers (see 'Top transferable skills for business'), and recognize that
those skills provide you with significant and immediate advantages over your
business-school counterparts. You do not need a business degree or
substantial extra training to secure satisfying and highly compensated work
in the business sector.
Need more convincing? Let's examine the differences between the training
components of each degree programme.
In a typical MBA scheme, students listen to lectures, work on projects and
learn about business-friendly topics such as economics, finance, accounting,
organizational behaviour and law. Fundamentally, the MBA is a conventional,
curriculum-led educational experience. Although internships and student-led
organizations provide opportunities for direct work experience, success in
business school is largely a function of earning good grades. Students
graduate after two years or so, and top performers can land jobs that start
at $150,000 or more.
Most doctoral programmes also require a large body of course work. But as a
PhD student, you probably spent more time 'doing', rather than studying or
passively listening. You conducted original scientific research, which may
have included fieldwork, you taught younger students and you were possibly
involved with at least one manuscript.
Data deluge
Science PhD students particularly benefit from near-constant immersion in
emerging technologies and, especially, in data analysis and hypothesis
testing. This is a huge advantage in the business world: every industrial
sector and type of business is more reliant on technology and data now than
ever before. And in today's economy, the volume and complexity of the
information that businesses use require managers and executives to
understand the basics of data analysis and statistics — and to have a
deeper ability to construct and test hypotheses and to build and validate
models.
And science-PhD holders have a further advantage. Not only is technological
innovation a key to the development of products and services, but the tools
that are used to run businesses have science and technology embedded in them
. Customer-relations management software, for example, uses advanced
statistical algorithms that analyse trends and identify important variables
such as user behaviour and pricing trends.
MBA graduates do not routinely encounter such training or confront these
requirements in their degree programme, whereas they are an integral
component of the PhD programme.
In short, the PhD experience is much more like the real world of business
than is the MBA programme. If educational institutions were to train MBA
students in the same way that they train PhD students, they would require
business students to complete all the required course work — and to launch
a successful business.
Box 1: Top transferable skills for business
If you have earned a science PhD, you were probably told by mentors,
advisers and career-development specialists that you will need to develop a
lot of new skills to succeed in any sector outside academia. But your PhD
programme has already conferred many skills that are important, even crucial
, in the business world, and that are comparable to — and in some cases
superior to — the talents acquired in a graduate-level business programme.
Here are some examples.
Data analysis You were trained to gather, evaluate, synthesize and present
data, and to uncover relationships, correlations and trends. The business
world increasingly relies on the same methodologies to develop strategies
and identify opportunities.
Resourcefulness You probably had to create experiments, methodologies and
analyses with limited resources and under tight time constraints. Successful
business people are often challenged to develop a product or service while
facing the same difficulties.
Technological awareness You were trained to understand the fundamentals of a
range of technologies. Many of these technologies are at the heart of
products and services in the private sector.
Resilience You may have encountered unexpected setbacks in your research or
studies, yet powered through to reach your goals. This resilience in the
face of challenge often separates the most successful entrepreneurs from the
rest.
Project management Completing a PhD typically requires the coordination and
scheduling of disparate resources and individuals — as well as thinking
through all aspects of a complex project or activity. The same course of
action is a core component of the business world.
Problem-solving You had to use novel thinking and innovative frames of
reference to identify and solve technical problems. The ability to reframe
problems to identify novel solutions is a key skill in business.
English proficiency You are probably skilled in English, the most prevalent
language of international business.
Written communication PhD holders often have extensive experience in writing
and describing complex ideas and methodologies. Effective written
communication is crucial to business success.
Expand
Given that the PhD is such a powerful training foundation for success in the
private sector, one might presume that this value would be reflected in the
salaries of PhD graduates as compared to those of their MBA counterparts.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true.
For example, a PhD-trained biochemist with five years' work experience after
their PhD who is employed as a 'PhD biochemist III' (a typical job title in
industry) in the United States has an average annual salary of roughly $68,
000, according to salary.com, a major salary database. In contrast, a person
with the title 'market-research supervisor III', who also has five years'
work experience and an MBA, is likely to earn $91,000.
Both jobs require an ability to analyse data, synthesize technical
information, perform tests to validate hypotheses and supervise a team. But
whereas the market-research supervisor almost certainly could not walk into
the PhD biochemist's position, the biochemist could easily perform all the
duties of the research supervisor — with just a small amount of tailored
training.
Bridge the gap
But therein lies the glitch. If a PhD provides graduates with such a range
of strengths and transferable skills, why don't doctorate holders
immediately command higher salaries? Part of the problem is that PhD
students do not routinely receive such tailored training in the skills that
are highly valued in the business sector. Practical professional skills such
as negotiation, communication, business strategy, basic economics and
marketing are all abundantly represented in the curricula of leading MBA
programmes.
Yet only a handful of research universities train PhD students in the basics
of business. Some institutions, such as Princeton University in New Jersey,
have begun to provide professional-development curricula to those in PhD
programmes. It is likely that graduates from these places will face better
professional and economic prospects than those without such training,
because they are better prepared to compete for a broad range of
professional opportunities.
There may be a disincentive for science and engineering education programmes
(and the agencies that fund them) to support the implementation of such
professional-development classes or initiatives. The research enterprise
thrives on an abundant reservoir of highly talented, highly motivated PhD
students and recent graduates, and does not want to lose them to the
business sector.
Greater competition for PhD-trained talent from the private sector, however,
would invariably raise salaries for entry-level PhD graduates. Furthermore,
science-funding agencies rely on PhD programmes and individual advisers to
provide the bulk of professional development to their students. Many
research faculty members lack sufficient industry or professional-
development experience to provide the sort of training that MBA students
receive as a customary part of their degree.
If a greater proportion of PhD graduates were to transition into the
business sector, however, it could create pressure on universities to
provide such training and on funding agencies to require it.
In the meantime, this training gap can easily be filled by taking short
courses or programmes in business skills. Many are available online as
massive open online courses, and some offer certifications.
Still, even more so than the paucity of professional-development programmes
for PhD students, the greatest barrier to a high-paying position in the
business sector is your personal beliefs about what you are qualified to
pursue.
As someone with a PhD background, you probably view yourself foremost —
even solely — as a research scientist. The broad set of valuable
transferable skills that you developed while in graduate school go largely
unrecognized and unarticulated within the academy. Most PhD graduates
restrict their job searches to what they feel qualified to do, rather than
exploring what they are capable of doing.
And as a PhD graduate, you may believe that academia is the only sector in
which you can enjoy intellectual freedom and work on challenging problems.
This is incorrect. The business world is full of delicious, complex,
intellectually exciting problems. Their resolution can yield enormous value,
both to those who solve the problems and to society.
Some people are beginning to recognize this reality. Graduate students and
postdocs are organizing their own professional-development programmes,
sometimes recruiting business-school professors to help them (see Nature 485
, 269–270; 2012).
And more businesses, especially technology-related companies, are either
being launched by graduates of doctoral programmes or have a PhD holder on
the founding team.
As more PhD students and graduates learn about these opportunities from
their brethren, we can expect further interest in, and greater pursuit of,
business careers by doctorate holders. MBAs, beware. | c**********r
发帖数: 891 | 2 我认识的一些扫地大妈，收垃圾的环卫大叔之类，对于屁爱蒂还是很高看一等的，人家
也不知道生物屁爱蒂跟数学物理屁爱蒂的含金量不一样。
所以索南要多努力忽悠这些群众，那个屁爱蒂牌子还是能唬住一些群众的。 | c*********r
发帖数: 1312 | 3 多谢好文分享！
又学习了一些新词可以用来self-promotion，比如说Top transferable skills里的：
Data analysis
Resourcefulness
Technological awareness
Resilience
Project management
Problem-solving
English proficiency
Written communication
等等。
真的其实大多数PhD学生都有这些能力，而且相当的强。
就是缺乏一点说这句话的气场：MBAs, beware. | D*a
发帖数: 6830 | 4 原标题： A bridge to business
Peter Fiske
Nature 530, 243–245 (11 February 2016) doi:10.1038/nj7589-243a
PhD holders should not underestimate their value to industry and the
business sector, says Peter Fiske.
Subject terms: Careers Business Education
The glossy poster at my university career planning and placement centre both
intrigued and perplexed me: “PhDs: come learn about a career in management
consulting — recruiting reception tonight!”
As a PhD student in geology, I was dimly aware of the name of the consulting
firm that had organized the event; one of my friends had accepted a
position with the firm after he graduated. I had heard that he was earning a
great salary and travelling a lot, and that he was aiming to go back for a
master's degree in business administration (MBA). Until I saw the poster, I
had no idea that a strategic-management-consulting firm would even consider
hiring non-MBA types, let alone recruit PhDs specifically.
I applied for a position and landed a series of interviews that culminated
in a day of them at the company's offices in Los Angeles, California. I did
not receive an offer in the end, but it was an illuminating experience.
Mostly, I was surprised that someone with a freshly minted PhD could
immediately earn US$160,000. And that was in 1994.
Fast forward 22 years. Now, as the chief executive of a US technology
company, I have recruited PhDs for both technical and business positions. I
have found across all scientific disciplines that those with doctoral
degrees possess many of the skills that are in highest demand in today's
economy. If you have earned a PhD, you know, for example, how to analyse
data. You also understand how to examine those results to gain insights. In
some important ways, you are better prepared than MBA holders to make
valuable contributions to the business world. You have learned resilience in
the face of uncertainty and with limited resources.
Yet you and many other PhD graduates — along with the programmes that
trained you — remain largely unaware of or uninterested in opportunities
outside academia. In turn, only a few companies, such as the consulting firm
whose recruiting poster I saw 20 years ago, have pre-emptively recognized
the value that you and your colleagues can bring — and they are reaping a
harvest of talent as a result.
You are doing yourself a disservice. As a doctoral degree-holder, you need
to appreciate your degree programme for the transferable skills that it
confers (see 'Top transferable skills for business'), and recognize that
those skills provide you with significant and immediate advantages over your
business-school counterparts. You do not need a business degree or
substantial extra training to secure satisfying and highly compensated work
in the business sector.
Need more convincing? Let's examine the differences between the training
components of each degree programme.
In a typical MBA scheme, students listen to lectures, work on projects and
learn about business-friendly topics such as economics, finance, accounting,
organizational behaviour and law. Fundamentally, the MBA is a conventional,
curriculum-led educational experience. Although internships and student-led
organizations provide opportunities for direct work experience, success in
business school is largely a function of earning good grades. Students
graduate after two years or so, and top performers can land jobs that start
at $150,000 or more.
Most doctoral programmes also require a large body of course work. But as a
PhD student, you probably spent more time 'doing', rather than studying or
passively listening. You conducted original scientific research, which may
have included fieldwork, you taught younger students and you were possibly
involved with at least one manuscript.
Data deluge
Science PhD students particularly benefit from near-constant immersion in
emerging technologies and, especially, in data analysis and hypothesis
testing. This is a huge advantage in the business world: every industrial
sector and type of business is more reliant on technology and data now than
ever before. And in today's economy, the volume and complexity of the
information that businesses use require managers and executives to
understand the basics of data analysis and statistics — and to have a
deeper ability to construct and test hypotheses and to build and validate
models.
And science-PhD holders have a further advantage. Not only is technological
innovation a key to the development of products and services, but the tools
that are used to run businesses have science and technology embedded in them
. Customer-relations management software, for example, uses advanced
statistical algorithms that analyse trends and identify important variables
such as user behaviour and pricing trends.
MBA graduates do not routinely encounter such training or confront these
requirements in their degree programme, whereas they are an integral
component of the PhD programme.
In short, the PhD experience is much more like the real world of business
than is the MBA programme. If educational institutions were to train MBA
students in the same way that they train PhD students, they would require
business students to complete all the required course work — and to launch
a successful business.
Box 1: Top transferable skills for business
If you have earned a science PhD, you were probably told by mentors,
advisers and career-development specialists that you will need to develop a
lot of new skills to succeed in any sector outside academia. But your PhD
programme has already conferred many skills that are important, even crucial
, in the business world, and that are comparable to — and in some cases
superior to — the talents acquired in a graduate-level business programme.
Here are some examples.
Data analysis You were trained to gather, evaluate, synthesize and present
data, and to uncover relationships, correlations and trends. The business
world increasingly relies on the same methodologies to develop strategies
and identify opportunities.
Resourcefulness You probably had to create experiments, methodologies and
analyses with limited resources and under tight time constraints. Successful
business people are often challenged to develop a product or service while
facing the same difficulties.
Technological awareness You were trained to understand the fundamentals of a
range of technologies. Many of these technologies are at the heart of
products and services in the private sector.
Resilience You may have encountered unexpected setbacks in your research or
studies, yet powered through to reach your goals. This resilience in the
face of challenge often separates the most successful entrepreneurs from the
rest.
Project management Completing a PhD typically requires the coordination and
scheduling of disparate resources and individuals — as well as thinking
through all aspects of a complex project or activity. The same course of
action is a core component of the business world.
Problem-solving You had to use novel thinking and innovative frames of
reference to identify and solve technical problems. The ability to reframe
problems to identify novel solutions is a key skill in business.
English proficiency You are probably skilled in English, the most prevalent
language of international business.
Written communication PhD holders often have extensive experience in writing
and describing complex ideas and methodologies. Effective written
communication is crucial to business success.
Expand
Given that the PhD is such a powerful training foundation for success in the
private sector, one might presume that this value would be reflected in the
salaries of PhD graduates as compared to those of their MBA counterparts.
Unfortunately, the opposite is true.
For example, a PhD-trained biochemist with five years' work experience after
their PhD who is employed as a 'PhD biochemist III' (a typical job title in
industry) in the United States has an average annual salary of roughly $68,
000, according to salary.com, a major salary database. In contrast, a person
with the title 'market-research supervisor III', who also has five years'
work experience and an MBA, is likely to earn $91,000.
Both jobs require an ability to analyse data, synthesize technical
information, perform tests to validate hypotheses and supervise a team. But
whereas the market-research supervisor almost certainly could not walk into
the PhD biochemist's position, the biochemist could easily perform all the
duties of the research supervisor — with just a small amount of tailored
training.
Bridge the gap
But therein lies the glitch. If a PhD provides graduates with such a range
of strengths and transferable skills, why don't doctorate holders
immediately command higher salaries? Part of the problem is that PhD
students do not routinely receive such tailored training in the skills that
are highly valued in the business sector. Practical professional skills such
as negotiation, communication, business strategy, basic economics and
marketing are all abundantly represented in the curricula of leading MBA
programmes.
Yet only a handful of research universities train PhD students in the basics
of business. Some institutions, such as Princeton University in New Jersey,
have begun to provide professional-development curricula to those in PhD
programmes. It is likely that graduates from these places will face better
professional and economic prospects than those without such training,
because they are better prepared to compete for a broad range of
professional opportunities.
There may be a disincentive for science and engineering education programmes
(and the agencies that fund them) to support the implementation of such
professional-development classes or initiatives. The research enterprise
thrives on an abundant reservoir of highly talented, highly motivated PhD
students and recent graduates, and does not want to lose them to the
business sector.
Greater competition for PhD-trained talent from the private sector, however,
would invariably raise salaries for entry-level PhD graduates. Furthermore,
science-funding agencies rely on PhD programmes and individual advisers to
provide the bulk of professional development to their students. Many
research faculty members lack sufficient industry or professional-
development experience to provide the sort of training that MBA students
receive as a customary part of their degree.
If a greater proportion of PhD graduates were to transition into the
business sector, however, it could create pressure on universities to
provide such training and on funding agencies to require it.
In the meantime, this training gap can easily be filled by taking short
courses or programmes in business skills. Many are available online as
massive open online courses, and some offer certifications.
Still, even more so than the paucity of professional-development programmes
for PhD students, the greatest barrier to a high-paying position in the
business sector is your personal beliefs about what you are qualified to
pursue.
As someone with a PhD background, you probably view yourself foremost —
even solely — as a research scientist. The broad set of valuable
transferable skills that you developed while in graduate school go largely
unrecognized and unarticulated within the academy. Most PhD graduates
restrict their job searches to what they feel qualified to do, rather than
exploring what they are capable of doing.
And as a PhD graduate, you may believe that academia is the only sector in
which you can enjoy intellectual freedom and work on challenging problems.
This is incorrect. The business world is full of delicious, complex,
intellectually exciting problems. Their resolution can yield enormous value,
both to those who solve the problems and to society.
Some people are beginning to recognize this reality. Graduate students and
postdocs are organizing their own professional-development programmes,
sometimes recruiting business-school professors to help them (see Nature 485
, 269–270; 2012).
And more businesses, especially technology-related companies, are either
being launched by graduates of doctoral programmes or have a PhD holder on
the founding team.
As more PhD students and graduates learn about these opportunities from
their brethren, we can expect further interest in, and greater pursuit of,
business careers by doctorate holders. MBAs, beware. | c**********r
发帖数: 891 | 5 我认识的一些扫地大妈，收垃圾的环卫大叔之类，对于屁爱蒂还是很高看一等的，人家
也不知道生物屁爱蒂跟数学物理屁爱蒂的含金量不一样。
所以索南要多努力忽悠这些群众，那个屁爱蒂牌子还是能唬住一些群众的。 | c*********r
发帖数: 1312 | 6 多谢好文分享！
又学习了一些新词可以用来self-promotion，比如说Top transferable skills里的：
Data analysis
Resourcefulness
Technological awareness
Resilience
Project management
Problem-solving
English proficiency
Written communication
等等。
真的其实大多数PhD学生都有这些能力，而且相当的强。
就是缺乏一点说这句话的气场：MBAs, beware. | D*a
发帖数: 6830 | | l******o
发帖数: 2649 | 8 挺好的，如果在名校读PhD的一定要考虑这个出路
差一点的学校的可能需要额外的奋斗
both
management
consulting
【在 D*a 的大作中提到】
: 原标题： A bridge to business
: Peter Fiske
: Nature 530, 243–245 (11 February 2016) doi:10.1038/nj7589-243a
: PhD holders should not underestimate their value to industry and the
: business sector, says Peter Fiske.
: Subject terms: Careers Business Education
: The glossy poster at my university career planning and placement centre both
: intrigued and perplexed me: “PhDs: come learn about a career in management
: consulting — recruiting reception tonight!”
: As a PhD student in geology, I was dimly aware of the name of the consulting
| B********9
发帖数: 30 | 9 赞总结，说起来我还真是生物phd毕业时没有任何相关经历和training直接靠claim你总
结的这些skill进了金融业，虽然起步比美国小本晚，现在发展的也不错
【在 c*********r 的大作中提到】
: 多谢好文分享！
: 又学习了一些新词可以用来self-promotion，比如说Top transferable skills里的：
: Data analysis
: Resourcefulness
: Technological awareness
: Resilience
: Project management
: Problem-solving
: English proficiency
: Written communication
| l******o
发帖数: 2649 | 10 恭喜啊！多发经验啊
【在 B********9 的大作中提到】
: 赞总结，说起来我还真是生物phd毕业时没有任何相关经历和training直接靠claim你总
: 结的这些skill进了金融业，虽然起步比美国小本晚，现在发展的也不错
|
|
