usavinci

I recently talked to my professor about the cost and benefit of getting Economics Ph.D.

To my surprise, the professor said going to graduate school for Ph.D is risky: the candidate has to work extremely hard but earned very little salary for 5 years. After that, hopefully he can become a assistant professor at a university. Then, work harder to teach students while do research and publish papers. After about 7-10 years, hopefully you can get tenured. After tenure, life basically becomes easy. While compared to work in industries where people can earn a decent salary in the beginning, tenure cannot come if any stages brake. (For example, if you don't get a good evaluation from college students, you might be kicked out. The research you did before that, say 3-year research, is completely useless. You have to start new researches in order to get tenured in another school)

I am wondering what are your motivation of pursuing Ph.D. in economics. I mean, interest is definitely one of the motivations, but thinking about this, I am kind of scared. What else motivates you?

tetrahedr0n

Your professor is pretty much spot-on. He's simplified some things (e.g., life isn't "easy" at all after tenure - though it might less stressful than before.)

I imagine most people are motivated by the desire to do economics research as a career (in academia or in an outside position.) What are your goals, beyond being interested in grad school?

usavinci

Thanks for the reply.
Honestly, my career goal, at this moment, is kind of working in financial industry. That's why I choose to do Math and Economics in undergrad, just to get broader range of choices in the future.

The reason I am thinking about graduate school is that I don't particularly find economics classes are difficult. I am taking a graduate level Econ class. It takes a lot of time but is doable so far. Plus, my math is good, so econ grad school is really a practical choice for me. But it sounds that grad school takes a lot to get through.

The working style in financial industry attracts me, plus it practically makes money. Being a professor at a university is also appealing to me, if not equally attractive. I know I can apply for Master of Finance, etc. But Ph.D program can come with a master degree if I decided not to go further in research, which is another reason I want to try Ph.D in economics