College vs Grad School

sakky
Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:47:39 +0000

Sakky, what if someone does not get his/her PhD? Will the masters he/she earn on the way do the job of landing a consulting or whatever job?..



Yes, but it probably won’t be at the associate level. You’ll probably end up as an analyst, which is what the undergrads get. Hence, if you could have gotten a consulting analyst position straight out of college, then getting a MS and then becoming an analyst is probably just a waste of time.

On the other hand, I know quite a few people who went to undergrad schools where consulting/banking firms simply did not recruit, and then entered MIT PhD programs with the specific intent of just getting the master’s and getting a consulting/banking offer. It’s devious and arguably unethical. But what can I say? It does work. {Heck, there are some people who didn’t even get the master’s yet still got offers at smaller boutique consulting firms.}



McKinsey is still more likely to hire a MIT MBA as opposed to a MIT PhD?



Yes. I think it is primarily a matter of opportunity. The major consulting firms hang around the Sloan School all the time. Moreover, Sloan Students have access to an excellent network through the other Sloan students and alumni that can put them in contact with the right people in consulting firms and who can help them prepare for their case interviews.

Given that, a PhD student who can overcome those disadvantages would be fully competitive with an MBA student for consulting.



Sakky, do you see this trend of consulting companies hiring PhDs to continue for years to come?



Not only is it going to continue, it is probably going to increase. Consulting firms would be foolish to not avail themselves of the excellent human capital produced by PhD programs.

Having said all that, let me also say that I don’t think that consulting is the greatest of jobs. Hence, I don’t think that consulting is something that anybody should really be aiming to do as a career end-goal.

The real problem that I see is that there are simply not enough academic/research positions available for all of the PhD’s that are produced, especially in the humanities, and many of the jobs that do exist, frankly, aren’t very good jobs, in that they are low-paying, have little job security, are in undesirable locations. It is rational for people to ask why they should take an assistant professor job for $30k a year at some little college in the middle of nowhere and where the chances of winning tenure are uncertain when they can earn several times that and live in an exciting city as a consultant or investment banker.