Decision Crisis.

[Sohnsat]

<p>Hello CC! I am admitted to Cal for my final two years of undergrad with a perfect GPA coming out of my CCC. I have selected courses for three differing paths of study that would lead to three very different career paths in my life, and I can’t decide which one to pick. The three are scholar, businessman, or attorney. My major is Economics, and I love the various facets that all three choices come with. </p>

<p>The allure of being an economic scholar, and subsequently pursuing a PhD, has to do with a very powerful natural curiosity that leads me to very interesting questions which I will actually be able to answer once equipped with the economic background from Cal. It so happens that I have a deep-rooted love for mathematics, and with this choice I could double-dip. I love the prospect of reading other people’s work and crafting models with it to answer my own questions, and further the economic body of knowledge for society. However, I also like to do other things as well.</p>

<p>I love to move and shake. I suppose you could call it wheeling and dealing. The prospect of making money work for me and analyzing complex data in order to facilitate strong decisions in the financial market is also very tantalizing. In pursuing this, I would graduate with a bachelor’s in Economics and go straight to work, and eventually return for a MBA once I have accrued some valuable work experience to bring to a graduate program. Last, but not least, I love to argue.</p>

<p>Being an attorney has been something I have always flirted with. My friends even urge me to go to law school as I have bested police chiefs in court, albeit for minor incidents, and constantly am a source of rational mediation amongst my peers and friends. Crafting complex cross-examinations, deep rhetoric presentations, and rock-solid defense/needlepoint doubt-casting casework all sound extremely pleasurable as a field of work. Under this route I would graduate with my BA, attend law school, and probably go to work as a corporate attorney.</p>

<p>The long story short is that I love to take raw data and turn it into something great. I have many loves, and up until this point the decisions have been easy. However, this is the one. The decision that will set my course for my undergraduate coursework, guide my extracurriculars, influence my internships, determine whether I will do research extensively or not, and basically set my path in life. I don’t know what help you can provide me, but if you have any nuggets of wisdom, or better yet firsthand knowledge of any of these fields, I would be absolutely appreciative of helping me in making such a monumental decision.</p>

<p>Prior to commenting I would like it to be known that competition is a non-factor in my decision. I am aware that it exists, but do not fear it. I actually look forward to it. Thank you for your time.</p>

[katytibbs]

<p>Your course is not set irrevocably by what you choose next. In the business world, I work with many PhDs from many different areas. In the same job, I may be working with someone who has a chemistry degree, a Masters in public health, a language degree and a business degree. I have a friend who has a PhD in Physics who was a Computer Software engineer but who just changed careers and is now working for an investment bank, helping traders decide what to do. Lawyers also become business people.</p>

<p>That said, certain jobs do require certain qualifications for entry- for example, I just looked at the requirements for a job in pharmacoeconomics - it requires an advanced degree but it could be an MPH, and MD, an economics degree, and epidemiology degree (or several others). I have only have an MBA so it would be very difficult for me to move into that field without going back to school. But once I had experience in that job, there would be lots of places within the company I can move.</p>

<p>Being able to craft your own models would be very valuable in the business world- and in the financial world- I haven’t read this book but I have read reviews of a book called The Quants that might help you understand how you could use your math skills in the finance world. I just finished Michael Lewis’s book, the Big Short, which also touches on that. But there are other fields that aren’t finance that rely heavily on math. Building models of how marketing works is a hot area, so is what is called “data mining”, as is pharmacoeconomics.</p>

<p>Very few people who get PhDs in Economics will actually be able to get teaching jobs and be able to do research. It is only the top tier who get those- but the very top using do both teaching/research and consult with businesses on the side. But a PhD in Economics is a great qualification for all of the fields I mentioned above.</p>

<p>If you love the idea of wheeling and dealing, then you will probably end up doing that, but don’t think their is only one way to get there.</p>