<p>I read more and more about Ph.Ds leaving academia and research and moving into consulting. Many of those have Ph.Ds in science or economics or other business related fields. What I wonder is to what extent does the “prestige” of the Ph.D program matter when looking for jobs in the better consulting firms?</p>
<p>I’m not particularly interested in this, however, but as a prospective Ph.D candidate, I wonder what opportunities will be open in 10 years.</p>
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<p>Whether you like it or not, general prestige is highly important when you’re talking about moving away from academia to consulting, either by joining an existing consulting firm, or starting your own small consulting firm. That’s because a lot of consulting success is about garnering clients, and you can be far more successful in obtaining clients if you have a degree from a famous school. It is also true that the consulting firms tend to recruit at only the most famous schools. </p>
<p>Hence, somebody with a PhD from Harvard is more likely to become a successful consultant than, say, somebody from an unfamous school, even if that unfamous school happens to have a better ranked program in a particular field. Fair or not fair, that’s how it works.</p>
<p>I figured this would be the case. However, does anyone know by chance what disciplines of Ph.D are most valued? I remember reading that at one point Boston Consulting tried to increase it’s hiring of life scientists, but I wonder if this is common, or do they mostly look at other fields?</p>
<p>Obviously business is the discipline that is the most valued. I am convinced that anybody who gets a doctorate in business from a top school can become a consultant basically by default, as such a doctorate is almost tailor-made for consulting. </p>
<p>Probably the next highest regarded would be the PhD’s in economics or engineering. Followed next by PhD’s in the natural sciences. Of course, that depends on what you have researched. By getting a PhD, especially from a top school, you are basically expected to be a world expert of your particular (narrow) research topic. If your particular topic happens to be highly marketable at the time, you’re golden. For example, I know a guy who is getting his PhD at Harvard, specializing in online auction/e-commerce algorithms, and he is getting numerous lucrative consulting offers to talk to companies who are in or want to get into that space (i.e. Ebay, Google, etc.) He says that if he can’t find a good assistant professor job, he’ll probably just start his own one-man consulting firm to do that (and make far more money than he would have ever made as a professor). Similarly, I know people who have gotten PhD’s in biology and obtained highly lucrative consulting gigs (probably over 500k a year) from biotech companies because their research has to do with a a very hot commercializable field. Of course, in this particular case, I suspect those guys had the option of actually starting their own biotech firms, as their research could potentially be turned into a salable product. Hence, paying 500k a year for a possibly new drug is dirt cheap for a biotech firm. </p>
<p>But of course there are also plenty of people who do research in cold fields where there is little commercial interest. Getting a PhD in economics and specializing in Marxist economics is probably not going to get you much consulting. In those cases, it is the general prestige of the school itself that is going to carry you into consulting. What consulting firms are looking for is somebody with good raw talent. Clearly getting a PhD from a top school demonstrates that.</p>
<p>you also have to consider that in some fields, some of the best phd programs are at schools that arent considered ‘prestigious’</p>
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<p>That’s exactly right, and that’s where the tradeoff comes. It’s really about risk vs. reward. You have to ask yourself just how dedicated you are to the field, and how confident you are about getting a highly targeted academic or research job. </p>
<p>Otherwise, if you are looking to hedge your bets, you might want to choose a school that is more famous overall, but is perhaps less strong in that particular program. </p>
<p>For example, I know people getting their doctorates at Harvard who have admitted that, frankly, their program is not really the ‘best’ in their field and that they got admitted to other programs that were better. But they’re basically being risk-averse. The truth is, in their fields, it’s hard to place in an academic/research position even if you do graduate from the top program in the field. So they might graduate from the #1 program in their field and still not get placed anywhere. Hence, they prefer a ‘safer’ program that gives them more career options, i.e. consulting, and Harvard, like it or not, gives you the best chance for you to get into consulting. It’s the power of the brand name and it’s the fact that consulting firms recruit there all the time.</p>
<p>The importance of name recognition, at least for a top 20/30 school, depends much more on what field you are in. E.g., bioengineering top 20 is pretty much a wash, if there is a consulting job for someone who did well in a hot area. The less technical the degree/closer it is to social science the more brand name counts. INHO.</p>
<p>Depends on the field. For instance, a Ph.D. from Carnegie Melon in Decision theory = better hourly consulting rate than a Ph.D from any of the ivies, simply because decision theory is such a small niche and those doing the hiring are familiar with the handful of programs out there…</p>