Hi everyone, I am a high school student, but I am trying to figure out what career path I want to pursue. I am interested in integrating science research knowledge into the world of finance/IB/PE. I want to potentially do this with a Ph.D. in neuroscience, but I am not sure how feasible/lucrative this would be. Could you all give me some insight on what degree is best to combine my interests (MD, PhD, MBA, or combining them with dual degrees). Also, is a science Ph.D. for finance a lucrative decision? I don’t want to end up study for several extra years and end up making the same money/not having much growth opportunity. I’m not trying to be greedy with money, but I want to make sure that I don’t make an uninformed decision.
Also, how much do Ph.D. graduates in PE/finance tend to make?
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You’d get a PhD in a field that’s actually of some use to finance/private equity.
One choice, for example, might be an earth sciences/atmospheric sciences field. I can’t remember where I heard this from, but I once heard of a career that involved advising commodities traders about the weather and soil conditions that predicted good or bad harvests of specific commodities. Weather and atmospheric conditions affect a lot of other things besides just crops, too - like airline schedules (I read somewhere that airlines hire meteorologists and atmospheric scientists to help them make flight plans), which also affects business in a variety of ways. You would want to do more research into that, but if you have an interest in the agricultural/atmospheric/earth sciences, that’s one way.
There might be a similar strain of research in biomedicine/biotechnology, particularly when it comes to advising people who invest in biotechnology companies. But I don’t know anything about that - just a guess.
Here’s an older but still relevant article about financial firms recruiting mathematicians and physical scientists to work as quants: http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2008/11/special-feature-scientists-financial-analysts. Of course, that’s not necessarily bringing science knowledge to finance - that more using quantitative skills to do financial analysis. And you don’t need a PhD to do this, although from what I hear PhDs do have some level of an advantage at some firms.
What kind of science are you interested in? Are you actually interested in a finance career, or are you just seeking a way to make a scientific career financially lucrative (which is, of course, perfectly normal)?
If you’re in high school, I wouldn’t spend too much time agonizing over what graduate degree you’re going to get. I’d spend time trying to identify your interests and think about a major that satisfies them. Career goals, of course, are important - but I’d think about them in broader terms (like fields) rather than getting too narrow too soon.
@juillet Thanks for the response! You put it in good terms. Regarding my reasons for asking this, I am interested in a career mainly in biotechnology/medtech R&D that can be integrated into finance. This is mainly because I want to have a much greater impact on the industry, and I see an outlet through finance/PE. If my interest in research requires me to get a PhD, I do also have a slight fear that I will end studying for many years and will end up in a financially unstable career (which tends to be the case for many traditional PhDs). Therefore, I want to combine my research interests with my interest in finance to make my life my fulfilling both from a career standpoint AND financial standpoint. The only concern is that I am not sure how much a PhD is valued in finance and if there is a lot of opportunity for growth. I don’t want to be struggling for jobs in that career if they doesn’t exist.
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You just finished your sophomore year of HS. IMO it is too early to decide what path you want to take in graduate school. Take one step at a time and give yourself more of an opportunity let your interests evolve and the answer to what path you want to pursue may become obvious over time.
Happydad is a PhD biochemist who nearly lost his shirt trying to figure out which biotech companies had products that were worth investing in. Now he reads one of the Motley Fool newsletters for investment advice, and solely does biotech for a living.
There are many layers of complexity and just sheer luck in the process of getting a drug or device to market. To be honest, I don’t know if understanding beyond the biological fundamentals even matters for biotech investment. Some things will turn out to work. Some things won’t. Some things will be scalable, and eventually marketable, but most days the experiments will fail and what looked maybe sort of promising will hit a brick wall.
Your better choice might be to major in biotech as an undergrad, then go to work in industry for a few years before pursuing your MBA, and all the while keep hanging with your undergrad pals who head down the PhD pipeline. If you hang out with the PhDs, and join the biotech meet-ups (Google for BioBeers in Frederick MD to learn more about that kind of group), you may be able to become one of the precious few in the industry who can successfully communicate with all parties. There are a few MBA programs out there specifically for MS and PhD scientists who want to transition from the lab to management. Think about those as well.
@happymomof1 Thank you so much! Your insight is really helpful, I’ll definitely look into what you are saying.