<p>I recently talked to my professor about the cost and benefit of getting Economics Ph.D.</p>
<p>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)</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.) </p>
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<p>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?</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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</p>