What are the benefits of pursuing a PhD degree?

Most of the graduate students often worry about job prospects. Even though entrepreneurship has gained quite a boon in recent years, a lot of students wish to get a job in reputed organizations. However, landing a job in such companies can be quite difficult especially for freshers. No matter whatever their skills are, experience matter a lot which the freshers lack. Most of them often end up compromising on low-paying jobs and wonder if they would have pursued post-graduation degree that might have improved their chances to get a better job. In recent years, reputed companies are hiring post-graduates for a higher position, and that has appealed to graduate students. A lot of these companies have their own research and development department, and they are eager to employ candidates with a PhD degree. There are a plethora of benefits of pursuing a PhD degree. Some of them are:

Major Benefits of Pursuing a PhD degree

1. Enhancement of Transferable Skills

PhD holders often identify the benefits of the doctoral education way beyond the mere acquisition of specialized knowledge. These benefits include a wide range of transferable skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, thinking-in-depth and from various perspectives and angles.

While these particular skills are specifically emphasised by most of the companies, students with PhD degree enable them to make quite a significant difference in their workplace. Companies often tend to employ people who have special skills in thinking out-of-the-box, constantly looking for innovative solutions and improved research skills. PhD degree helps in acquiring these traits.

Doctorate holders can be quite innovative and can provide the companies with a competitive edge. The PhD experience is often perceived as the addition of value which distinguishes them for their colleagues.

For instance, a PhD graduate in Mathematical Sciences can easily help a data-driven company in creating more robust applications that analyse the data and deliver meaningful results to their client. Companies like DeShaw often employ students with PhD degree in Mathematics as their major work deals with analysing the huge financial data. There are wider benefits for the employers to hire PhD degree holder as they are highly qualified personnel that imply reputation enhancement as well as knowledge spill-overs through the entire diversity of the personnel.

2. Extensive Social Impact

The social impact of a PhD degree can be easily understood in three distinct ways. First is the development of various social skills like presentation and communication. Second is accessing the professional networks as well as building personal relationships. Lastly, it is about societal recognition.

During the entire PhD programs, candidates often find themselves getting involved in teaching and guiding undergraduates as well as post-graduate students along with presenting their own research to their colleagues and wide audiences. They often engage in networking during various conferences as well as academic events.

These various activities enhance the communication and interpersonal skills of the PhD students and help them in becoming a reputed member of immensely esteemed networks which are often considered invaluable for the profession and social life beyond the PhD.

PhD students tend to have better social relationships, and most of them acquire skills that boost collaboration as well as cooperation with their colleagues.

PhD does limit the leisure time of the students as well as the ability to socialize beyond the entire academic community. It also leads to limited opportunities to have a better family life as well as reconciling their academic career with living near their friends and family.

However, this limitation is overcompensated by the high status in various social circles which is due to the fact that PhD isn’t just a degree that is required for the private sector, but it also speaks volume about person’s patience, perseverance, and critical thinking ability.

3. Personality Development

PhD students have often reported that personal development gained through their PhD such as independence and maturity helps them in the longer run. Along with this, persistence, organizational skills and time management as some of the personal development traits that they acquire during their doctoral degree. These skills are often utilized in the workplace as well as their daily lives.

For instance, a PhD degree holder purchasing a domestic appliance will conduct thorough and extensive research along with increased scrutiny and buy the product methodically by following a different process like completion and submission of documents to optimize his/her effort and time involved.

The doctoral degree also provides personal satisfaction as well as self-actualization and self-awareness through meeting various professional aspirations and even performing various self-fulfilling employment roles that are invaluable aspects of pursuing this particular qualification.

Now, let’s look at the various other benefits of getting a PhD.

Other Benefits of Pursuing a PhD

1. You can easily indulge in the luxury of getting the title of “Dr.”. It might sound quite superficial, but it does come with a lot of respect in society.
2. You get to learn how to be mentally tough from all types of criticizing, second-guessing that you have to endure whenever you are presenting your research proposal. This skill is quite useful when it comes to working in a reputed company where there is a constant requirement of validation and scrutiny of ideas.
3. It increases your analytical skills. It actually depends on the particular type of PhD that you are pursuing, but it is often admitted that people pursuing PhD often go through the process of sharpening the analytical skills and they are able to apply these skills in their workplace.
4. PhD is the highest possible degree which you can achieve. In case you are striving for greatness and wish to become an expert in your domain, a PhD will certainly fulfil intellectual satisfaction.
5. You will get recognized as an expert in your field, and your degree will be proof of this. Most of the companies often hire a subject expert to lead their companies, and PhD degree holders are best suited for a higher management position.
6. Some of the jobs apart from academic jobs actually require candidates to have a PhD degree.
7. PhD experience allows you to quickly learn about new areas within the chosen field of yours and helps you in adapting to various demands of the workplace.
8. PhD degree boosts your confidence. Pursuing a PhD degree will certainly improve your belief in yourself and self-confidence. You get the chance to discover about the vast knowledge pertaining to your field which makes you a valuable candidate for the companies to have.
9. PhD also provides you with the joy of learning. If you are choosing a field that you actually enjoy, which is often advisable, you will definitely love to learn a lot about your field of expertise.
10. PhD opens up new avenues for jobs in various research and development departments in reputed companies. For instance, PhD in Computer Science from a reputed university can help you in landing in a job in market giants like Yahoo, Google, Microsoft etc.

Conclusion

The market is overwhelmed with millions of candidates competing over a lesser number of jobs. In order to beat this competition, a student needs to have an edge over their competitors. PhD helps in achieving just that. It improves the social skills which is vital for working in reputed companies. PhD helps you in becoming expert in your field which is often preferred by the companies over the students with an undergraduate degree. PhD also improves your societal standing and brings laurels to you. It makes you much more appealing to the companies due to your critical thinking ability, problem-solving skills and in-depth research capabilities. It provides with you with various opportunities to land better jobs in the reputed organization. Most of the universities provide financial support to PhD students that means that you get to enhance your skills without spending much. This helps in becoming ready for the job market with a better degree and expertise without investing much. The above-mentioned points clarify the inherent benefits of pursuing a PhD degree.