Do I need a PhD?

“I think I want to do a doctorate degree. But I would like the fully online one. Still, I ask myself, do I really want a PhD? The work is a lot.” says an aspiring PhD scholar.

 When I was planning towards a PhD, I had many questions then, including “Why should I do a doctorate degree?”, “Is PhD right for me?, “What should I expect from a PhD journey?”, “what qualities must a PhD scholar possess?”, “How do I choose an institution?”.

When I was applying for PhD positions, I was researching and reading materials on the subject. One of the most insightful books I read was “The PhD Application Handbook” by Peter Bentley.

A friend of mine was surprised that anyone would bother to read a book about doing a PhD. There is a lot to learn about studying for a PhD, and it is better to start learning them now before you’re already swimming in the waters.

I will share some of the best discoveries I made from others’ PhD journeys and mine. I hope it helps you figure out if a PhD is right for you.

How a PhD influences your career

By doing a PhD, you are telling the world that you are an expert in an area of specialisation. Ideally, you should be thinking of your PhD as a way to kickstart a career in a field that most appeals to you.

However, people research areas they do not find particularly interesting, having been motivated by different reasons like funding, university ranking, location, etc. Doing a Masters before a PhD may help you gauge your interest in a particular field of interest, and prepare you for future exploits in that field.

Why should I do a Doctorate Degree?

There are several motivations for doing a PhD.

• Accomplish a significant mark: You want to challenge yourself, raise the bar and accomplish a challenging goal.
• Develop expertise in a field: You desire to leave the shallow waters, step into the depths of your field, gain mastery of the subject, and become a subject matter expert.
• Discover or learn something new: You have a childlike curiosity to learn and explore the world around you to make significant discoveries.
• Improve yourself and your life: You would like to improve your problem-solving ability, critical thinking, confidence, communication and writing skills.
• Natural inclinations: You have an unquenching appetite for reading and doing research projects.

Other motivations that may arise from survival instincts which are not particularly good reasons are: keeping your visa, for prestige, no employment, and for a pay rise.

Do I really need a Doctorate Degree?

Do you really need a doctorate degree to achieve your career goals? Let’s see.

Is your career goal to become an entrepreneur? There’s a lot to learn in entrepreneurship that a PhD doesn’t prepare you for. Notwithstanding, these days, we see more start-ups spring up from research labs, and research innovation being turned to commercial products.

PhD scholars possess several personality qualities, such as confidence, imagination, and vision desirable in entrepreneurs. Also, there have been many cases of PhD scholars becoming great entrepreneurs.

For other career goals like becoming a corporate executive, getting a pay raise, receiving a promotion, getting an industry job, a doctorate degree may not be necessary. However, having a doctorate degree could give you an edge in certain industries like research, consulting, and public administration.

You should do a Doctorate if you are considering a career in academia. Competition in academia is very fierce–only about 3% of PhD scholars become professors, and many others do not survive a career in academia for long. Completing a PhD is almost a necessity if you want to get anywhere in your academic career.

Quality traits of most successful PhD scholars

If you don’t already have some of these personality traits, expect to develop them during your PhD program. To successfully get through a PhD, you must, among others, be: confident, stubborn, dedicated, intelligent, curious, thirsty for knowledge, a  good planner, one that accepts criticism, imaginative, good at concentrating, an adept communicator, teachable, thorough, proactive, bored by easy work, one that can admit mistakes, controversial, an independent thinker, ambitious, keen on making a difference, well-organized, visionary.

Do you want to do a doctorate degree but have some concerns about the journey or process and how it fits your career goals?

You are not alone on this one. Do share your thoughts in the comment section.