PhD's Up and Jobs Down-Companies Miss Opportunities

Inside Higher Ed recently published an article entitled The Shrinking Ph.D. Job Market highlighting how more doctoral graduates, higher debt levels, and lower job prospects are having an impact on graduate opportunities. Fields like education are declining while engineering is exploding. Most other fields are growing. The fear is that lack of jobs will put pressure on future intellectual capital thereby damaging future Ph.D. job seekers. Companies may be missing out on a golden opportunity.

Not all Ph.D.s need to work in academia and most can contribute significantly to industry development and corporate innovation. Only 61.4% of new graduates have workplace commitments making corporate recruitment a viable alternative for many Ph.D. holders.

Considering that  graduates doctoral programs have the highest levels of education, critical thinking skills, and research capabilities they should be in demand for corporations. As quantitative analysis and big data become larger part of everyday business it will be necessary to hire highly educated people.

Not all Ph.Ds are the same but those who hold degrees that can be directly applied to business hold promises for companies that want to raise their intellectual capital while hiring top home grown talent. Consider a few benefits:

Corporate Innovation: Developing products and services.

Operational Research: Researching internal aspects of the business to reduce inefficiencies.

Training & Development: Utilizing "book smarts" to raising the human capital of the business.

Management: Grooming doctoral holders for management and eventual senior management positions.

Strategic Analysis: Researching the market and evaluating strategic options.