Friday 18 February 2011

The market failure of Ph.D

As "over Doctors" is a common term in the industry of scholars, the demand and supply simply does not see their equilibrium on its specific labour market. I personally thinking of pursuing Ph.D of Economics because I know a professor of Economics who explained about me of the options of jobs I can have as a Ph.D of Economics. One is the Professor which is highly competitive, another is the private firms' researcher and the other is the officer of public organizations such like U.N. or Central Banks. When I heard this, I was pretty positive about the life plan as a Ph.D; however, the career as Ph.D in general is not so brightly paved as I come to know lately.
One specific reason for this is because the skill which Ph.D has is very specific on certain field. Of course Ph.D also has highly established skills which is universally adaptable such as analytical skills and problem solving skills; meanwhile if those skills were not well presented on the appeal to the people of different industries, it is extremely difficult for those Ph.D holders to attain deserving employments. The failure of the presentation of your labour value to the employees simply drop the title into the categories of "over doctors". As the general recognitions the M.A.s are relatively unspecified on its skilled compared to Ph.Ds, then employers usually expect those to be more adaptable to their businesses or public duties.
My professor has got a job in the business sector and the public sector but not a position as a Professor when he finished his Ph.D. but finally achieved it in Sophia and now he transferred to the position in Kent University in England. The reason why he could be successful in the start of his career was because of his bilingual skill I assume. The all jobs he has got in the first place was in Japan and of course, bilingual Ph.D is quite precious in Japan. Further more he perhaps could present himself better than other competitors.
So as he had his own strategy to win the game of job hunting he has done a great work. Meanwhile that is only a success story that I could only hear, it does not guarantee my success. On the other hand, I even have problems to go to graduate school as to speak of my current situations. I need to prepare for the applications and such and if I were not going to pass the applicant selections. I do not even have a choice to do anything but a 'over Bachelor'.

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