‘Hard’ skills from PhDs remain relevant beyond academia
This comes up a lot: everyone has some &quot;skills&quot; that transfer from one domain to another. Read an interview with a titan of industry and they will invariably bring up the willingness to get up early and work hard that s&#x2F;he &quot;learned&quot; from the paper route. The CEO of the studio &quot;learned&quot; to network from being in the mailroom and so on. In theory, almost any job can give you some transferable skills. A PhD may give you many more than most.<p>I know if you have PhD you (probably) worked really, really, really hard, were able to focus on a single problem for years, can communicate, analyze and so forth. I have enormous respect for PhDs, and believe they can deliver enormous value. But they are not the same kind of hire as an MBA.<p>What is the difference between a PhD and an MBA? I think to me it captures the single most important attribute that you cannot pick up directly: what people care about.<p>The thing about an MBA is, they really enjoy this &quot;business stuff.&quot; They like thinking about markets, the customer, costs, finance, how to cross-sell, how to avoid dilution and the like. Its not just that the skills are different (though they are), it is that the interests are different.<p>Source: comp sci PhD student who switched to an MBA.