‘Hard’ skills from PhDs remain relevant beyond academia
This comes up a lot: everyone has some "skills" 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/he "learned" from the paper route. The CEO of the studio "learned" 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.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.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.The thing about an MBA is, they really enjoy this "business stuff." 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.Source: comp sci PhD student who switched to an MBA.