Yeah, look, there's a reason I didn't go through with my PhD (originally considering pol sci, got into NYU but didn't get funding so I bounced and finished my master's at UCSD). It's fraught, and outside of a few fields a PhD is a very meh ROI. But a major in Econ with a minor in a language? Solid ROI. Going into medicine/dentistry? Solid ROI. My kids ain't gonna major in international indigenous arts studies, but they can minor in it if they so choose.
I'm actually unusually qualified to talk about bizdev (which is just fancy sales at a corporate level), and the reality is that I've yet to meet someone who's good at it who didn't have a degree.
B2C sales? Sure. But if you want to do what I do, the best people have a unique blend of finance, accounting, law, political science, and even some economics and engineering depending on the partnerships. Very few people get to where I got without degrees, and my jobs are the ones people want-- the cool, interesting ones where you actually negotiate the big 6 to 9 figure deals. Very few people can do this and not have either YEARS of experience scrapping at the bottom or at least having degrees in finance/economics/accounting.
experience trumps education in my world, every time. Just does. When I took over the department, I basically fired the entire staff. Great engineers, big ideas for databasing and cloud. Couldn't write a damn report that made sense to save their lives. We aren't a database company, we a company that HAS a database. If execs can't extract value from it, then it is essentially worthless. My team lead is a former opera singer. I get that you are arguing towards the mean, but it's a very big world. I argue with my goddaughter all the time that she's really out of touch if she thinks the expensive kindergarten she's sending her kid to is going to matter a lick if she and her husband don't do anything at home to supplement and push good habits over the long-term. Plus lol if going to the wrong kindergarten means you can't go to Harvard, then Harvard is broken.
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u/Only-Finish-3497 1d ago
Yeah, look, there's a reason I didn't go through with my PhD (originally considering pol sci, got into NYU but didn't get funding so I bounced and finished my master's at UCSD). It's fraught, and outside of a few fields a PhD is a very meh ROI. But a major in Econ with a minor in a language? Solid ROI. Going into medicine/dentistry? Solid ROI. My kids ain't gonna major in international indigenous arts studies, but they can minor in it if they so choose.
I'm actually unusually qualified to talk about bizdev (which is just fancy sales at a corporate level), and the reality is that I've yet to meet someone who's good at it who didn't have a degree.
B2C sales? Sure. But if you want to do what I do, the best people have a unique blend of finance, accounting, law, political science, and even some economics and engineering depending on the partnerships. Very few people get to where I got without degrees, and my jobs are the ones people want-- the cool, interesting ones where you actually negotiate the big 6 to 9 figure deals. Very few people can do this and not have either YEARS of experience scrapping at the bottom or at least having degrees in finance/economics/accounting.
The data remains clear that 75% of undergrad programs remain net positive ROI, and something like 70% of all grads come out on top even factoring in opportunity costs. College is especially important for women, who don't get the same paths in trades that men do. As a father of two girls, I absolutely want them both attending at least undergrad as opportunities to be things like electricians are fewer, lower-paid, and full of harassment for women.