Query regarding jobs

[PhDAspi11]

Hi,
Im a newbie to this whole PhD thingy...Can some one tell me what jobs do PhD's in Finance land in? I have seen some sites saying if yur interest is to work for a Private Company or work in aresearch team in the industry(as in some big company) a Masters is sufficient .And I saw many people saying on forums that many take up academic jobs?is it true that ...we only have to take up academic positions after a PhD i.e Professors etc. ?Can somebody please help me out here

[zshfryoh1]

Finance PhD's are in huge demand in industry. While a masters in Financial Engineering or Financial Mathematics or Statistics will suffice for many industry jobs that go to PhDs (MBA's typically do very different type of work, so I am not including those), many firms prefer those with a PhD for a variety of reasons. For example, if you look at the placements at top schools you will see a fair number of finance PhDs getting jobs in top investment firms, consulting firms and hedge funds.

Of course, you can definitely go into academia, and if I remember correctly starting salaries for new asst profs in finance are the third highest after accounting and law, and you can always do some consulting work on the side to make extra money. I know that quite a few of my econ profs do consulting work on the side and the consulting fees finance profs charge are supposedly higher than what econ profs charge.

[PhDAspi11]

Hey ...
Really thanks for your inputs.Actually the thing that got me thinking was ..When I was viwing the placements of many PhD students on the University websites they showed many students and the corresponding university they are teaching at.So that was the reason why I was worried..because I really dont want to go to academia.So people do find jobs other than academia right?.And is PhD in Financial Maths different from PhD in Finance? Because Mathematical Finance is what I am really interested in.But not many universities offer PhD in Math Finance i guess.(at least thats what my research showed me ) .And one last question ...Is it the core GPA i.e(I am a dual degree in Economics and Computer Science) taht counts or the total CGPA?ANy inputs are really really helpful.
Thanks in advance.

[phdhope]

Total GPA is the one that counts. That being said, however, they will probably look at certain class grades (ie math over your humanities courses) more closely than others. I also would note that most finance phd programs are going to look down heavily on your desire to go into the private sector. The reputation of a phd program is based upon their graduates teaching and researching at other universities. This is especially true of the top business phd programs. Another thing to consider is why you would pursue a phd if you are thinking about industry. 5 years of salary and experience is a heavy price to pay if there are easier ways to get into investment banking. Look to make sure a masters degree or work experience would not be a better route.

[PhDAspi11]

Thanks for the info..The reason I want to do a PhD is I want to go into research(at some firm) and not some routine desk job kinda thing.So I thought may be PhD is required for that

[phdhope]

I would ask around to see if academic finance research is the same type of research as equity research or industry research. My gut feeling is that they are very different from each other.