A year or so ago, a friend wrote to ask advice, saying that her son, a 16-year old rising high school senior, was “obsessed with being an economist” and whose dream was to work for the Bank of England. In response, I sent a bullet-list of grumpy warnings whose overriding message was that such a goal is fine, as long as he treats it as merely one possibility on a sizable list of wildly divergent career paths. This echoed advice I’ve offered for decades to young proteges. (See my earlier essays, “Overcoming College: Getting a Job In Spite of Your Education” and “20 Job Tips for 2020s 20-Somethings: Plus, with sheep comes optimism.”)
I have a PhD in economics from Columbia University and have enjoyed a long and interesting career. For over 25 years, one part of that career has been teaching and mentoring grad students working on their PhDs. So, why did I offer my friend caveats regarding her son’s deeply admirable, highly focused ambition?
Well, to reiterate, I never said he SHOULDN’T aim for a career as an economist at the Bank of England. It’s wonderful that a kid so young has such mature aspirations. My advice was simply that he not focus EXCLUSIVELY (perhaps not even primarily) on that one hyper-specific dream.
I offered caution because I’ve been warning young protégés for decades about the risks inherent in the process of acquiring a PhD and the challenges of navigating a PhD-dependent career. No matter how smart and diligent the student, there’s a high likelihood that his or her quest for a PhD will be thwarted by circumstances beyond his or her control. And, with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), government budget cuts, inflows of highly-educated immigrants, and universities that are intellectually and morally suspect, the risks are greater than ever.
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