Faculty Shortage Leads to Higher Finance PhD
Salaries and More Jobs

By Jacqui Tom and the All Business Schools career research team—Your source for Business Career news, trends and programs.

Often graduates of undergraduate and master's degree programs in finance go on to careers in banking, investments and other financial service industries. However, a Finance PhD prepares students to work as professors and/or researchers. After six years of schooling to complete a doctoral program, Finance PhDs are then qualified to seek tenure at the college or university of their choice.

Newly graduated professors are often hired as non-tenured assistant professors with no long-term guarantee of job security. After several years of teaching and research, graduates may be promoted to the position of either associate or full professor and, depending on the quality of their work and relationship with the school, be granted tenure. Tenure is a lifelong career appointment that is highly coveted by those who work in academia.

Business school professors are paid quite well due to the short supply of qualified and talented Finance PhDs. Salaries for tenured professors range from $100,000 to $140,000* per academic year. Finance PhD salaries can also be supplemented by separate research grants awarded to individual faculty members.

The heavy emphasis on research and analysis in most doctoral programs has made Finance PhDs attractive to employers outside of academia. Government agencies and private financial firms are recruiting doctoral candidates to help with a variety of research and data projects.

This area is increasingly becoming a steady source of employment for Finance PhDs, and salaries can be quite lucrative. Some common employers of Finance PhDs outside of traditional academia include:

• Wall Street
• Federal Reserve
• World Bank
• Securities and Exchange Commission

Completing a PhD in Finance is not easy. It requires years of study, hard work and dedication. But, unlike many other academic fields, the job market for business—and especially Finance—professors looks rosy.

Several thousand faculty positions at business schools across the country will need to be filled in the next five years, and schools will pay handsomely for a qualified Finance PhD. Salaries will vary based on school and location, but often range in the low six figures, which make all of the work you put into graduate school worthwhile.

_{*Source: "Academic Finance as a Career," Don Chance, Louisiana State University, 2007}