I am struggling to find a PhD Scholarship in the realm of International Entrepreneurship.

What's the best way to look for it? I am so tired of googling. I have also tried jobs.ac.uk but couldn't make much progress.

Please advise.

P.S. I have done MSc Management from a British university. Passed with 70 percent along with a distinction in the dissertation.

A reply will be much appreciated :(

Hi, Sabby777

The area that you want to work in is quite niche, but I did find one link https://www.scholarshipsads.com/category/subject/international-entrepreneurship-management/. Not sure if the advertised scholarships are in the country that you are interested in or if they are of any use.

Personally though, I don't think you need a PhD to study entrepreneurship. Ground on job experience is far more important than reading on papers and going through online materials. Why do you want to do this PhD? If your answer if to work for a multinational, you might as well just get that job first and work your way up because a PhD won't help you. They prefer life skills. If you want to lecture on entrepreneurship, people would prefer to take a class or attend webinars hosted by actual entrepreneurs who has been round the track. If you want to start your own business, best you look for an actual mentor in business.

Hi Tru,

Thank you for your reply.

Ideally, I want to become a consultant and assist small and medium sized enterprises with their internationalisation ambitions, and eventually start my own consultancy firm. I was actually doing a doctorate in this field but it turned into a nightmare. I submitted my complete thesis after several years of work but to no avail. It's a long story and I still feel emotionally r*ped due to this. So really need to get this done and get it out of my system to move on. Even while writing this message, my blood is partly boiling. I also want to secure the title of a Dr. I have peer pressure on me.

I have tried applying for such consultancy jobs in the past but received zero positive responses.

Kind regards,

Sabby

Hi, Sabby777,

Thank you for sharing your struggles and ambition. These are my personal opinion. I do not think you need a PhD to be a good consultant, but you will need a lot of hands-on experience in the area you are providing advice.

Instead of sinking more time, effort and money into a 4-7 year study that may or may not help you in your career choice, why don't you look for a consulting internship/ apprenticeship and talk to your respected consultant peers to see how they got where they are. Most will not have a PhD or even a Masters.

What you don't want is to be overqualified with your PhD but underexperienced with work skills. I understand it is hard to let go that you may never be called a Dr, but weigh that with having a strong career and importantly good pay down the line. A lot of PhD holders unfortunately are unemployed or working in a job beneath them due to the horrible academic job market. Looking for an industry position with a PhD is awefully hard, but much easier with a master. Peer pressure is a massive challenge, but you may be the one who have the last laugh yet

Wow, your response sounds like 'gold' to me. I have tried applying for consultancy jobs in the past but will try again. Thank you for such a profound response! All my previous attempts resulted in utter failures. I did not receive a single positive response for any of the management consultancy positions I had applied for. Is it feasible for a 40 year old to apply for an internship?

I think there's a latent point here in that, if your goal is to leverage your intellect to make money, a PhD is not the way to go. This does not mean consulting will be easy; it relies on a lot of soft skills that often tend to come less naturally to highly numerate/logical people. It will often be the soft skills and friend-of-a-friend networking that land the lucrative consultancy role.

It's worth an internship if you have these soft skills or are willing to develop them. If 'the boss' sees you quickly as an asset *worth* $xk/year, you'll get hired.

In an ideal world, you shouldn't base the PhD vs Industry debate on the 'I can't get a job in industry, so I'll do a PhD' basis. The reason to do a PhD should never be to make money - because you won't, if you compare it to the benefits of 3 years of industry work, promotion, and networking. The reason to do a PhD should be an aware self-sacrifice of money vs doing research/spending time doing something you're interested in.

NB - if you're failing to get callbacks, it's likely the soft skills, not the qualification/intellect that's the issue. Bear in mind consultancy is basically hard sell - you're charging a client over the cost to deliver something that they don't realise is trivial, but is. Commonly the failure of academics at consultancy interview is they don't realise they're being evaluated on the basis of 'can you sell'. If you can make that click for you and hard sell the CV and interview, you'll likely see more interest.

It is easier for you to break into a consulting career at internship or apprenticeship level. I don’t think your age matters too much. What is important for you to convince the employer to take a chance on you. What can you offer that other interns, especially younger ones cannot?

You can frame it as a career track change, approach potential employers on LinkedIn, offer your services either for free or severely low pay and slowly work your way up. Considering you were willing to do a PhD for many years for extremely low allowance, a short 6 months stint unpaid or reduced rate is nothing.

If you are freshly minted master graduate, Look at PWC, Deloitte, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group etc for their graduate program. If not, check out potential managers on LinkedIn or attend networking events to build rapport and ask them to take a chance on you. Be prepared to face many rejections. Another way is to work freelance while waiting to get full time employment with the big organisations. This would directly give you a portfolio to show future employers. Charge extremely low to get the first few clients through the door