Does a DBA Enhance Your Career?

As the highest degree you can obtain, a doctorate always looks impressive on your CV. Before you enrol on a DBA course, however, you’ll want to make sure that a Doctor of Business Administration qualification will help you to achieve your professional goals.

If you’re in two minds about committing to further study, take a look at how a DBA could enhance your career and what benefits it could offer:

1. Increased Employability

First and foremost, becoming a Doctor of Business Administration enables you to further your career in a number of ways. When you have a DBA qualification, you’ve got advanced research skills and business knowledge, which is an attractive package for any prospective employer.

If you choose a niche subject area as the main focus of your DBA research, your future job opportunities may be heavily focused around this specialty. However, you will still have the chance to branch out, if you choose to. The knowledge you’ve gained can often be applied to other areas of business, while your advanced research skills are transferable across various environments.

2. Stand Out from the Crowd

When you’re trying to secure your dream job, you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd and outperform other candidates. While master’s degrees, such as an MSc or even an MBA, are becoming increasingly common, a DBA remains relatively elusive. As a result, you can be confident that your doctoral degree will set you apart from other candidates and capture the attention of prospective employers.

If you’re applying for leadership or executive roles, you’re going to be up against candidates who are also well-qualified and who have extensive experience in the industry. With a DBA, however, you can ensure you’ve got the edge over everyone else in the interview room.

3. Higher Earning Potential

Your professional happiness doesn’t depend solely on what you earn, but commanding a higher salary is always beneficial. Both qualifications and experience can help to increase your earning power, but a DBA is particularly relevant when it comes to calculating potential future salaries.

Executives with a Doctor of Business Administration qualification can earn significantly more than their counterparts who don’t have a DBA, even when they’re performing the same role. Furthermore, professionals with a DBA tend to earn higher salaries than colleagues with alternative advanced business degrees, such as a PhD.

4. Boost Your Confidence

Although a doctoral degree gives you a wealth of knowledge and an armoury of skills, it also enhances your self-confidence and gives you the push you need to take your career even further. When you’re working in a competitive, fast-paced environment, it’s easy to have doubts about your ability, even if you don’t voice them to anyone.

When you’re accepted into a well-respected, fully accredited DBA programme, however, you’ll begin to realise just how capable you truly are. The combination of collaborative and self-directed learning will only serve to increase your self-esteem further, until you have no doubt that you’re capable of achieving anything you put your mind to.

5. Specialise in a Chosen Area

When you’re completing a Doctor of Business Administration qualification, you’ll have the opportunity to submit research proposals on subject areas that are of particular interest to you. If you want to specialise in a specific field, for example, a DBA gives you the opportunity to highlight your prowess in this area.

Additionally, this opportunity to specialise ensures that every aspect of your DBA course offers genuine value and can be adapted for use in your current and/or future roles. While other academic programmes may be fairly limited when it comes to practical application, the skills you gain when completing your DBA will reflect your chosen specialties and be highly relevant to your real-life working environment.

6. Become a Better Manager

Many people who complete a DBA go on to secure to C-suite roles in major companies and organisations. To succeed in this area, you need to have strong leadership qualities and a good managerial style. However, learning how to become a good manager doesn’t happen overnight. The most effective leaders are typically those who learn their craft and understand the nuances involved with managing people in business.

The emphasis on research within your DBA programme will allow you to hone your leadership skills and become a better manager over time. As you develop your understanding of theoretical and conceptual management styles, in relation to qualitative and quantitative research methods and business analysis, you’ll be able to discern which leadership styles are most applicable to your current role and industry. By doing so, you’ll highlight your ability to lead a department, business or organisation and cement your credentials as an effective C-suite executive.

7. Be at the Forefront of the Business Landscape

The nature of business changes all the time but, in the current digital era, it’s evolving at a rapid pace. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes in relation to operational and working styles, while the economic impact of the pandemic still remains uncertain. This highlights just how quickly the landscape as we know it can change and reinforces the importance of being at the forefront.

Change can be tricky to navigate but, as a Doctor of Business Administration, you’ll have the skills required to identify how potential changes could impact your organisation. Furthermore, you’ll be able to identify appropriate methodologies to pinpoint how changes may occur and what effects they’ll have. This gives you the opportunity to be at the forefront of the business landscape but also enables you to shape the future of your industry too.

Studying for a DBA Qualification

With so many benefits associated with a Doctor of Business Administration qualification, it’s easy to see why employers rate candidates so highly when they have a DBA. If you want to further your career, increase your earning power and help shape your industry, a DBA could give you the skills, opportunities and confidence you need.

Published by Kidal Delonix (1197 Posts)

Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.