How an Online Doctoral Degree Can Help Your Career
Some of the most rewarding and prestigious careers available today will continue to be out of reach for you if you don’t put in the hard work and time it takes to earn a doctoral degree. While certainly not an easy goal, earning your doctoral degree online remains one of the most convenient and flexible ways to not only deeply expand your knowledge base in a subject area or career field but also to expand your career opportunities. These opportunities include specialized careers in higher education, research and other niche jobs open only to the few who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in education.
First let’s talk about the advantages going to school online lends to a working professional. Earning your doctoral degree online will allow you to continue to work while taking doctoral courses. This means you can continue to accumulate valuable work experience on your resume. Remember: A doctoral degree alone may not be enough to land you the job you want; you may also need to show continued, relevant work experience. For example, if you have a goal of becoming a doctoral-level nurse educator, a career that is very high in demand due to a lingering nursing shortage, it is important to be able to show many years of experience as a nurse.
Another way doctoral degrees can help your career is by providing students with an intense educational focus that employers find valuable. For example, at Grand Canyon University there are five different paths you can take when pursuing a Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership. One of those paths is broadly defined, but the others have a special emphasis. Your Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership here can have an emphasis in higher education leadership, effective schools, behavioral health or instructional leadership. So when employers want to meet specific needs in their departments, they will pay attention to candidates who have studied with an emphasis in their particular area of need.
When it comes to top-rate careers, sometimes it’s not always what you know, but who you know, especially when it comes to academic and research careers. Earning a doctoral degree online puts you in regular contact with some of the most highly-trained and educated faculty in the nation. Residencies put students in the midst of an active academic community, where they will be surrounded by the best of the best. And when you have a letter of recommendation by one of the best of the best, you can go far in helping your career.
