How necessary is grad school for beginning a career within small business/startups? I'm an undergrad freshman and I can't escape the overwhelming consensus among my peers, that if I want to be successful, I need to go to grad school.
I agree. I met a guy who dropped out of his undergrad, worked on wall street a couple years, and now is quite wealthy helping run an advertising startup.
School is a horrible route to getting wealthy. On the other hand, grad school used to be a good idea if you want to solely focus on specialized research in a community of likeminded individuals. But, I don't think it's even good for that anymore.
Hm. So what's the alternative? I've tried to do research in a corporate environment, and am now in grad school: in my experience, it seems like getting a Ph.D. has a lot to offer in terms of teaching you how to do good research. I've learned a lot more about both my area and about the practice of research in general in graduate school than I did when I was working in a corporate research group.
I'm not convinced that working at a smaller company (or, since this is HN, starting one) would have helped, either. In fact, I'd guess would have been even worse. It would have been harder for me to gain access to advice and mentorship, there would have been more distractions, and the pressure to stay relevant to the goals of the business would have been even more intense.
Independent research? Though I agree, if you have to do it within an institution, something like academia is probably best, or maybe a blue sky research facility, if those still exist.
Graduate school has a number of extremely important advantages over independent research, at least when you're getting started:
1. Mentorship.
2. Easy access to the rest of the research community.
3. Access to resources: libraries, journal subscriptions, and, most importantly, funding.
I feel obliged to elaborate on my answer. Speaking from personal experience and evaluation, it doesn't even seem like a graduate school route is designed for entrepreneurship. I even think undergraduate is a bit iffy in terms of contribution to an entrepreneurship career. I've always kept school separate from what I learn about internet technologies and startups. Obviously there's some cross-over from school, but I'm sure whatever I don't learn from school I would have eventually learned elsewhere anyways, and probably more efficiently.
My point is that entrepreneurship requires a lot of self-motivation, and if you have that, you don't need school to learn what you need. School and its inefficiencies in instantly satisfying your curiosity will just impede your ability to learn if you were to do it yourself at your own pace.
School does offer resources and opportunities, but that's why you're paying to go there right? That money saved can be used for other things.
