CrackNeurons

Thank you so much for your reply! It really makes me think about my reasoning to get more education. I realize my current incentive is: don't know exactly what I want and not satisfied with what I am having, so i want to see where any degree would take me. With is written down, I noticed that it is quite an unjustified reason to apply for graduate-level education. A deliberative career/life planing would be my top priority rather than blindly applying for anything. Thank you again for your advice. And sorry for the multiple posts, i got panic not receiving any replies. Won't do that again.

Any advice is welcome! My background is as follows: Academic: Took both my undergraduate and master from Arizona State U. Double major in finance and accounting during undergraduate with GPA=3.78. Master in accounting with GPA=3.50. I got a GMAT score of 760, top 1 percentile. Passed CFA level I several years ago. Work experience: I'm a CPA of Arizona. Worked in China doing public-traded company’s audit for a year. (I'm a Chinese) And now working in a counsulting firm doing equity research for the TMT industry for about 6 months now (still in Beijing China). My current job of equity research is interesting for me (at least far more interesting than auditing) however: 1. I think what I am doing now could be done by AI within the near future, and together with big data, AI could definitely do a better job. 2. I do not feel like climbing up the career ladder anymore. To be honest, I don’t want to be a CEO/CFO/…. Nor do fancy cars/beach houses interest me that much. I took two gap years traveling around and observing people around gives me a strong belief that doing what you like is a major source of happiness. I love reading books & papers on economics/psychology/accounting, thus I am thinking about applying for a PhD. QUESTIONS: I have basically no research background (no RA experience, no papers published). With background mentioned above, do I get a chance to apply for business-related PhD? If so, what kind of school could I expect? (top50? Top 100?) Academic recommendation letters would be a problem for me. I’ve left school for a while and since I’m back in China, it’s hard for me to re-connect with former professors. Anybody faced similar situation before? What could I do? I’ve consulted some people and they think I barely have a shot applying for a PhD now. Their suggestion is to an MBA first, build some connections with professors and think about PhD then. Would this be a doable path? If so what level of MBAs could I apply with backgrounds mentioned above? Thank you for your time reading, any advice is appreciated! Fay H