What are the possible future benefits of writing a thesis or a dissertation?

There are several important benefits attributed to writing a thesis or dissertation. However, it should be noted that not everyone who starts a thesis or dissertation actually completes the work.

One important benefit to writing and completing a thesis or dissertation is that it could possibly be read by a future employer. This is important if you have sought a job in an area that greatly interests you, similar to the way that the topic of your thesis or dissertation enthused you. Employers know that writing a thesis or dissertation is not an easy task and not every one who completes that level of work has done so without other major factors ongoing in their lives (such as work, travel, perhaps care of a family member or children, illness). If you don’t complete the thesis or dissertation, it will hang over you like a cloud and possibly cause an uncomfortable moment during an interview when the interviewer asks why you didn’t complete.

One of the biggest and yet little accredited positives attached to writing a thesis or dissertation is the accumulated communication skills that have been hones to perfection. You have progressed your writing skills to become more precise, more factual and more directed. No other writing project can help you achieve these exacting skills.

Your work may not be actually published but it may offer help or support to other students that are studying in you area. It would be considered a building block of knowledge for other students when they are perusing, completed and filed dissertations. It may be that your dissertation on its own may not appear to be ground breaking knowledge but alongside similar work will illuminate what went well, what worked and what didn’t and good source material. All of these points are of use to future students.

Another view is that once you have completed your thesis or dissertation it can guide you as to your next move. Completing such as large piece of work can be gratifying and illuminating. You may feel that you don’t want to do anything like that ever again - or do you feel that you would like to find out even more about your chosen area of interest. But as a sideways move, a dissertation can be used as a background for publication in book form.