A New Semester

My blog is on life support, but it's still nice to get some thoughts down when I find time. This semester has started well, with a paper completed before a deadline and classes starting in a fairly calm, easy fashion. We have three new doctoral students, each of whom brings something unique and interesting to our group. I am excited to have this entire group while I'm in the program. We have a dozen students and will for at least another year (with more possibly coming in the fall). I feel good about what I can possibly accomplish this term.

I appreciate all of the people asking me about school. I wish I could describe last semester well, but I really can't. It was great, incredibly challenging, and I enjoyed seeing what I could manage. I was especially proud of myself not giving up on the paper I just turned in, but instead finished it. I now want to get more things into my pipeline. I'll feel even better if that paper gets accepted for Academy. For now, time marches on... or more accurately, races on...

-- Robert

My Multi-Talented Wife

I married an amazing woman. She has musical talent in spades - plays violin, piano, and various percussion instruments. She's a natural cheerleader - she loves to encourage others in whatever they are pursuing. She takes beautiful photos - we decorate our home with her pictures. I love to read her writing. She's a wonderful mother, of course. But finally she's pursuing one of her true passions: she's applying to law school. I'm really happy for her, and definitely proud she's doing it. Good for you, sweetheart!

-- Robert

And Now for Something Completely Different...

I must have heard at least three academics try to pull off that line in the past few months. One of them might have managed, but most managed to change it enough to mess it up. In any event, now that classes are over, I still have plenty of work to do over the break. I need to create a word list, get it boiled down to one agreed upon by "experts" regarding the topic I'm writing about, and use it to analyze a bunch of text samples. And that's just to get started on a paper. I also have a theory paper (or two) to edit by January 15 to submit to conference in time. Then there's another project whose deadline I am not completely clear on, but I need to learn to use another program to analyze text. And if I'm interested (which I am), I can join yet another project analyzing business school mission statements with the first textual analysis program.

And break is how long? There are only twenty or so days left? I best get a move on. At least I got over my illness of the last two days. I'm glad my semester ended well, and I look forward to getting a lot done between terms. Next semester will be pretty different, but I'm interested to see how well I learn the subjects (organizational theory, research methods II, and statistics). I'm also excited to continue working with my classmates, which might include as many as three new members next term. We just rearranged our desks to allow a fifth person to come in, and the office at the other end of the hall will take in two more people to make four. It'll be awfully cozy.

That's as much of an update as I can manage. We're getting some last minute Christmas preparation done around here. Merry Christmas everyone, in case I don't manage to write again.

-- Robert

Done With First Semester Classes

It's still hard to believe, but I have completed the first semester of my program. It has been a wonderful experience, both from a learning standpoint and from the way our group has come together. The Ph.D. students, both my cohort and those who were here before, have become good friends to me (and to each other), and some of us even joke that we're like siblings. I could not ask for a better group to be working with for four years than the people I have here right now. We have several applicants who may be starting in the Spring semester, and we just rearranged our office a little to accomodate one of those people. We would rather have the new peope on the same floor than force anyone to go to the basement. Our group is even having dinner together tonight before we all spread to the four winds over the break.

Now that classes are done, I still have work to do. After all, the classes are to build our knowledge, but our research is what gets us jobs when we're done. I may be involved with threee or four projects over the break, though most likely I'm only looking at running data analysis on one project while helping edit a paper for conference submission. The other two projects are either very preliminary from what I understand, or they're ramping up to get to publication stage and I'm going to be brought in for some of the data analysis. It's exciting to have so many things going on all at once. Hopefully I can get some things finished over the break before jumping into three more classes. One class is somewhat of a continuation of this semester, as we'll be turning our proposed project into an empirical paper. Another is organizational theory, which is one of the more mature fields of management. The last class will be our first statistical methods course, which can be quite intense by all accounts. It's hard to think that these new courses will be any easier than this semester, but time will tell.

I appreciate the various requests from friends to update this blog. I know it's been very neglected these last few months. It probably wil be again.

-- Robert

Closing Quickly on the End of First Semester

And yet... there's so much left to do. I won't even list it all. Somehow I feel sure I can accomplish it, but this next week will be a real test, I think. Still, I am learning a lot all the time, and I am amazed at how much I'm able to read and comprehend from these articles and books in a short time when previously I got less from longer reads.

It is possible that by the end of the first year, I could have two articles headed into the publication mill - not that it means they'll ever get published. It would be nice if one did, at least, and I'd love it if both did. The ideas I'm considering could possibly lead to more articles on each "stream" in which they'd fit.

We're also already looking at what we're taking next semester and this summer. Everyone in the first year group is taking a statistics class, organizational theory, and research methods 2, along with our colloquium meeting (where everyone in the program who hasn't passed comprehensive exams comes together to discuss something). Then in the summer I'll most likely be teaching the entrepreneurship 1 course (unless I swap with my classmate who is set to teach family business), possibly taking a two week course on analysis using something called HLM, and definitely taking an entrepreneurship seminar that will go into the fall (if they get that course set up). I'm also most likely taking a qualitative methods course, though I'd rather take it the following summer, if possible (( think I'd get more out of it).

And while I'm at it, I might as well mention my fall courses: strategy, philosophy of science, and another statistics course most likely (plus, again, colloquium). I'll probably be teaching family business that term, unless I stay teaching the entrepreneurship 1 class. My goal is to teach each of those (family business mostly for the experience of teaching such a class), plus an innovation/change management course, and possibly something like leadership or another entrepreneurship course. My spring of 2011 will involve taking organizational behavior, but I'm not certain what else just at the moment. Probably another statistics class, and maybe a modeling course, but that's so far away there's not much need to nail it down perfectly right now. Then, if I can swing it, I'll take qualitative methods that summer, but if not, I'll have to figure out something to take right before I might be taking my comprehensive exams.

Somehow, charting out what is ahead has always helped me, so maybe it is good to have that written down. For now, though, I need to keep my nose to the grindstone and get this semester's work done. I'm really fortunate to be working with such great classmates and professors. Each of them brings something to the table that has helped me in some way. I am excited and hopeful that we might bring in another new person in the spring, and hopefully bring in another great group next fall. If anyone out there is looking to start a doctoral program right away, Texas Tech is a great place to consider.

-- Robert

An Ocean of Knowledge

I have probably told half a dozen people my analogy for how I feel at this point in a doctoral program: I am drowning in an ocean of knowledge, and I don't have gills. It's not that I am trying to get my head above the "water" - I am actually trying to learn to breath it. That's the best way I can come up with to describe it.

And yet, here I am, not dead, with nearly a month in the program. I have had a whole range of feelings about myself in this process, but I have mostly decided to push forward as far as I can on everything I can manage and accept that everything is adding to my progress. I feel sure I will disappoint someone - a professor, a classmate, myself, my wife, my children - almost weekly, and possibly all of those in the course of this semester. Yet I believe in the process enough to have hope that on the other side of each obstacle a new perspective can be achieved.

I have read more in the last month than I did in all of my undergraduate and MBA classes combinedm, I am almost certain. If not by now, it won't take more than a week or two more to pass that mark.

And maybe, just maybe, I have started to learn to take it in without drowning. I feel like I took my first breath this past week. I am also glad that my classmates and I are doing what we can to help each other to leverage our efforts and work smarter instead of harder. A human being can only work ninety hours a week reading material for so long before it becomes abundantly clear that simply having viewed a page once is not really worth the effort expended. I cannot express how utterly grateful I am to be working alongside such brilliant students and faculty. I have no real way to know what I might have experienced elsewhere, but this group is just what the doctor(ate) ordered for me. I will owe them all a huge debt of gratitude when I am done. I hope somewhere along the way I can be of similar service to some of them.

And before I conclude this post, I have to again thank my wife for even being here. She is suffering the brunt of everything I am going through, and she's holding up better than I could ask anyone to. Her love and support, her understanding... it's beyond comprehension that she is sticking by me. I love her, and don't know if I could do this work without her. I don't think buying her the sports car of her dreams when I get my first chair will cover it - but maybe I'll find some way to show her how much she means to me. I just wish they could print the diploma with both of our names on it, because she'll certainly have earned her part of it.

Well, it is time to dive back in, or to sleep now so I can do so in the morning.

-- Robert

Eating the Elephant

After one week in a doctoral program, the metaphor definitely fits: the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. If I look at all I have to do all at once, I could easily be overwhelmed. Instead I have to take each article, each book chapter, and each assignment and work through it. At this point, I am enjoying the "flavor" of what I am consuming. Truly, my mind is more engaged than it has been in a long time - if not ever. I am extremely grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful people, both among the students and the faculty. So far I have felt very supported by the rest of my cohort and find the free flow of advice and information among us all to be wonderful. I could not have designed a better program for myself.

-- Robert