Gordon Jack is a Ph.D. student in the department of Business and Management at Heriot-Watt University, with his current research interests focussing on management in highly autonomous environments. Gordon’s work analyses whether or not people can in fact be managed in setting of quasi low-authority, including the judicial, medical and academic systems. Gordon received an MSc in Strategic Project Management from Heriot-Watt University in 2013 having gained a BSc (Hons) in Building Surveying from the same institution. His teaching commitments have included undergraduate Business Management and Business Entrepreneurship at 1st and 3rd year level respectively, with publications including ‘Who’d be a Dean’ from the Association of Business Schools.
But PhDs are only for smart people, and there’s no way I am smart enough for one is one of many reticent statements that any new research student will undoubtedly consider when embarking on this new journey. I swore blind after my first degree that I would never return to academia, as I hadn’t particularly enjoyed the teaching nor the subject I studied, let alone the work experience that I am glad I did to rectify my decision not to pursue that particular career. A failed stint in retail management, culminating in the apprehension of shoplifters, saw a return to university for postgraduate education, after which I was subsequently offered an extremely appealing research position with two very well respected management scholars. I couldn’t possibly refuse. If you are in the midst of deciding whether or not to take the plunge and do a PhD, there are a few considerations you may wish to ponder before doing so, a few of which I have outlined concisely below.
It can be a 9-5 if you want it to be
Some research students attend campus every weekday, from 9 or 10 in the morning and stay to 5 or 6. If you are able to adhere to this structured approach, great! However, if not, a PhD may still be an option for you. The flexibility and autonomy that go with the post can be extremely accommodating to some people’s schedule and other commitments, and depending on your supervisors, you can be given free reign. So long as you are getting the work done, there is little for them to get grumpy about.
Management of others
You are treated like a member of staff even though you are a student, which is a great feeling. However, I bet as a student you didn’t think you’d be managing anyone – incorrect. Supervisors need managed, and the better they are, the more they need managed. Academics are busy people and at risk of repetition, the better they are, the more precious their time will be. Research supervision will form a minute part of their workload and they will usually support you unconditionally, however, you as the mentee need to tell them what you want and need, and sometimes remind them several hundred times before you get it.
Expectations
Being truthful, I didn’t know what to expect. I was under the impression before I started that I wanted some kind of routine and structure, which is far from what you get in a university environment. In the midst of my MSc, I applied for secondary school teacher training and allegedly wasn’t qualified enough. Now, however, I have taught the breadth of undergraduate levels and subjects, together with marking examination and coursework scripts, setting examination questions and sitting on various boards of progression for the courses I have been part of. I would not have been in such a fortunate position today had I not taken the plunge into PhD life, and if you have the slightest inclination you might enjoy it and be good at it, give it all you’ve got.
Picture by Robert Couse-Baker under CC license.
If you were starting again what would you do differently knowing what you know now? What do you wish you had known at the beginning that you know now?
Hi Anthony,
Thanks very much for getting in touch – I hope you found the information on the blog useful. I can’t honestly admit that there is anything I would change about the path I have taken and what I have done to date. I have embraced all the opportunities that have been offered to me in terms of my research and associated conferences, teaching and marking, which all combine as part of the holistic PhD experience. Don’t listen to anyone who says it’s just all about your own research, because I think you’d very quickly become disinterested.
Any more questions, I’d be delighted to answer them. Thanks for engaging.
Gordon
Hi Gordon,
Building surveying and autonomous management situations seem like two pretty unrelated subjects and approaches to problems, did you find many overlaps between the fields? And do you think that moving to a different field from your undergraduate degree benefits your PhD?
I have a strong belief that having to choose what you’re going to do for the rest of your life at 17 or 18 is an extremely daunting, and often ill-thought and rushed task. However, I think it has become more accepted nowadays that if you do not wish to continue with a job related to your degree, a university qualification proves that you have shown dedication, amongst other skills. It’s different for those who are confident that they wish to do medicine, law, dentistry etc, and get the qualifications to allow them to pursue that.
I was one of those people who didn’t have a clue. I like maths at school, but wasn’t clever enough to do pure maths and wasn’t interested in becoming an accountant. I chose Quantity Surveying originally, and realised after 2nd year, that Building Surveying was of more interest, however, by the end of my Bachelors degree, not enough to sway me into a life-long career in it. I then went into retail management, which didn’t pan out, but realised that I liked the idea of management and the larger, more strategic objectives an organisation employs and associated operational activities. This lead me to my MSc in Strategic Project Management, at the end of which I was offered a PhD scholarship, with extremely attractive terms and outcomes.
I would encourage anyone to diversify and change to something that they enjoy doing it, even if that means digressing from their original academic pathway. If you do not enjoy what you do at the moment, stick it out and try something else at the end. It’s not just about the subject matter you are studying. You are picking up a lot more background skills as a result and you will be able to make a more informed decision at the end based on what you are interested in and motivated by.