My presentation for the incoming group of PhD students in Business Administration on the kick-off day at the Stockholm School of Economics.

1. Life as a PhD student
Zeynep Yetis-Larsson
28 August, 2013
Stockholm School of Economics
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2. Who am I?
• B.S. degree from Bilkent University, in
Industrial Engineering in Turkey.
• Exchange student at University of
California, Berkeley for a year.
• M.S. degree from Eindhoven University of
Technology, in Operations Management
and Logistics in the Netherlands.
• Visiting scholar at Tsinghua
University, China for a semester.
• Switched to social sciences.
• Have been studying at SSE for 2 years now
with Robin Teigland. PhD student in
Business Administration, in the Marketing
and Strategy Department.
• Research in open innovation, specifically
looking at the role that entrepreneurs
play in open source communities.
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3. In the beginning
• I was quite confused about quite a
lot of different issues.
• “What is your research question?”
• “Don’t worry, it is good to be
confused!”
• Process of learning and restructuring
your thoughts.
• Important to be able to move on!
• Go with something even if you are
confused.
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4. Purpose of your research
• Why is your research important?
• Always ask yourself “So what?”
• Idea of research gaps is dangerous.
• Might be better to work with
“major/big” problems.
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5. Monograph or Collection of articles?
• This is a question that will be
asked a lot.
• I think this is mainly a personality
choice. Also depends on your
research.
• Articles --- good when in the job
market, you get
recognition, easier to track your
progress, etc…
• Monograph --- it is easier to
make the whole piece consistent
throughout.
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6. Research since Day 1
• I have been a lucky PhD student.
• I have not seen a lot of other PhD students do
this.
• It is important to read and build up a good
theory base, but it is still possible to write early
on.
• Don’t let anyone
discourage you!
• Takes a lot of time
to publish!
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7. Courses
• Courses are introductions.
• They introduce some of the major
theories in the field.
• Same with methods. You get a
basic understanding of what the
method is about and what you can
do with it.
• If you want to get a deeper
understanding of a theory or a
method, better to do an extended
course.
• You make good friends in Uppsala
and in other places
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8. Conferences/Doctoral Consortiums
• Conferences are great for networking.
• More about networking than getting
“amazing” feedback on your paper in your
session.
• Got to know a few people like this, whom
I work with at the moment.
• Planning to attend a doctoral
consortium this year.
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9. Summer Schools
• Summer schools are great and intensive!
• You get to know people well.
• You get the chance to discuss your
research in detail.
• Summers schools are like a mixture of
courses and conferences, but better than
both!
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10. Year Abroad
• Exchange & visiting semester/year I did have been the
most memorable part of my studies and of my life.
• Will be going to ETH, Department of Strategic
Management and Innovation, Zurich, Switzerland.
• You can always find people who are interested in your
research.
• Don’t be shy to contact people!
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11. Funding/Grants
• Used up all my academic travel funding through SSE
the first year.
• Important to find other sources of funding for
academic travelling!
• Funding from Handelsbanken, Hedeliusstipendium and
Sweden-America Foundation (Swedish citizenship
required for the latter one).
• Scholarships through SSE for long research stays.
• There are many foundations that give out scholarships.
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12. Power of Networking
• Like in every walks of
like, networking is also important
in academia!
• The impression you get from
reading a paper by someone is
very different from what you get
when you meet him/her in person.
• Do summer schools, do
conferences, do a semester/year
abroad!
• It’s important who you work with!
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15. After PhD?
• Important to have an idea of what you will be doing, at least what you want to do
after you graduate.
• Getting an academic job is not easy!
• Good to leave home university for, at least, a while.
• Should be able to answer “What is your research program?”
• Grant writing experience is important!
• If you plan to continue in the industry, working knowledge of Swedish is very
important!
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16. Questions?
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17. Please fell free to contact me for
questions & comments!
Zeynep Yetis-Larsson
Zeynep.Yetis@hhs.se
https://twitter.com/zyetis
http://se.linkedin.com/in/zeynepyetislarsson
http://www.slideshare.net/ZeynepYetis/
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