two weeks into my new job

Hmm, time flies. Already two weeks into my new job, still feel unreal. The worst thing is, as you can imagine, I have been so occupied with the new job (including opening the computer and working at night and on weekends) and have not done any study! The best thing is, my employer has a very flexible culture and delivers what they promise. I have not worked from home yet, simply due to overwhelming induction sessions, numerous meetings and all the other stress associated with starting a new job. Theoretically I can turn up or leave the office at any time I like and no one would even care. Except for Mondays when we usually have management meetings, I can work from home at any other days if I like. This is A BIG THING for me. I really love this new job and hope the good feeling would continue.

For my work, I feel I still need two to three months to settle in before taking control. For my (poor, neglected) study, I have just made some resolutions that I’ll get into the study mood from tomorrow night (15th Oct) and will try to ensure 15 – 20 hours of study time each week from this week onward.

Tonight I just did my Annual Progress Report draft for Session 1 and sent to my supervisors for their comments before submitting online. Hope they will OK my report. Fingers crossed.

My methodology chapter has been “work in progress” for too long. During the past month – September, it experienced another shift of direction. Now I was advised to re-focus on the qualitative method only without bothering to add a quantitative part, which was a big hit for me unfortunately, after spending so much time on reading, designing and writing the quantitative element. Anyway, I think it is natural to move back and forth during the DBA journey and I’ll just have to take it as a learning experience.

I hope everybody else in the class has made good, steady progress in their study. All the best to all of us!

getting back to work…

After nine months of “full-time” study, I have recently returned to the workforce. Did not expect this would happen so soon, because the initial plan was to start looking for a job from Janurary next year. But it just happened due to one visit to Seek at the end of August. I take this as a call of destiny …

What I found is that when I stopped working and spent all day at home I was not very productive and studied the same or even less hours as when I was working full timely. So the feeling of guilt made me very uncomfortable and I felt I needed to do something to justify my time. Also I was afraid of losing confidence if staying out of employment for too long.

So only one day of visiting the Seek web changed my whole situation. I got the job within ten days from the first call. And most importantly, as I asked very clearly at the interviews, I could work from home a couple of days every week and they agreed – that’s why I say it’s a call of destiny. I did it at the right time and the right place. I just hope it would work out as it promises and I would be able to continue my study as planned. However I do need to change to part-time from next year, so I can do a proper job and maintain good study results.

I’m not sure how many people change their jobs during their doctoral study if they do work, but I do think doing the DBA has changed the way I make decisions toward my work. Flexibility and time autonomy are important criteria for my job consideration. I never want to give up my study although going back to work would definitely slow it down. I hope I could complete it within two years time.

Actually I’m thinking of doing a separate research post my DBA life, if by then I’d still like to do research. I’d like to see how doing a DBA has changed our work and life. And I have decided it must be a qualitative study of one-to-one interviews. I expect findings would be interesting. It certainly has changed my life and my work although I have not finished it yet.