[AISWorld] DILEMMA: Masters Degree or Work Experience before IS PhD?

[James Howison]

I find that students with organizational or process research interests draw
heavily on their workplace experience as they develop their "organizational
imaginary".  Time in the workplace helps them develop some empirical grist
for the mill, as it were.

There is also something that helps sustain the long grind of doctoral study
about knowing one's options in the job market, knowing that one could step
to a different career perhaps makes it easier to actively choose to
continue doctoral study.

So, FWIW, I'd say yes to working for a while, but (at least in Information
Schools) the coursework masters is not particular relevant for doctoral
study.

James Howison

Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Texas at Austin
http://james.howison.name

What do we want? A revenue-neutral carbon tax-and-refund!
When do we want it? 1981 would be nice but immediately is also acceptable!



On Tue, Jan 21, 2020 at 2:13 PM James Gaskin <james.eric.gaskin at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have a student who is a strategy undergrad, but he has decided to pursue
> a
> PhD in Information Systems to become a professor. He already has some good
> technical skills, so he is wondering whether he ought to do a Masters in IS
> or just get a job in IS before applying to IS doctoral programs. For those
> of you who run your doctoral programs, what do you think your preference
> would be? For the sake of argument, let's say he has a 700 on the GMAT,
> speaks English natively, has good social skills, and he has experience as a
> research assistant. I would love your thoughts.
>
> Thanks!
>
> James Gaskin
>
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