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

[Mike Seymour]

James,

 I could not agree more, I say this as someone who did both a Master and then a Phd,.. with years of Industry in the middle.

Increasingly I find industry engagement an important component of being able to contribute both in terms of teaching and research.
I am also stunned at how much I took for granted the value of complex and deep industry connections that I had developed over years. 
in the field of IS, we often need to rely on both personal connections and earned trust to help with some key forms of advanced IS research, not all but some.

It is not that industry experience makes one in anyway ‘better', it just makes achieving various ambitious research goals easier.
And in teaching I believe students can lean into subjects when one can add personal stories and perspectives to illustrate important theoretical points.

Mike

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Mike Seymour
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> On 22 Jan 2020, at 8:55 am, James Howison <jhowison at ischool.utexas.edu> wrote:
> 
> 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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