The Ph.D. experience: Graduates of IS doctoral program form a network of knowledge
At universities across the country, graduates of the information systems doctoral program at the W. P. Carey School challenge their students to think creatively and independently. This approach comes straight from the program's playbook, as doctoral candidates are routinely involved in designing both courses and research projects. Although they are far from the W. P. Carey School now, graduates of the Department of Information Systems doctoral program say they remain in touch with faculty and present and former students. They often collaborate on research and see each other at conferences. "I know people from the Ph.D. program at ASU who arrived after I left, and I know people that graduated from the Ph.D. program before I ever arrived," says Dawn Gregg, associate professor at University of Colorado Denver. "You feel like you are part of a continuum of support."
In the "Organization Theory and IS" seminar she teaches at Baylor University, Assistant Professor Theresa Edgington asks her students to actively critique the course throughout the semester. A 2006 graduate of the W. P. Carey School's Department of Information Systems doctoral program, Edgington also has each student utilize a research template for each paper similar to one she and her cohorts developed in her own Ph.D. program.
"I was a little worried that they would see it as just paperwork," Edgington says. "But afterwards I found that they really appreciated it. They told me that my class — out of all the classes they have — is the one that makes them think the most."
Edgington's practice of challenging her students to think creatively and independently comes straight from the playbook she learned as a student at the Department of Information Systems in the W. P. Carey School of Business. Edgington and her fellow doctoral candidates were routinely involved in designing both courses and research projects.
"We were treated as junior faculty," Edgington recalls. "I think the department did this for everyone in the program. They looked at us as 'faculty in training.'"
Most graduates of the department's Ph.D. program do go on to successful careers as college faculty. Many line up positions while still in school or shortly after they get their diplomas. This year is expected to roll out much the same: "The job market is really tight this year, and you do have to hunt a lot harder, but I think they all will be able to get jobs," said Information Systems Professor Robert St. Louis, faculty adviser to the Ph.D. program.
Close ties to faculty help in new jobs
Mark Keith received his doctorate in May 2009, then spent a year working as a clinical faculty member at the W. P. Carey School while exploring the job market elsewhere. He is now an assistant professor of computer information systems at West Texas A&M University.
Like Edgington, Keith recalls being treated as an equal by faculty when he was a graduate student. "Of course, you have a mentor-student relationship, but I was treated more as a fellow researcher who just needed to be caught up in some of the areas that I lacked," Keith says.
The student-faculty relationships Keith experienced at the Department of Information Systems have shaped his approach to his new job. "It has helped me develop a good rapport with the faculty and the students," Keith says. "I'm used to a collaborative environment, and if people are interested in what I'm doing, I'm happy to bring them on and have them work with me."
The doctoral program at the W. P. Carey School's Department of Information Systems is small and highly selective. Most years, only three students are admitted, and at any given time, there are about 12 to 15 students in the program.
"The biggest advantage of the small size is that you have a lot of time to work with people on their dissertations," St. Louis says. "It's a very faculty-intensive operation. You have at least three faculty members involved with every doctoral student. If you're the chair of the dissertation committee for a student, you meet at least once a week to discuss progress and collaborate on journal articles."
Teaching skills required for new faculty
As jobs for new faculty have become scarcer in recent years, new Ph.D.'s looking for work have adjusted their job search to market conditions, according to St. Louis. Positions at research-intensive universities are few, St. Louis says, so "most of the people are going to schools that are more balanced between research and the teaching. In the past, they might have tried to go to schools that emphasized research more than teaching."
Dawn Gregg received her doctorate in May 2000, and the following year was hired to an information systems and entrepreneurship faculty position at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Currently she also is serving as the interim administrative director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship. "I am an associate professor, so I have tenure, which is an important criterion," Gregg says. "Without the degree I wouldn't have my job, and I wouldn't have my career."
Gregg says she now is grateful for the comprehensive preparation she received at the W. P. Carey School in both research and teaching.
"I had an opportunity to do quite a bit of teaching when I was there, which really made the transition to being a professor not particularly shocking. My life didn't change that much — other than I was paid more," she says.
Orneita Burton's experience was somewhat different. A 2006 Ph.D. graduate and now an assistant professor, at Abilene Christian University, Burton found the leap from student to faculty a challenge. "It was not easy. It was a big change," she recalls. "But while we were at ASU, we taught. That helped. At ASU, they really emphasized the importance of being able to meet the needs of the students."
With a joint appointment to Abilene Christian's College of Business Administration and School of Information Technology and Computing, Burton has been teaching a wide range of courses, including economics, production and operations management, and management information systems.
Research still a focus
While teaching represents a big part of what they do today, former Ph.D. students who are now faculty remain very much involved in research. For many, their research is a continuation of what they started at the W. P. Carey School of Business.
"My current research stream began as part of my dissertation," Edgington says. "I'm looking at analytical processes and how analysts actually go about what they do and what motivates them. I found there is a common set of motivators, no matter what type of analytical process it is, from a help desk to epidemiology."
Gregg used the research she did as a graduate student to explore many different but related areas.
"My research has really evolved a lot," Gregg says. "I do some design science research. I do some empirical work. I've done some survey work. Really the one thing that's been constant is I've really looked at the Internet and how it is used. I've looked at a wide variety of things in both business and non-business domains."
The Department of Information Systems encourages doctoral students to publish, either in academic journals or in conference proceedings, before graduation. This provided a big boost to their careers, graduates of the program say.
"I had four or five papers published that I worked on or essentially wrote the entire paper while I was a student," Gregg says. "That was part of my success in the job market, and I gained the ability to write and to continue to publish."
Keith was an author of three journal papers and a half dozen conference papers while he was a graduate student. "I was well prepared to generate my own research ideas and successfully follow them through," he says.
The department also steered students toward projects that were relevant to important issues facing businesses and society, according to graduates of the program. "I felt we were encouraged to do research that could make a difference in society," Edgington says.
Families and the academic life
Earning a doctorate and then finding a job can have a big effect on families, former Ph.D. students say.
For Edgington, the move from Phoenix to Waco, Texas, and her new job at Baylor meant uprooting her family.
"We had lived in the Phoenix area for about 30 years, so transferring out of state, my husband had to transfer his work, and we had to move my mother with us. That was pretty dramatic," Edgington says.
For Burton's family the hardest move came when she started graduate school in Phoenix. "We were in Texas, and my husband was in sales and marketing," she says. "Our two young boys didn't like Phoenix, mainly because it's a big city."
The family welcomed returning to Texas after Burton got her degree and her job at Abilene Christian University. "This was like coming home," she says.
Although they are far from the W. P. Carey School now, graduates of the Department of Information Systems doctoral program say they remain in touch with faculty and present and former students. They often collaborate on research and see each other at conferences.
"I know people from the Ph.D. program at ASU who arrived after I left, and I know people that graduated from the Ph.D. program before I ever arrived," Gregg says. "You feel like you are part of a continuum of support."
"We were treated as junior faculty," Edgington recalls. "I think the department did this for everyone in the program. They looked at us as 'faculty in training.'"
Most graduates of the department's Ph.D. program do go on to successful careers as college faculty. Many line up positions while still in school or shortly after they get their diplomas. This year is expected to roll out much the same: "The job market is really tight this year, and you do have to hunt a lot harder, but I think they all will be able to get jobs," said Information Systems Professor Robert St. Louis, faculty adviser to the Ph.D. program.
Close ties to faculty help in new jobs
Mark Keith received his doctorate in May 2009, then spent a year working as a clinical faculty member at the W. P. Carey School while exploring the job market elsewhere. He is now an assistant professor of computer information systems at West Texas A&M University.
Like Edgington, Keith recalls being treated as an equal by faculty when he was a graduate student. "Of course, you have a mentor-student relationship, but I was treated more as a fellow researcher who just needed to be caught up in some of the areas that I lacked," Keith says.
The student-faculty relationships Keith experienced at the Department of Information Systems have shaped his approach to his new job. "It has helped me develop a good rapport with the faculty and the students," Keith says. "I'm used to a collaborative environment, and if people are interested in what I'm doing, I'm happy to bring them on and have them work with me."
The doctoral program at the W. P. Carey School's Department of Information Systems is small and highly selective. Most years, only three students are admitted, and at any given time, there are about 12 to 15 students in the program.
"The biggest advantage of the small size is that you have a lot of time to work with people on their dissertations," St. Louis says. "It's a very faculty-intensive operation. You have at least three faculty members involved with every doctoral student. If you're the chair of the dissertation committee for a student, you meet at least once a week to discuss progress and collaborate on journal articles."
Teaching skills required for new faculty
As jobs for new faculty have become scarcer in recent years, new Ph.D.'s looking for work have adjusted their job search to market conditions, according to St. Louis. Positions at research-intensive universities are few, St. Louis says, so "most of the people are going to schools that are more balanced between research and the teaching. In the past, they might have tried to go to schools that emphasized research more than teaching."
Dawn Gregg received her doctorate in May 2000, and the following year was hired to an information systems and entrepreneurship faculty position at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Currently she also is serving as the interim administrative director of the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship. "I am an associate professor, so I have tenure, which is an important criterion," Gregg says. "Without the degree I wouldn't have my job, and I wouldn't have my career."
Gregg says she now is grateful for the comprehensive preparation she received at the W. P. Carey School in both research and teaching.
"I had an opportunity to do quite a bit of teaching when I was there, which really made the transition to being a professor not particularly shocking. My life didn't change that much — other than I was paid more," she says.
Orneita Burton's experience was somewhat different. A 2006 Ph.D. graduate and now an assistant professor, at Abilene Christian University, Burton found the leap from student to faculty a challenge. "It was not easy. It was a big change," she recalls. "But while we were at ASU, we taught. That helped. At ASU, they really emphasized the importance of being able to meet the needs of the students."
With a joint appointment to Abilene Christian's College of Business Administration and School of Information Technology and Computing, Burton has been teaching a wide range of courses, including economics, production and operations management, and management information systems.
Research still a focus
While teaching represents a big part of what they do today, former Ph.D. students who are now faculty remain very much involved in research. For many, their research is a continuation of what they started at the W. P. Carey School of Business.
"My current research stream began as part of my dissertation," Edgington says. "I'm looking at analytical processes and how analysts actually go about what they do and what motivates them. I found there is a common set of motivators, no matter what type of analytical process it is, from a help desk to epidemiology."
Gregg used the research she did as a graduate student to explore many different but related areas.
"My research has really evolved a lot," Gregg says. "I do some design science research. I do some empirical work. I've done some survey work. Really the one thing that's been constant is I've really looked at the Internet and how it is used. I've looked at a wide variety of things in both business and non-business domains."
The Department of Information Systems encourages doctoral students to publish, either in academic journals or in conference proceedings, before graduation. This provided a big boost to their careers, graduates of the program say.
"I had four or five papers published that I worked on or essentially wrote the entire paper while I was a student," Gregg says. "That was part of my success in the job market, and I gained the ability to write and to continue to publish."
Keith was an author of three journal papers and a half dozen conference papers while he was a graduate student. "I was well prepared to generate my own research ideas and successfully follow them through," he says.
The department also steered students toward projects that were relevant to important issues facing businesses and society, according to graduates of the program. "I felt we were encouraged to do research that could make a difference in society," Edgington says.
Families and the academic life
Earning a doctorate and then finding a job can have a big effect on families, former Ph.D. students say.
For Edgington, the move from Phoenix to Waco, Texas, and her new job at Baylor meant uprooting her family.
"We had lived in the Phoenix area for about 30 years, so transferring out of state, my husband had to transfer his work, and we had to move my mother with us. That was pretty dramatic," Edgington says.
For Burton's family the hardest move came when she started graduate school in Phoenix. "We were in Texas, and my husband was in sales and marketing," she says. "Our two young boys didn't like Phoenix, mainly because it's a big city."
The family welcomed returning to Texas after Burton got her degree and her job at Abilene Christian University. "This was like coming home," she says.
Although they are far from the W. P. Carey School now, graduates of the Department of Information Systems doctoral program say they remain in touch with faculty and present and former students. They often collaborate on research and see each other at conferences.
"I know people from the Ph.D. program at ASU who arrived after I left, and I know people that graduated from the Ph.D. program before I ever arrived," Gregg says. "You feel like you are part of a continuum of support."
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