Moving on: IS doctoral graduates take on the world

People who choose the strenuous route of doctoral studies dig deep into a subject, then often move into the world of academe, where they continue to pursue a line of research and then impart their knowledge to students. But others take what they have learned into the off-campus world – to industry and the community. This year’s IS graduates represent the spectrum of career choices.

Passion is a trait shared by people who choose the strenuous route of doctoral studies. The drive to dig deep into a subject launches most into the world of academe, where they continue to pursue a line of research and then impart their knowledge to students. But others take what they have learned into the off-campus world — to industry and the community. This year’s information systems doctoral graduates represent the spectrum of career choices. Four of the six have moved into full-time university faculty positions. A fifth is devoting a year to non-profit work before looking for a university posting. And the sixth is working at one of the nation’s largest and most innovative companies. That first university appointment is important for both graduate and the department. New Ph.D.s look for a first job where they will have the support and resources to continue their research and fine-tune their teaching skills. This is where they build branches onto the network of scholarly connections that they started in the IS department — the network that will yield research collaborations and even job prospects throughout their careers. As they grow and advance, the W. P. Carey reputation grows as well — enabling the school to attract more great students and faculty. Those who move into industry find that their advanced degree positions them for increasingly challenging leadership roles. Some eventually parlay that experience into an academic position at a top university where the competition for research professor positions is intense, and the value of experience translates to industry sponsored research grants, research center funding and even joint industry/academic appointments. Six highly-trained minds — six distinct career paths. The common thread — passion. Here are their stories. New careers in information systems For some of our new PhDs, the future is on a campus. Aaron Baird will become an assistant professor at Georgia State University. Arti Mann has accepted a faculty post at the University of Houston at Clear Lake. Degan Kettles will be an assistant professor at the University of Central Oklahoma. Gregory Schymik will join the faculty of Grand Valley State University. The other two doctoral recipients have different plans. David Weber is headed to Thailand, where he and his wife will spend a year volunteering with an organization dedicated to helping victims of human trafficking. He plans to look for a university faculty position in Thailand and hopes to begin teaching after his year of full-time volunteering ends. Juliana Tsai has gone into industry. She recently became senior manager for global billing and payments governance at eBay. She had been doing doctoral research at eBay, and as she was completing her dissertation, the company offered her a full-time post. Faculty advisers to the graduating PhDs say they are pleased all of their former students have solid plans in place as they depart the program. Professor Uday Kulkarni observed that the market for academic positions has been challenging in the past few years, and though it improved a bit this year, it’s still tough. "It says something that everybody we graduated who went into the job market was able to find one," he commented. Resources for the job search 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. From the time students begin their doctoral studies all the way to graduation, faculty work to prepare the future PhDs for the academic job market. Students are encouraged to attend conferences, network with academics in other institutions, and publish their research findings in scholarly journals. "A big part of our work in the PhD program is to see that the graduates are well-placed in academic institutions," Professor of Information Systems Raghu Santanam said. The process of job hunting lasts about seven months, starting with conference interviews in August of the year before graduation and ending with campus visits in February or March, according to Associate Professor of Information Systems Benjamin Shao, faculty advisor to the doctoral program. "The faculty members leverage their professional network, refer job leads, and provide information about target schools to the students," Shao says. "In each step along the way, the students receive guidance and tips on numerous activities, ranging from resume write-up to presentation feedback. In a sense, the faculty, especially the dissertation chair, is more like a coach to the student." For graduates, pioneering research continues Baird's doctoral research was on health information systems that connect hospitals and clinics with patients and caregivers. He focused on patient portals — online applications that allow direct interaction between health care institutions and consumers. In his new job, Baird will be an assistant professor of health administration at Georgia State's J. Mack Robinson School of Business in Atlanta. "Atlanta will be a great place to conduct health research, as the Center for Disease Control is there and it is a large hub for health care in the Southeast," Baird said. "GSU is striving to become a leading health research institution and I am one of three hires this year that will focus on health care research." Santanam, whose research also delves into IT in the healthcare industry, predicted Baird would become a leader in the field. "He is, in my opinion, at the forefront of understanding the consumer-related issues with respect to the adoption of patient portals," Santanam said. Kettles' dissertation examined how to drive knowledge sharing in private social networking platforms used within organizations. He said he would continue his research in that area as an assistant professor at the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Oklahoma. "I had a series of papers related to this topic as part of my dissertation, and I am currently collaborating with faculty in the department at the W. P. Carey School to prepare these for publication with the goal of getting two or three papers submitted to major journals by the end of the summer," Kettles said. Mann is preparing to begin her tenure track position at the University of Houston- Clear Lake, which is located near the NASA Johnson Space Center. She expects to continue her research into information technology outsourcing across industries and countries. Her dissertation focused on the diffusion of IT outsourcing in both the United States and the so-called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, and China. "She collected the data on her own, and the data spanned a decade," said Santanam, who was co-chair of her dissertation committee. "It was highly data intensive work. Then she analyzed it both quantitatively and qualitatively." Mann will continue to focus on IT outsourcing, but in the future she expects to expand to cloud computing. "Cloud computing is a kind of IT outsourcing. I will be trying to understand what is happening in the cloud computing space," she said. Making the world a better place Schymik’s dissertation focused on what impact metadata-enhanced search will have on document retrieval, and how this shift will affect enterprises. He will continue his research in knowledge management while on the faculty of Grand Valley State University, located near Grand Rapids, Michigan's second largest metropolitan area. “Employees spend 20-35 percent of their time searching for information, and find what they seek in only 50 percent of their searches. In essence, employees are wasting 10 percent of every work day on failed searches. Greg’s dissertation showed that it is possible to do much better than this,” said Bob St. Louis, the chair of Greg’s dissertation committee. “Greg has submitted papers to AMCIS and ICIS, and is working with faculty members at ASU to show companies how to find the information they need to make better decisions.” Tsai's doctoral research was on the information system and technology sourcing strategies of online retailers. She examined how sourcing decisions — whether to develop technology solutions in-house or to outsource them — affected firm performance. As eBay's senior manager of global billing and payments governance, she oversees a team within the business unit that is responsible for all of the billing and payment processing for eBay Marketplace and other eBay companies, including StubHub and PayPal. Tsai said she had planned to go into academia immediately after graduation but shifted her plans when she was in Austin, Texas, doing research at eBay for her dissertation. "When it came time to explore the job market, I found it really exciting to see all the things that were happening in practice," Tsai said. "They made me an offer, so I decided stay. I love it here, and I have family here, so it has worked out really well." Weber's PhD research explores how information and communication technologies can help microfinance institutions improve their efforts to combat poverty and expand geographic outreach. He spent 4 months in Cambodia last year living in the world of microfinance and collecting invaluable qualitative data. Professor Kulkarni, who was co-chair of Weber's dissertation committee, said that Weber certainly would have been able to move into a faculty post this year had he chosen that direction. "David is very passionate about making the world a better place," Kulkarni said. "He is very interested in doing something concrete, not just thinking about it." In August, Weber and his wife, Allison, plan to move to Bangkok to volunteer for NightLight International, an organization that provides care for victims of human and sex trafficking. "We will be responsible for the operations of an outreach and drop-in center as well as starting a social enterprise," Weber said. "The endeavor will be called CityLight and will be located in the heart of one of Bangkok's largest red light districts." He said he plans to start applying for faculty positions at Thailand-based English speaking universities after he arrives in the country. "I hope to be employed by Fall 2013 while continuing to volunteer with NightLight," he said.