Canberra, September 16, 2010
PhD is a complete intellectual, emotional, and somewhat physical game. I can associate PhD with one of my favorite sports: Golf.
Golf can be played alone, but it would be more fun and satisfying if you have a compatible friend at the same flight. I am very fortunate to team up with Sam Riethmuller, my PhD colleague, as my PhD “golf” mate. Both of us started our PhD at the same time, in February 2010. His research field is marketing; mine is social capital and corporate responsibility. Both of us are interested in sustainability: how companies make financial gains while preserving the environment and contributing to the society in which they operate.
In real life, Sam and I play golf. His best handicap is 18, and mine is 26. Now we don’t really play golf, but it is really fun when we talk about our assignment results in golf terms. The fact that we lay out our plan as one round golf game also motivate us to be on track all the time, because we need to share our scores all the way.
Here is our golf game: in addition to our PhD thesis which we count as 12 holes, Sam and I have to do 6 course-works which we count as 6 holes, so in total we have 18 holes.
Here are our golf rules: for our course-works, we will get a par for 75% (mid Distinction); a birdie for 80% or above (High Distinction); a bogey for70-74% (low Distinction); and a double bogey for below 70% (Credit, which is not allowed if we want to maintain our status as a PhD student at the School of Marketing, Management and International Business at ANU). In terms of PhD thesis, we both want to submit in March 2013. There are important milestones to get there: research proposal writing, presenting the proposal to the committee, getting to the field, data collecting, analyzing, drafting, reviewing, rewriting, reviewing, rewriting, reviewing … All of these are 12 holes: a par if we are on track; a birdie if we are ahead; and a bogey if we are behind schedule. We have been doing our PhD for seven months now. So far so good: we have passed our first three holes well; 15 more holes to go.
Sam has remarkable skills in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. He graduates as a “first class honors” prior to joining PhD program. He usually plays devil’s advocate in challenging my ideas. I really appreciate his critical and intelligent questions when I exercise my thinking in writing my research assignments. For what I have gone through with Sam in the last seven month, and for his 25th birthday on September 16, 2010, I dedicate this blog page for him.
Sam, Happy Birthday. Please accept my sincere gratitude for your friendships and supports. I am looking forward to getting our PhD together in 2013!
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