Zeynep Yetis-Larsson, a PhD student at the Stockholm School of Economics, shares insights on navigating the challenges of graduate research, emphasizing the importance of building a theory base, early writing, and networking through conferences and summer schools. She discusses the significance of identifying research gaps, choosing between monographs and articles, and the importance of planning for post-PhD career paths. Yetis-Larsson also highlights funding opportunities and encourages staying engaged with the academic community for successful career development.

1. Life as a PhD student
Zeynep Yetis-Larsson
28 August, 2013
Stockholm School of Economics
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2. Who am I?
• B.S. degree from Bilkent University, in
Industrial Engineering in Turkey.
• Exchange student at University of
California, Berkeley for a year.
• M.S. degree from Eindhoven University of
Technology, in Operations Management
and Logistics in the Netherlands.
• Visiting scholar at Tsinghua
University, China for a semester.
• Switched to social sciences.
• Have been studying at SSE for 2 years now
with Robin Teigland. PhD student in
Business Administration, in the Marketing
and Strategy Department.
• Research in open innovation, specifically
looking at the role that entrepreneurs
play in open source communities.
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3. In the beginning
• I was quite confused about quite a
lot of different issues.
• “What is your research question?”
• “Don’t worry, it is good to be
confused!”
• Process of learning and restructuring
your thoughts.
• Important to be able to move on!
• Go with something even if you are
confused.
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4. Purpose of your research
• Why is your research important?
• Always ask yourself “So what?”
• Idea of research gaps is dangerous.
• Might be better to work with
“major/big” problems.
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5. Monograph or Collection of articles?
• This is a question that will be
asked a lot.
• I think this is mainly a personality
choice. Also depends on your
research.
• Articles --- good when in the job
market, you get
recognition, easier to track your
progress, etc…
• Monograph --- it is easier to
make the whole piece consistent
throughout.
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6. Research since Day 1
• I have been a lucky PhD student.
• I have not seen a lot of other PhD students do
this.
• It is important to read and build up a good
theory base, but it is still possible to write early
on.
• Don’t let anyone
discourage you!
• Takes a lot of time
to publish!
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7. Courses
• Courses are introductions.
• They introduce some of the major
theories in the field.
• Same with methods. You get a
basic understanding of what the
method is about and what you can
do with it.
• If you want to get a deeper
understanding of a theory or a
method, better to do an extended
course.
• You make good friends in Uppsala
and in other places
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8. Conferences/Doctoral Consortiums
• Conferences are great for networking.
• More about networking than getting
“amazing” feedback on your paper in your
session.
• Got to know a few people like this, whom
I work with at the moment.
• Planning to attend a doctoral
consortium this year.
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9. Summer Schools
• Summer schools are great and intensive!
• You get to know people well.
• You get the chance to discuss your
research in detail.
• Summers schools are like a mixture of
courses and conferences, but better than
both!
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10. Year Abroad
• Exchange & visiting semester/year I did have been the
most memorable part of my studies and of my life.
• Will be going to ETH, Department of Strategic
Management and Innovation, Zurich, Switzerland.
• You can always find people who are interested in your
research.
• Don’t be shy to contact people!
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11. Funding/Grants
• Used up all my academic travel funding through SSE
the first year.
• Important to find other sources of funding for
academic travelling!
• Funding from Handelsbanken, Hedeliusstipendium and
Sweden-America Foundation (Swedish citizenship
required for the latter one).
• Scholarships through SSE for long research stays.
• There are many foundations that give out scholarships.
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12. Power of Networking
• Like in every walks of
like, networking is also important
in academia!
• The impression you get from
reading a paper by someone is
very different from what you get
when you meet him/her in person.
• Do summer schools, do
conferences, do a semester/year
abroad!
• It’s important who you work with!
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15. After PhD?
• Important to have an idea of what you will be doing, at least what you want to do
after you graduate.
• Getting an academic job is not easy!
• Good to leave home university for, at least, a while.
• Should be able to answer “What is your research program?”
• Grant writing experience is important!
• If you plan to continue in the industry, working knowledge of Swedish is very
important!
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16. Questions?
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17. Please fell free to contact me for
questions & comments!
Zeynep Yetis-Larsson
Zeynep.Yetis@hhs.se
https://twitter.com/zyetis
http://se.linkedin.com/in/zeynepyetislarsson
http://www.slideshare.net/ZeynepYetis/
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