https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEiXLPBvRfQ&t=4353s

1. Life Strategy
as A Researcher
(Soft Engineering)
1st July 2021
Boon Cheong CHEW

2. Outcomes of R2SEP
1. To understand the real life as a research postgraduate students
2. To guide postgraduate students preparing themselves for the challenges
3. To develop postgraduate students to be productive researchers in the long
term

3. Do you know Research Skills are important?

4. Life Strategy as A Researcher
(Postgraduate Student)

5. Life of A Research Student (Postgraduate
Studies)
-Master by research, Doctorate by research, Master/Doctorate with
coursework but need to produce an academic research thesis.
-You are working closely with your supervisor(s)/teammates.

6. Life of A Research Student (Postgraduate
Studies)
You begin with
1. The research ideas
2. The field of your studies
3. The research problem
4. The research questions/the research objectives
5. The theoretical foundation/proposition
6. The research methods
7. The data collection
8. The data analysis
9. The research outcomes
10. The contribution
Thesis

7. Life of A Research Student (Postgraduate
Studies)
-You research project is an academic research. The ultimate
contribution of your academic research is/are
(a) Apply theory into your research
(b) Verify the theory from your research
(c) Construct new knowledge/theory from your research
(d) Provide solutions for practical application

8. Publication
-Publishing meant to share/disseminate your academic
work/findings/knowledge to the subject you researched/other
researchers in your field.
-Challenges:
(a) Academic paper writing skills (different from writing your thesis
chapters, because each journal has its own format of writing)
(b) Time to get your article published (rejections, corrections)
(c) Academic English Language in writing (different from speaking)

9. Challenges of Postgraduate Students (full
research, or research project)
Academically
1. Deciding the topic for research
2. Fundamental knowledge (theory)
3. Finding materials
4. Research Method
5. Method of Data analysis (software)
6. Academic writing (thesis vs academic article)
7. Contributions
-Most of these issues can be helped when you refer/discuss with your
supervisor(s)/department/faculty

10. Challenges of Postgraduate Students (full
research, or research project)
Personally/Psychologically
1. Financial management (self-sponsored, finding research grants)
2. Time management
3. Social (Isolation)
4. Relationship with your supervisor(s) (positive/negative)
5. Motivation
6. Procrastination on writing
7. How to show your work/progress (quality vs quantity) to your supervisor
8. Stress
9. Work life balance (family)
10. Poor study habits

12. Life of A Research Student (Postgraduate
Studies)
-You treat your studies like a project, focus on managing
(a) TIME-deadlines, Gantt Chart
(b) COST-budgeting on resources
(c) achieve the QUALITY (objectives, requirements from the university)
(d) DOCUMENTATION
-There are lots of challenges ahead, as such you need to always self-
motivated and be persistent.

13. Life of A Research Student (Postgraduate
Studies)
Your researcher profiles

14. Life Strategy as A Researcher
(Research Career)

15. Research Skills
People use to think only academicians, students need to master the research
skills.
However, industrial practitioners also need to master the research skills.
-Marketing, HR, New Product Development, New Idea Generation, Production
Efficiency

16. Research jobs
1. Academic (universities)
2. Research institutions
3. Consulting firms
4. Government agencies
5. Private companies/industries
6. NGOs

17. A Case when you need to conduct research
for your company/department
You are a marketing team leader for a mobile phone app. After the promotion, you
have got 1000 customers who use the free version of your mobile app. Many of your
existing customers are unwilling to pay for the paid version, while your company
wants to increase the customers to 10,000 in five-year to GENERATE INCOME via your
mobile app.
Question: What marketing strategies can you use to get people to sign up for the paid
version of your mobile app, and achieve the target of 10,000 customers in five-year
time?
Market Research

18. Quality as an Industrial Researcher
-Researchers must passionate about their work.
-Research takes time, and it can be frustrating because experiments
often do not work, and repetitions of the same technique has to be
taken until you the result.
-Comply with the organizational objectives

19. Real Life Researcher (Suresh, 2018)

23. What are the skills required? Have you
prepared for them?
1. Organizational skills: efficiency, accuracy, problem-solving, task
completion to achieve organizational objectives.
2. Time management (working under demanding schedule)
3. Data analytical skills
4. Verbal/Writing/Presentation skills (good English command)
5. Team working
6. Open minded

24. Thank you.
Please google “BC Chew” to have a look at my academic work.