Well, after many months of work, meetings with my supervisors, drafts and redrafts of numerous documents and forms, along with the actual candidacy meeting I outlined in my last post, this week I have received full approval to undertake my research for real.
This point, in the words of a friend who is about 75% complete with her PhD, is where the fun really starts and I am oh so happy to be finally here. I do understand why the entry process is so complex and lengthy though. In Australia where I am studying, PhD students represent a substantial investment by both the university and society in general and as such they need to weed out the impractical subjects, students who are not necessarily committed at the start or who are pursuing a PhD for unsure reasons, but, it has certainly been a long and tortuous exercise, one I am so happy to have complete.
So, what does the immediate future have in store for my academic life?
Well, my next challenge is to get access to the subjects I need to interview for my data collection, this, I understand, can be a pretty painful exercise its self, I am hopeful/optimistic with my own research as I have 25 years experience in the industry I am conducting the research in and still work within it, giving me a number of good contacts already, but converting those contacts into actual interview candidates who fit the profile of my research will still be a challenge. Then, once I establish the contacts and subjects I have to undertake the actual interviews, which in my case will involve some travel both domestically in Australia and internationally, to meet with and interview my subjects.
So, yes, the fun is definitely starting, but I suspect some of the frustrations are still to be experienced…
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