A short rundown of my life as a PhD student

I quit my job as a financial risk management consultant after only a few months mid-2017 to pursue a PhD, something I had in the back of my mind for a while. It was a very good choice, though I did not know what to expect from it in the beginning.

There were a couple of motivations for doing a PhD. First off, I like university environments, because they breathe a more enjoyable atmosphere than any other place. I also like that doing a PhD goes with the flexibility of working hard on what you like and whenever you like. By then, just graduated from a business school, I had as well already figured out that the typical corporate pathway dito environment was nothing for me.

I started my PhD in the form of a one-year contract at the Université de Neuchâtel’s Institute of Financial Analysis. The plan was to ask for additional funding, either via Innoviris to continue in Belgium, or via the Swiss National Science Foundation to continue in Switzerland. My supervisors and I applied and received both sources of funding, and I ended up going back and forth between Brussels and Neuchâtel.

I am quite sure I did not get that pure PhD experience that I think most people I met had. I was not interested in that. Many students (in the broad social sciences at least) approach their PhD in a very traditional way, doing extensive pre-research preparation, writing long “robust” papers, and becoming somewhat of an expert in a subset of a subset of a subset of a field. I remember having some sessions with colleagues in which the goal was to analyze a paper in depth, just for the sake of it. That is just not my cup of tea.

I took a more diverse path. I published a literature survey, wrote code and open-sourced it as a usable package (and as a paper), got in touch with industry partners, composed (and won!) fundamental and applied research grants, taught short courses, participated in numerous courses and workshops, contributed to the development of a university spin-off’s technology and strategy, won an entrepreneurship competition, presented at many conferences in cool places, and even made available a time series index picked up by De Tijd. In total, I spent just three years on the PhD from A to Z, whereas most of the students I know do it in at least four but sometimes five to six years. I preferred getting it done fast, even though the extra time would have allowed me to publish more and better papers.

I do not consider myself a genuine expert in any of the things I did, but I can become one very fast if need to because I have a sound basis. I do regret not having invested more time in the courses I participated in, because that would have given me an even better theoretical base (in statistics mainly).

The PhD period I experienced reflects who I am. That, to me, is an important takeaway and as such also an advice. Try to do the broad research activities you want to do. If that does not fit into a streamlined program for a faculty, go somewhere else or find a different advisor. Some people will do it fast, some slow, some in many directions, some very focused. What matters is that you gain the learning experience you want. You have that choice, which many graduate students forget. There are certain rules to follow if you want to optimize for success in academia, sure, but because I never wanted to follow these rules, I cannot tell much about them. Yet, even if there are rules, trying to bend them to your reality is never a bad tactic. You are supposed to enjoy the process!

Spending a few years at a university doing research, going to conferences abroad, teaching and being taught, while getting paid a decent salary, truly was and is a beautiful privilege. Despite some hiccups towards the end (a failed spin-off ambition and a related spree of arguments with my colleagues; maybe more on that another time), there is no way I would ever want to trade that time for some corporate years “making career.” Life is long, explore your interests!

For those curious about the output rather than the process, here’s an overview of my research. If you want to learn more about doing a PhD, I really recommend Matt Might‘s material. He is a professor in Computer Science at the University of Utah and created The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. to explain to new and aspiring graduate students what a PhD is. He made the below illuminating visual.

The bottom line? Just keep pushing, whatever you are doing, but don’t lose track of the and especially your bigger picture.