thinkPhD

Wednesday, January 4 is “OD-day” (Oral Defense Day)!! I am all set – my presentation had been sent to the research professor who will moderate the call, my chair Dr. M., and my two committee members, Dr. W and Dr. B.

The OD is handled via conference call, and a proctor must be present to verify that I am who I say I am. After the OD is opened by the moderator, I will provide a 30 minute presentation (PowerPoint slides) outlining my research and the results. Then, the floor will open for questions from the committee and professors in attendance. According to the Dissertation Handbook, I must “speak clearly and knowledgeably about their [my] research, justify their [my] work, and be able to articulate the significance of their [my] work for the field of specialization.” I hope I can do that!!!

Following this grilling session, I will sign off the call while the professors deliberate. Then, I call back and they will tell me their opinions. Thumbs up or thumbs down on the “PhD” thing!

After this, I will fill out the Graduation Request Form and send a clean copy of my Dissertation to the Registrar. Later, I will get my diploma in the mail! Yahoo! I plan to attend graduation in June and be hooded. Husband and I will probably visit the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam at the same time.

I have given many presentations in my career, so I am not nervous about the presenting, but I am a little nervous about what kinds of questions the professors may ask me after the presentation. Wish me luck!

I am often asked about “how fast” one can go through the RSH and DIS classes or if they can be doubled-up. These courses cannot be doubled-up…you must pass through each one in succession. You can take more than one course while working in your core classes, but you cannot do that with these.

Each of the four RSH classes builds one on the other with the finished CP resulting in RSH-9104. After comps, you begin the DIS classes. Each of these moves you along the dissertation process. NCU requires three DIS classes, worth three credits, and cost at full price. Then, you work through DIS 4, DIS 5, DIS 6, etc., until you finish. These courses are one credit hour each and are billed at the one credit hour price. I ended up taking five DIS courses.

I found that the major issue in the RSH and DIS classes were the waits between reviews/returning assignments by the mentors and chair, the dissertation committee, the OAR, and the IRB. Also, I had to extend data collection because of poor response. My advice to those entering RSH and DIS courses is to always be one step ahead; always be ready with the next assignment if possible. Of course, if you do not received approved documents from the OAR those will need to pass back through your chair and committee for review.

Keep in mind, it is very common for the CP, DP, and DM to be rejected on the first submittal. I was told that only 10% of all DMs are accepted the first time through with no changes required.

For example, if your DP is a resubmit, and the OAR kept it for 14 days (instead of the 7 in the document turnaround guidelines), it may take you several days (let’s say 3 days) to fix the problems, then your chair and committee reviews it for 8 days (7 days in the guideline). Now you are ready to resubmit to the OAR, and they keep it 12 days. You now have approval, but all this cost you 37 days. So you can see how quicky a resubmit DP can drag out to 30+ days! You are now over 5 weeks “behind” in your timeline which has eaten up a third of a DIS course.

You must remember that most of your professors are multi-employed and by nature, very busy people. Personally, I would rather have an in-depth critique of my work rather than a quick run-through.

Be patient. Be courteous. Remember – delays outside your control will happen. Be complete when addressing issues and making recommended changes with your work.

In all, my advice is to focus on moving forward on the journey.

Don’t worry about the TIME it takes to reach a PhD.

Just reach it.

Just thinkPhD.

To my readers, colleagues, family, and friends:

May have you a blessed Christmas day full of love and laughter! Today is a day to reflect on blessing received this year. May happiness and peace be yours today, tomorrow, and forever!

Happy Holidays,
Cindy

I received the best Christmas present EVER this weekend….my DM was approved! I am so very happy today! I already have plans to read the stack of NOVELS that have been accumlating on my bookshelf because I haven’t had time nor the mindset to do anything but get this DM finished. I am also planning to pick back up on my violin lessons and all the other things that had to be put aside over the past 5 years, 6 months, and 24 days (or 48,816 hours, but who’s counting?). Today, I am starting a crochet project 🙂

I want send a special “thank you” to everyone who has encouraged and supported me in my thinkPhD journey. Thank you to my readers who have kept me writing and sharing. Rest assured, I will continue to write as the process is far from over. I still must defend and graduate and you will see what it takes to get those done.

Oh, the title of my quantitative dissertation is “Dimensions of Purchasing Social Responsibility in Sustainable Supply Chain Organizations.”

See you at graduation!

Today, I passed the APICS Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP) exam today! I now have four letters to add after my name.

Of course, I am still waiting for those other elusive three letters (PhD)…. 🙂

I work in my company’s supply chain department and the CSCP certification is part of our recommended education and training. The Association for Operations Management (APICS) has several certification programs, including the Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM) program. The CSCP certification is relevant to supply chain operations and decision-making. The test has four content sections: “Supply Chain Management Fundamentals,” “Building a Competitive Infrastructure,” “Managing Customer and Supplier Relationships,” and “Using Information Technology to Enable Supply Chain Management.”

My company paid for a course offered by the local APICS chapter as well as the online APICS CSCP Learning System. Between the classes and studying on my own, I estimate that I spent at least 100 hours preparing for the exam. I took a vacation day from work yesterday and studied most of the day (but I graded some papers, too). I also printed out the CSCP flash cards and studied with co-workers over our lunch breaks.

The test was difficult because it required a conceptual knowledge of the topics, rather than simply memorizing definitions. There were a few questions on the test that about subjects that I do not think were in the textbooks. Overall, I feel like I learned quite a bit about supply chain processes and strategies studying for the exam.

I think those four letters after my name look pretty good…what do you think?

Cynthia J. Wolfe, CSCP

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