Federica Secci
Imperial College Business School
Imperial College Business School
Choosing the Doctoral programme
I decided to start the Doctoral programme at Imperial's Business School for many reasons. The first one is related to my professional development: I wanted to study in a top-level university outside my country and challenge myself by working in an active international environment.
The second one is related to my interests: I have always focused my attention to understand the public-related world, particularly reforms concerning health systems in different countries, and I have always been interested in the social processes behind real events.
The last reason is more personal: I wanted to live and research in a dynamic city like London. Imperial College Business School offered me the program that could match all these factors, and the Healthcare Management Group was an ideal place to conduct research on the topics that interest me.
Imperial College is undoubtedly one of the top universities in the world and the possibility to work closely with international experts on health system reforms is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I simply couldn't afford to miss. I have been offered the chance to work on various projects that the Group's Centre for Health Management (CHM) was conducting for international organizations such as the World Bank and the World Health Organization. The possibility to carry out such research within the team of international researchers at the CHM, while conducting my PhD research in parallel, was definitely one of the main factors that influenced my decision.
Apart from the support you have from the community of peers, a great deal of a doctoral student's satisfaction with the programme depends on the supervisors and advisors, as those are the people with whom you spend most of your time and discuss your research. In this respect, the Doctoral Program at the Business School guarantees that you have good assistance and access to your supervisors.
A very important point that is not always made is that PhD students have a budget for travelling and attending conferences to present papers. This is an incredible incentive to start writing papers even before the end of the programme and to attend conferences, both for networking purposes and for receiving feedback on the research from a broader audience. In addition, the contacts that the School as a whole have make the work much more interesting and opened opportunities for research with other first-class institutions.
Surpassed expectations
The Doctoral programme is a personal experience. It allows you to grow as a researcher as well as a person in a way that honestly I hadn't anticipated. There are obviously ups and downs and you do need to find your way through, but I do not think it is anything close to the nightmare that many people refer to when asked about the PhD. I usually think about the Doctorate as a normal job. If you bear in mind that you are "working", not just "studying" (at least not as you would during an MSc), I think you can make the most of it without getting too lost in research that might go on forever. There is also quite a lot of support from student colleagues, the academics and the administrators of the programme to help you through!
A typical day
We are quite lucky at the Business School as we have a very nice open-plan office. So, from Monday to Friday, I arrive at my desk at about 9.30 and I check my email and the Internet to read the news. Since I am in the second year, I still have quite a lot of reading to do. Fortunately I have also been writing up some papers, both for transfer from MPhil to PhD and for conferences and workshops I am attending.
If not catching up with friends, lunch is a very good moment to talk to colleagues and get some informal feedback on your research. I usually leave the office just in time to get to my favourite classes at the gym or when my boyfriend leaves work...and he works in the financial sector, which means leaving the office around 7 pm. I don't mind doing this, in fact, I prefer to work more during the week, so that I have the weekends free but this is a very personal choice. I know many other students prefer to come to the office at weekends, since there is almost nobody around and they can enjoy some quiet and productive hours.
Most important thing that I've learnt
During my doctoral studies, I have become more familiar with ways of dealing with different cultures, which I think it is one of the most important things I could have learned considering the type of career I would like to achieve. As my research is qualitative, I've had to travel to countries that I hadn't visited before and which have a very different history and culture from my purely-Italian origins.
Most memorable aspect of the programme
The most memorable day here has been the day I gave a presentation for my first year review, in June 2008. I particularly remember that day because all my colleagues from the CHM were there, either to present their research in front of the panel, or simply to listen to the presentations. We did spend quite some time preparing for the reviews, practicing the presentations and providing each other with feedback. So beside the fact that we all passed the review, for me that day has a special meaning because it reveals how personal commitment can find support and improve through constructive and constant teamwork.
Balancing study and personal life
When you are conducting a long and demanding piece of research, it is very important that you know how to relax your body and mind and not think about your PhD work for a while. I usually work long hours during the weekdays, but I tend not to work at weekends and spend time with my fiancé, as we live together. I couldn't miss my favourite classes at the gym or skip tea/coffee breaks with my colleagues. I tend to see my friends for drinks or dinner after work or spend some time with them over the weekend. In addition, as my fiancé and I both left our country, Italy, to come here, it is very common that someone, either from our families or among our friends, come to visit us during the weekends. Furthermore, when I travel for conducting field-work or for participating in conferences, I normally try to spend some extra days in the places that I visit. I always look forward to long weekends in some European cities and to a few weeks of summer holidays, which I usually spend in Italy to meet my friends and family, eat lovely food and enjoy the warm weather.
The Imperial community
The Imperial community is amazing. The work that the faculty does is at the cutting edge. There are seminars and lectures every week with excellent guest speakers from the best universities in the world, as well as from leading companies in various industries. There are plenty of social activities like those organized by the Student Union. The Doctoral programme also has a budget for social events that we have been using to organize Christmas and summer parties for PhD students and candidates at the Business School. These activities are easy opportunities to develop your network within the academic community and are always good fun!
London - the place to be!
London is just the place you want to be. London has it all: you can do simply everything you like, from scheduling your whole day between marathons, museums, musicals, operas, fancy bars and restaurants in the city, to just chilling out in the park or outside a pub along the river Thames while enjoying the sunshine. But most of all, London is an unbelievable mix of cultures, traditions, languages and accents in which you become more aware of what's going on in the world and of your place within it.
Advice for prospective students
The Doctoral programme provides an excellent opportunity to upgrade your knowledge and reallystudy in depth both theoretically and empirically the phenomena you are most interested in. While you are doing your PhD, you have the time to study one topic thoroughly and you can produce an invaluable piece of high-quality research, showing which level of detail you reached in the analysis, more than you would do in a regular job. Nevertheless, you do need an analytical attitude and a lot of flexibility and patience, as you have a commitment to do research on your topic for three to four years. Since it is a highly iterative process, which you learn to deal with in time, you need to have the courage to go back to the previous steps you made and start again if needed.
I believe that even if one is not considering a future career in academia, the Doctoral programme provides you with a set of useful analytical and social skills that can be applied in any working environment. However, when making your decision you should also take into account that the PhD program requires a lot of energy for a long period of time and you need to be realistic about your willingness to make such commitment.
Propel my career
I still haven't decided whether or not I would like to stay in academia. I like doing research on health systems and I like working in an international environment, but I would also enjoy working in a varied and business-oriented setting, where there would be a more direct impact of my efforts. At the moment, I think I would rather prefer to work for consultancy companies or, perhaps in the long term, for International Organizations, such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization, or the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. My fiancé and I love travelling and we have been moving quite a lot in the last couple of years, so we wouldn't mind discovering some new places and settling there for a while. Therefore, I think a career in one of these institutions might be a good compromise for me in the long term as well as being an excellent opportunity to "make a difference".
The Business School constantly gives you the possibility to participate in careers events where you can meet potential employers and clarify your ideas about any future jobs. It also has a Career Service that you can contact to receive help and advice on how to develop your CV and cover letter. Despite this more direct help, the Imperial College brand opens a lot of doors in academia as well as in all other sectors and services.
