Summer Break? Not Really

It's summer break! But, as usual, a break is not a break.

I'm taking a summer course, where we learn about communication. It's related to writing research papers and proposals, job interviews, paper presentations. I wasn't required to take this course, but I think it's a good time for that, since I'm finally starting to do some research.

I had some meetings with my advisor, and things have been very productive. Since he didn't have any ongoing research I could help with, we are starting a new research project. I wrote a research proposal, which required a lot of reading in a short period of time. And I spend weeks just downloading data.

I'm trying to do as much research as I can, because I know that once Fall comes, I will need to focus on coursework again.

So, still quite busy, but feeling pretty good so far.

I also started to exercise, taking a walk in the park sometimes, and lifting weights at home.

And the 2nd Semester is Over

Long time since I last wrote something here.

The 1st semester was absolutely crazy. Coursework was really overwhelming, with Quantitative Economic Analysis easily taking the first spot. People don't understand and don't take it seriously when I say it is hard. They think I'm just being humble, or I'm whining. No, I'm just stating the truth. It's seriously some of the hardest stuff ever. Multivariate Methods was also hard, but I liked it, it's a shame I'm not really ready to take a class of that level yet, because there is some very good stuff there. And Marketing Strategy was great. 

It was hard to select courses for the second semester, I was not able to take some courses I wanted to. Usually, because there were several courses with classes on the same days and times. I've taken Econometrics I, again in the Department of Economics and again the hardest one in the semester. But much better than Quantitative Economic Analysis, I think I really learned a lot. Decision-Making and Well-Being was a very different one, with lots of discussions about our lives, thinking about life, the universe, and everything. And Programming in R was pretty good, very focused on examples and real problems with real data. 

During the second semester, I also started to do some TA work, like proctoring, and grading exams. Grading is very time consuming, and the kind of work that it's hard to enjoy. Timing was sometimes awful, getting lots of exams to grade a few days before my own exams. But it's part of the life of a professor, so I can't really complain. 

Now, it's time to worry about the qualifying exams this month. I already wrote the paper critique, I'll present it in about 10 days, and after that take the written exams.

A Little More Than 2 Months

First month in the US was a chaos with too many different things to do. Second month was a chaos with one thing to do: to study.

Marketing classes are really great. Marketing Strategy requires us to read many papers, present them, debate about the subjects which are being presented. Very dynamic, things go fast here. Multivariate Methods in Marketing is something that can take a whole life to really understand, so the course is like an introduction to a big and complex universe. It can be pretty overwhelming at times, so it's good to have a supportive professor for this course. So, both courses are not easy, but are both fascinating.

However, most of my time is spent studying for the Economics course, Quantitative Economics Analysis. There is very little about Economics here, it's mostly about Maths and Statistics actually. Looks simple, but it's the hardest course I'm taking now. In Marketing classes, PhD students still seem lively. In Economics classes, PhD students look exhausted. Getting a good grade for this course is the first big hurdle to overcome in this journey through coursework. But things I just beginning, better to be prepared for more to come.

I haven't been able to do much besides studying. I went to a football game at the university's stadium  and to a Vietnamese restaurant (got something that looks like ramen), but that's about it.

My First Month in the US

So, I have been in the US for a month now. And what a month. Most of the things were expected, but it sure wasn't in my plans to face something like the hurricane Harvey in my first month here. I got lucky, the apartment I'm living has not been affected by the storms, no flood or problems with water and energy supply for example. But the same cannot be said about the city of Houston. Let's see how things are at the University of Houston when classes resume on Tuesday.

So many things happened, so many details to take care of. Hard to remember everything, but I'll try to write about several of them, in no particular order.

The apartment. I'm really happy with the apartment where I'm living. It's a big apartment, much more than I expected or need. It's in pretty good conditions. There is a supermarket two blocks from here and there is a light rail station even closer than that. I take the train and two stations later I'm already at UH. Very convenient.

Shopping. Starting a new life, needed to buy a lot of new things. I didn't bring much from Brazil. Almost everything I purchased for my new life here was from Amazon.com. I've been an Amazon customer for about two decades, but surely I'd never ordered so many things. And Amazon is still a favorite of mine, in several regards, like price, delivery, amount and quality of information provided, range of products. For students, there is even Amazon Prime for free during 6 months and 50% off after that. Highly recommended. The other Marketing PhD student starting at UH had problems with Ikea's delivery. I wasn't able to access the US website of Walmart while I was in Brazil, just the Brazilian one, making it hard to use Walmart to plan in advance. BestBuy seems like a good place to check for prices too. I bought some basic and cheap furniture, but they all seem good enough. Electronics are amazingly cheap when compared to Brazil, I had to control my impulses and resist the temptation of buying too much stuff.

Bureaucracy. Really, lots, and lots, and lots of paperwork and procedures to follow. I can't really remember everything I did after I arrived here. Procedures to follow about entering the US as a student, to get a social security number, to open a bank account, to enroll in class, to be hired as a teaching assistant, to get student ID, and much, much more. It may not seem like much, but it's overwhelming, specially because it's too much information and things do not work if you do in the wrong order. But I must say the support from UH is amazing. If you're reading this and is about to arrive in the US to start your PhD, give priority to this stuff. If you take too long to do something, that thing may delay another, which will delay another, and so on. And then you may miss some important deadline.

Math bootcamp. Before starting the actual PhD classes, I had the opportunity of attending two week of intensive classes about Mathematics. Nice way to start with a feeling that this is going to be hard. All right, I had studied things like matrices, vectors, and derivatives, but that was a very long time ago. And never at such depth, and such speed. Most of the things I was not able to grasp at all. But it was a very nice opportunity to know other students who are starting a PhD at Bauer, in Finance, Accounting, Management etc. Very nice people, all of them.

Communication. Expect some trouble if you're coming from another country. I was not able to make the first SIM card I got to work with my Brazilian smartphone, even if it's unlocked. Then I went to a place to try to get another card from a different company, and I was told I'd have to buy a new phone. I was in the end able to find a SIM card which works for me, but it wasn't as easy as I had expected. Internet accounts are also a problem. Things like Gmail and Facebook presented several hurdles to overcome, since I was logging into my accounts from a new pc, in a new country, things like that. Facebook, for example, showed me pictures of my friends saying I should identity them to prove I'm really me. I came to the US still with my old Brazilian cell phone plan active, but if I had not done that I think I would not be able to access some of my accounts. To keep in contact with people in Brazil, I use Facebook for general news, WhatsApp for more private conversations, and Skype for video calls.

Finance. I came to the US with a Brazilian credit card. It works for many occasions, but there are many situations where it's no good. In several cases, when I'm filling an online form, there isn't even the possibility of informing a billing address that is not in the US, and then the card doesn't work. There are physical stores where my card was not accepted, and I don't know the reason at all. So, better be prepared with enough cash. Took me a while to open a bank account too. I first went to the credit union with a branch at UH, but I was told I would only be able to open an account with a Social Security number, something that would take still several weeks by then to get one. Different places have different rules, so I went downtown and I was able to open an account at Bank of America.

Coursework. One of the first things I wanted to do after arriving in Houston was to meet the professor to define a coursework. This semester, I'm taking Marketing Management and Strategy, and Multivariate Methods in Marketing at Bauer, as well as Quantitative Economic Analysis at the Economics department of another UH school. I still don't have much to say about the courses, since hurricane Harvey suspended operations at UH for over a week. But Quantitative Economic Analysis is basically Math, in a very abstract way and very focused on Mathematical proofs. It's going to be a very hard one for me. Multivariate Methods in Marketing seems to be a lot of fun. Still hard, of course, but the professor is very good, with lively classes, the classes are more focused on practical stuff instead of abstract Math. Marketing Management and Strategy has not started yet, but I'm very excited since it's with one of the professors who interviewed me and the subject is very closely related to my research interests.

PhD Students. Unfortunately, the Marketing department had to cancel the lunch it had scheduled to meet faculty and students. So, I don't know much about them yet. I know the one student from Singapore who has also been accepted for Fall 2017 (but for CB), and the students I share a room with (from India, Iran, and South Korea). All of them very friendly and supportive.

Some numbers about Bauer doctoral program. The program has now 79 tenure track faculty for a total of 72 PhD students (12 students in the Marketing Department). Among the 17 students incoming this Fall, we have 47% female, 71% international, 82% with a graduate degree, with an average GMAT of 706.

My Research Interests

One of the most important questions a PhD applicant will be asked is "What are your research interests?". So, you should be prepared to answer that, even if you don't have a definitive answer.

Actually, it is a little strange if an applicant already has clear-cut research interests, since those interests will probably evolve with time, specially during the PhD itself. But you will need to have a general idea about what subjects make you tick, and explain why.

I believe knowing that is an essencial part of applying for a PhD. One reason is that you should have some interest that will motivate you for several years, maybe for the rest of your life. It cannot be just a curiosity, or a passing fad. It will be hard to keep researching something that doesn't interest you anymore. Another reason is that knowing you interests will help you to find the universities, PhD programs, and professors who are best fitted to help you in your research.

In my case, my research interests can be summarized as "to discover and develop measurements for Marketing results, specially metrics integrated with Finance". So, I want to research about the best ways a company can measure results from its marketing activities, with a special interest in the financial point of view of those metrics.

Even though I applied for Marketing PhD programs, my life prior to the PhD was one focused on Finance. So, what made me become more interested in researching about Marketing than Finance?

While working with Finance, one of the biggest challenges was to analyze and justify marketing investments and budgets. I worked for a company, for example, whose Marketing investments amounted to tens of millions of dollars a year, in several projects, including music concerts sponsorhip, its own stock car racing team, and a top model as pitchwoman. How do I know if the results from each of those investments were really worth the money?

The goal of the financial management in a company is to maximize the company's value to shareholders or stakeholders. And it's probably common sense now that one of the ways to do that is to maximize value to the company's consumers.

So, I don't see Marketing and Finance as completely separate things, I believe both should be taken into consideration together when managing a company. But there is much to be found yet about how to do that effectively. There are much more questions than answers. That's where research can contribute. I hope, with my research, to be able to help companies to find ways to improve their results to both shareholders and consumers.

This is an interesting article about value maximization, for those interested in the subject: Value Maximization and Stakeholder Theory