Just graduated: Ties de Kok

My name is Ties de Kok and I recently obtained my Research Master degree in Accounting at Tilburg University. This September I became part of the Accounting department by starting as a PhD candidate. I hope that by reflecting back on my personal experiences with the Research Master Program and my decision to accept a PhD position I can provide some insight into this, to many unfamiliar, career path.

Pursuing an academic career is not for everyone. A little over two years ago, when faced with the dilemma of picking a Master program, I was convinced that the world of academia was not for me. A couple of weeks later, however, I joined Xiaochi, Nan, Xiang, Yue, Victor, Thijs, and Yusiyu to start the two-year Research Master Program in Accounting. This choice was, evidently, not driven by a direct desire to become an academic. Instead the challenge and potential opportunities lying in this, to me rather unknown, career direction had a strong emotional appeal. With the benefit of hindsight this choice, for me at least, is best described as a calculated leap of faith, one that I most definitely do not regret!

I started the Research Master directly following my Bachelor in Business Administration (Bedrijfseconomie) so I did not have any previous Master experience. The Research Master in Accounting is a two-year program, the first year is focused on acquiring the skillset (e.g. econometrics) needed to do good research and the second year is mainly dedicated to building familiarity with the accounting literature and to writing the Research Master thesis. In hindsight the two-years were definitely tough and sometimes frustrating due to artificially imposed difficulty levels. I do, however, also look back on a lot of great memories and positive experiences. First of all, the Research Master programs of Business and Economics are filled with students from all over the world making for a very international and culturally diverse experience. My proficiency in the English language has greatly increased, my many Chinese friends learned me a lot about the Chinese culture, and my general perspective on the world has become a lot more global. Second of all, I feel that my personal development has advanced on many different levels, some of which I had the freedom to pick myself (for example, I learned a lot of programming). Many of the skills and insights that you develop during the Research Master program are valuable way beyond their use in an academic career. It is, therefore, not surprising that some students decide to use their Research Master degree to pursue a career outside of academia.

I was fortunate to be offered a PhD position at the Accounting department of Tilburg University. I was, again, faced with the question whether an academic career would be something for me. Based on my experiences in the past two years I decided to revise my initial conclusion and accept the three-year PhD position. My biggest motivator is a feeling of compatibility between my self-concept and the concept of a researcher. In my perception, engaging in research is a way in which my curiosity and desire to learn are utilized to their best potential. In a practical sense, this translated into a PhD position offering me the freedom to find research questions and research methodologies that fit with the way that I like to think and work. It also opens up the opportunity to work with the many great researchers at Tilburg University and other universities all throughout the world. Teaching is, besides research, the other substantial part of the PhD track. This semester I teach tutorials for the bachelor course Accounting 1 which has been a great learning experience so far. My memories as a student are still fresh so I try to provide my students with extra tips and tricks that I learned when I following many of these courses myself.

It is hard to say what the future of my career is going to look like. I am currently considering the option to spend some time at a university abroad, but this is still in an exploratory state. When it comes to research I am continuously trying to find interesting new topics and innovative ways to study these topics. Three years ago I had no idea that I would end up in a PhD track, therefore I think that only time can tell what the future holds for me!