The Blog

My random thoughts and musings during the PhD journey. Regularly updated by me (hopefully weekly). Rarely read by you (I know you're all here for the Excel tips.) In reverse chronological order, just like I like my unplayed podcasts (and if you want my podcasts recommendations, check out my Resources page.

Week 5 - Classes Are Real, but Life is Realer - September 27, 2024

I mentioned in my last post that classes were starting to get more challenging, but was trying to keep that in perspective with the challenges others face. Well, I'll add my own challenge to that list. On Wednesday, I managed to fall off my roof. Certain questions, such as "why were you up there?" and "was someone else home?" can be answered with "no good reason" and "no, even though I already promised my wife I wouldn't do that in the past", and we don't need to belabor the point here. However, I share this to say that with a fractured wrist, school becomes a lot harder because typing is a lot harder. Fortunately, it's my non-dominant hand, so I can still write (although now that I think about it, maybe that would have been a good excuse to get out of some homework assignments!) And also to say, life is more important than classes, or work, or most other things. Take care of yourself!

On a more upbeat note, I attended my first MSU football game as an actual Spartan. Hopefully, my dissertation committee in the future doesn't beat me down as bad as Ohio State beat us this weekend. As a lifelong fan, I have seen plenty of these losses before, but, as the kids say, as someone with a bit more skin in the game than I have in the past, this one hits diffy.

Week 4 - Classes Get Real - September 20, 2024

Up until now, most of the classwork has felt like review of stuff I had learned at one point, which was nice since it had been so long since I actually learned any of it. My professors warned me up front though, graduate level courses move quickly, and they have indeed! I'm trying to keep it in perspective though. Without sharing any personal details, one of my fellow course mates came from another continent, and had logistic issues getting in for the first 3 weeks of class. They finally made it, and talking with them is a reminder of how we're all going through challenges. I have an hour drive, which can be tedious. They came to Michigan after essentially 2 days of travel with no connections in the state and no easy method of transportation once they arrived (at least, until getting set up with a bus pass). Which is all made even harder when you consider that without an international phone plan, they couldn't even make regular calls or texts until they were able to get to a T-Mobile store (which again, hard to do without transportation). Going through all of that, plus the classes, seems like an incredible challenge to me. And yet I have only seen a smile on their face. Which again, brings it all back to perspective.

On the challenges note though and a bit more light-hearted, if you remember my first week's post about not starting house projects when you start school... I still can't figure out the outlet situation. I know in the services world you can get inexpensive, high-quality, and fast, but you can only pick two. But if you're reading this and have an electrician friend who is both high-quality (at least, won't burn the house down) and inexpensive (I am a college student after all), and maybe has a bit of time in their schedule in the next 2 weeks, I'm out of ideas!

Week 3 - First Conference/Workshop - September 13, 2024

I was able to attend my first workshop, a Corporate Governance-focused day where four different researchers presented some of their latest research topics. What I mostly learned is that you can have the greatest slides in the world, but you're not getting through them. Everyone basically gets five minutes to set the stage, and then attendees just rip you apart! In a good way though. They're just trying to poke holes in your paper to make it better for when you publish. 

My other big takeaway is that networking is just as important in academia as it is in public accounting, and the accounting profs you had in college are way more fun than you thought. I had never been to Indiana University before this weekend. It's a beautiful campus, and the nightlife is pretty awesome, mostly thanks to a band called Rod Tuffcurls and the Bench Press. I can't remember the last time I had that much fun at a concert (well okay, I saw Taylor Swift in July in Zurich, and that is hard to beat.) I certainly didn't get any homework done, but an A on my stats homework isn't going to be the deciding factor in a job 5 years from now anyways!

Week 2 - Labor Day Weekend - September 2, 2024

Holiday weekends hit just as hard as they did in the professional world, except maybe even a little better when you're caught up on homework. Instead of stressing about a client meeting the next week or a silly deadline looming (there's no such thing as an accounting emergency after all), I truly got to relax at the cottage up north for Labor Day weekend. Often times over the last 10 years, these weekends have been overshadowed by too much drinking (again, I'm pretty open!) That seems to be a pretty common theme for the public accounting profession, as a way to escape the stresses of the job. I was encouraged by a lot of the younger staff coming into the profession, as drinking didn't seem to be as big of a thing with them; I'm hopeful that's a trend that continues for the profession. For me, over the past month, it's been very refreshing to cut back so much on drinking - I'm simply not looking to escape in the same way I used to. Plus, leaving home at 6:45 AM multiple days a week to get to class by 8:30 AM is a pretty good deterrent too.

The Real Week 1 - Syllabus Week - August 26, 2024

I have three classes this semester. Which doesn't feel like much, but it's been a LONG time since I was in a classroom. Even longer since I took any math/econ classes. I took Calc 1 and 2 my junior year of high school in 2008. I took multivariable calc my senior year, in the fall of 2008. Micro and macro were freshmen classes at Hope, so 2009. I picked up a stats class in my sophomore year of college to round out a math minor, but again, we're talking 2010. I haven't had a class like these for 14 years. So for me to pass Mathematical Applications in Economics, Microeconomic Analysis, and Statistical Methods for Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economists, I have a lot of work cut out for me. Fortunately, apparently the grades don't matter, as long as I maintain a 3.0 average. And my professors seem very helpful and invested in getting all seven of us students into a good position for future classes!

I did make the mistake of trying to start and finish a house project the day before I started... I can't learn how to do house projects apparently, but hopefully I can learn Econ and math!

And I get to wear my Dunks on campus, so that's pretty cool too.

Week "1 to 3" - Pre-Class Introductions - August 5, 2024 to August 25, 2024

After a short four days of retirement, I was on campus Monday, August 5, 2024 to get situated with a new shared office and new laptop, and to get to work. A common phrase I heard throughout the day and that week was "welcome to academia..." Unlike public accounting, where they have your laptop ready for you on day 1, badges printed, access granted, and all your HR paperwork in order, higher education is apparently a little slower. With no laptop, no keys, and no record even in the system, it was a slow start. My parking pass wouldn't be ready until the week of classes; I wasn't going to get paid until September 6; I didn't even have a student ID to start taking advantage of student discounts while I was earning nothing! Fortunately, we had a summer symposium for the next few days, for which I needed none of that. Just a willingness to learn.

From there, a day of orientation with the other first-year accounting student, and we were off to the races, tasked with completing our first replication. Essentially, any research paper you read has data behind it to support the findings. In theory, anyone with access to the data should be able to come to the same analytical results as the author. This turns out to be a bit more difficult than anticipated, but after a few weeks of learning SAS through a coding bootcamp, I was able to get pretty close to the results of the assigned paper. And though I've dabbled with coding in the past, primarily VBA for Excel, this was my first time really diving into a program.

There are a lot of positive indicators, and while I'm trying to keep it in check, knowing the grass isn't always greener on the other side (hehe, go green!), I am very excited for the next five years.

Pre-Requisite Reading - Prior to the Start - 2013 to July 2024

How did I get here? After 10 years in public accounting, I hit a bit of a personal mental health crisis. I'm pretty open about it and always willing to answer questions. In short, I had hit a very low point in September 2023 and did a 2-week outpatient program at a mental health facility, working on coping mechanisms during the day while still living out my regular life during the evenings. It was at this point where I realized public accounting was not the end goal for me. I had a great team. I loved the type of work I was doing (there isn't much more exciting in the accounting world than investigating fraud.) I was making really good money. The flexible time off allowed me to do a lot of travel with my wife. I mostly worked from home with my dogs. But I wasn't happy.

I don't know that this new career will make me happy either. But it's a risk worth taking. The best days of my public accounting career were the days I was participating in on-campus recruiting. There's something about a college campus that I find energizing. I always wanted to be a professor, and even had the opportunity to teach a class at my alma mater, Hope College, in the spring of 2024. I had always looked at it as a retirement gig, but had an epiphany during my low point - why wait my entire life to retire and do something I love?

That's when I started applying to PhD programs. As luck would have it, I was accepted to Michigan State University in January 2024. Graduating from high school, my top two schools were Hope and MSU. My entire family went to MSU, and I grew up going to football games (through the very bad and somewhat good years). This just felt right. So in April 2024, after many discussions with my wife, we decided it was time to take the plunge. We decided on a final end date of my public accounting career of 7/31, just shy of my 11-year work anniversary, and here we are today!