Personal Blogs

Great call with Nicola, my supervisor,  yesterday. The talk essentially resulted in me being schooled on the ins and outs of qualitative data analysis when using survey methods. There is a great web app called 'NVIVO' highlighted by Nicola, that is (of course) capable of parsing all anonymous survey data and turning it into bite-sized, graphical, and actionable insight. Now, after watching a lovely instructional video about how to use the app, it has dawned on me that coding such responses from the proposed survey to map (categorise) the array of information I receive would be a lot better than an approach focused on manual analysis.

I wrote on the ol' Google blog earlier that I aim to minimise the use of regressions in the final write-up. That doesn't mean I will completely ignore the methodology, though. Nicola, on our 30-min call, suggested I consider the value of closed questions for the proposed survey. I am fairly certain that this is because closed questions allow for more definitive conclusions and are therefore ten times easier to 'churn', which was the word I used in my question to Nicola to describe the task of handling survey data practically.

I have not decided on a relevant topic yet, but I am keen to explore well-being and the economics of labor markets upon initial reflection and going by my gut instincts as to what I already know may suffice to meet the 15k word count. Being from a Business School background, readers may find this post an indicative sign that I have become big-time when it comes to research. This is true. I didn't do a disso as an undergraduate, but now, I feel very well equipped to tackle the quantitative aspects of this module. I feel like an expert.

B894 is one of those very thorough modules that I clearly have to show the utmost respect. There are five important Stages to the module syllabus (as opposed to syllabus Units), and what's interesting is that there are also five assignments to complete over the duration of the module, including an EMA to round things off.

This is one thing I did not actually anticipate would happen a few months ago. I hadn't expected I would be on the final 60-credit module of such a well-organised, fulfilling and encompassing MSc Programme, whilst I also apply simultaneously to study for a prospective PhD. Well, believe it or not, I have now reached that part of the journey where the major contribution has to be researched and written by the student. It's a conversion.

I am starting to warm to the idea that such conversion should be done slowly and reflectively. Before today, I was somewhat abrasive to this odd and inferior notion of reflection. It seemed like a very foreign concept to someone like me, who thrives in an environment where the person is encouraged to work independently, often twice as hard as the next person, to be given the same level of respect. I know I should try to be less assuming with my evaluations of research findings and rely less on models which promote the value of imprecise or vague decisions, suffer from recency bias or cite studies in the text that contain no econometric consideration. Reflection is, in a funny way, part luxury, part endeavour.

I have reached out and arranged to meet my Dissertation Supervisor next week. I need to pin down a suitable topic.