Considering a DBA? Roadmap and top tips for success

Enrolling in a Doctoral program is an enormous commitment that can often feel overwhelming in the initial stages. If you're a long-term planner like me, this roadmap to degree completion and tips for success during your program is worth a review.

You likely already know the basics of obtaining a doctoral degree - complete the required coursework and finish a dissertation. But how exactly does that work? Read on for a detailed explanation of the critical milestones to degree completion.

Disclaimer: Not all doctoral degrees follow the exact process detailed below. I attended Saint Mary's University of Minnesota to obtain a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), a doctorate degree focused on practitioner-based dissertation research. However, many programs follow a process similar to the one below.

Coursework

Course requirements for programs are all slightly different, but will typically include similar coursework as an MBA - just elevated to the doctoral level. Most will take 2-3 years, assuming you're enrolling in a part-time program. The program at SMU ends with a Seminar course which culminates with a written prospectus and presentation (more on that below).

Comprehensive Exams

This one is often an anxiety-inducer for most new DBA students. What are comps? How in the heck do I pass this?

In my program, comprehensive exams (or comps) are made up of a written and oral portion. We had 4 questions, based on the primary topics in the program, that had to be answered over 10 days. The most popular question? How long should it be? To quote some of the faculty, "As long as needed to effectively answer the questions." ;) There is no page requirement/limit, but as long as you address each question (and sub-question) thoroughly, and with supported literature, that is the important part.

If your written exam is deemed acceptable, you'll move on to an oral exam to defend what you've written. In preparation, make sure you've read your written exam and can provide justifications for the answers you provided.

Research Proposal

Once you pass your comps, you're officially a Doctoral Candidate (congrats!) and move into the dissertation phase. If you've been following Tip #2 below, hopefully you have a good start on your research proposal, which is comprised of the first 3 chapters of your dissertation (if you're in a 5 Chapter Dissertation program). You'll select a committee chair and two additional members (sometimes more) who will review your proposal and provide feedback.

For many, this is the most difficult part of the DBA process, when it's easy to stall out. Life after coursework fills back in - there are no more courses to set deadlines and keep you accountable. The onus is on YOU to make progress on refining the introduction, delving deep into the literature review, and crafting a methodology that can answer your research question. Again, there are no page requirements, but many proposals are in the 100+ page range.

Once your proposal is in good shape, and you've incorporated the feedback from your committee, you need to orally defend your proposal to the committee before you can formally begin the research (executing your Methodology section).

IRB Approval

Most DBA projects include research on human subjects and are therefore required to go through ethical review. Depending on your research design (interviews, surveys, secondary data collection), the IRB process is a bit different. But expect this to take 2-6 weeks. You need to submit your proposed study to the institutional review board at your University for ethical review. They may have further comments and refinements to your research design. This step cannot be done until you have committee approval on your research proposal, and you cannot start data collection until you've received IRB authorization to begin.

Dissertation Defense

The big question - what is a dissertation?

While some programs have different requirements, many follow the traditional 5-Chapter dissertation format. I won't go into detail here, but each chapter includes:

Chapter 1 - Introduction (your Prospectus is similar to what is required in Chapter 1) Chapter 2 - Literature review

Chapter 3 - Methodology

Chapter 4 - Results

Chapter 5 - Discussion

Once you receive IRB approval, you can begin the data collection and analysis process. Once this is completed, you write Chapters 4 and 5 and again send them to your committee for review. After you incorporate any feedback from the committee - you're ready for Dissertation Defense! This oral presentation will be given to your committee (and is sometimes open to the public). It's pretty self-explanatory - you will defend your research, the findings and your interpretation and limitations. It's unlikely that you'll get to this stage unless your committee feels you were successful, but it's understandably a stressful experience for many.

So, that is the process. Read on for additional tips!

Top Tips for a Successful DBA Experience

Next, here are a few tips for a successful DBA experience.

Tip #1 - Choose a Reference Management System

You'll be hit with journal article overload pretty early on in your coursework. Choosing a software program that can help you manage all the articles you'll be required to read (and cite) will help make your scholarly life easier in the long run. See the blog on Reference Management Systems for help and a tutorial (coming soon).

Tip #2 - Leverage your class assignments

You may or may not have an idea for a dissertation topic. My advice - try to choose a broad topic of interest early on in your program. Knowing at least a general area of interest allows you to cater some of your assignments that require a literature review, to your area of interest. You can effectively build your literature review (Chapter 2) using assignments completed throughout your coursework.

A good dissertation is a done dissertation - start working on it early!

Tip #3 - Collaborate with faculty and classmates

Take advantage of opportunities to collaborate with faculty and classmates. This may even lead to a publishable manuscript, which is especially helpful if you intend to pursue a career in higher education.

• Work on projects together

• Attend academic conferences

• Attend Doctoral Consortiums,

• Join academic organizations

Tip #4 - Participate in Class

The final, but perhaps most important, tip is simple - show up and participate! Attend class regularly and engage in classroom discourse. This is the best way to prepare for exams and your dissertation.

Get the DBA!

Obtaining a terminal degree is daunting, but doable. With proper planning and commitment, you CAN turn your master's into a doctorate. What other tips do you have for completing a DBA?

Landing your first adjunct opportunity

Have you just completed your graduate degree and want to get into teaching at the post-secondary level? Or looking to apply your industry expertise in the classroom? Landing your first adjunct teaching opportunity can be harder than you think. Read on for tips and tricks to get your foot in the higher education door.

If you've tried and failed to obtain an adjunct teaching opportunity by sending in your resume to job boards like higheredjobs.com, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of being selected to teach a course at a University. But first, what is an adjunct?

The Adjunct Instructor

More and more, Universities are using adjunct instructors to teach courses that can't be filled by their full-time faculty. In an effort to cut costs, many departments have seen a reduction in the elusive (and expensive) tenure-track faculty positions. But when course offerings are steady or increasing, Universities have to fill the teaching roles somehow. Enter the adjunct. A notoriously underpaid, but vital part of keeping classes on the schedule, adjunct positions are temporary (typically semester-long) teaching opportunities.

Teaching opportunities are continually changing and may result from a faculty member stepping into a department chair position and lowering their course load, or a faculty member who took a sabbatical, or perhaps a retirement or resignation. As a result, many Universities have accept continuous applications for adjunct positions through their employment page (more on this below). In some cases, adjuncts can be full-time or they may be "permanently" selected to teach a specific course on an ongoing basis, but in other cases, adjunct opportunities fulfill a one-time need.

Some Universities have been criticized for relying too much on adjuncts to cut costs and therefore decreasing the quality of the education provided. Adjuncts may not receive the same level of support as full-time faculty, often aren't invited to department meetings and can unfortunately be viewed as a necessary evil. But the reality is that adjuncts play an important role in delivering high-quality education and often bring much-needed practical application perspectives to the classroom.

These teaching opportunities can be very fulfilling for the industry expert, and can provide much-needed teaching experience for aspiring academics. But despite the increasing opportunities, it can be tough to land the job. Here are a few tips to apply in your adjunct-search.

Resume or CV?

First things first, throw your resume out the door and write a CV. The Curriculum Vitae, or CV, is an academic version of the traditional resume. It has some distinct differences and many hiring managers for adjunct positions will expect to see a CV (though I'm sure they see plenty of resume's cross their desks). Writing a CV will show that you understand academic industry expectations.

Typically, the CV is structured to emphasize your academic contributions: teaching, research, and service. This can be challenging if your academic experience is lacking, but here are some good CV writing tips from The Writing Center at UW-Madison and The Professor Is In (who also has a great blog about writing the academic cover letter). Check these out and get writing your own CV!

Finding adjunct teaching opportunities

Next, how do you go about finding what opportunities are available? Interestingly, a LOT of adjunct teaching positions are never formally posted. What? You must be wondering, then how can I find them?

One word - NETWORKING. This is probably your most powerful tool when it comes to finding and landing adjunct opportunities.

Here are some ways you can network:

Search for courses you'd like to teach at a specific University, then follow the faculty on LinkedIn

Reach out to the faculty member and offer to guest-lecture in their course

Attend academic conferences and interact (key word) with attendees

Find the name of the department chair (this is often who hires adjuncts) and reach out with your interest

Find ways to get involved with the University of interest - judging a competition, volunteering to mentor students, guest speaking at a club meeting

In addition to networking, make sure to bookmark University employment pages and check back often for new opportunities. Many Universities also keep a continuous pool of qualified applicants. You can find the application link on their website and submit your information. They'll reach out if an opportunity pops up that matches your qualifications.

Learn how to teach

Don't be pretentious about your teaching ability. It is frowned upon when industry experts think they know how to teach by virtue of their "expertise". Teaching a course at the undergraduate or graduate level takes a lot of planning, understanding of adult learning theories and the ability to engage students in the learning process.

Especially following Covid, the shift to online-learning modalities forced many faculty to learn best pedagogical practices in this format. Show you are committed to being a great instructor by investing in professional development in education. There are a number of ways you can gain this knowledge - check out LinkedIn Learning for short courses, or consider a more in-depth graduate level certificate in Teaching, Training and Leading with Technology like this one offered by Saint Mary's University of Minnesota or this shorter Professional Certificate in Online Education by UW-Madison.

Final thoughts

It may take some time, but crafting your professional background to be attractive to Universities hiring adjuncts is important to land that first job! Here are a few additional tips:

• Know what specific courses you are qualified to teach

• Create a few lesson plans that you can use as a guest lecturer or to showcase during an interview

• Focus your efforts toward building a relationship with a few local Universities you're interested in

• Leverage connections at your Alma matter - consider teaching at the University from which you obtained your degree

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