Loke Gar Goei
Nationality:
Singapore
Current Job:
Assistant Professor, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus
Graduation:
2019
Degree:
PhD
Faculty and Department:
Faculty of Science
Undergraduate University:
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gar-goei-loke-995238183/?originalSubdomain=sg
“The P in PhD stands for philosophy. Doing a PhD is like describing what your beliefs in research are. So don’t stop believing in the infinitude of the future.”
In retrospect, would you still have chosen to do a PhD? Why?
Yeah, it was fun. That’s the most important thing!
On hindsight, would you still have chosen NUS to do your PhD?
Sure. The faculty is great and I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to do all the exciting research or worked with all the amazing people had I not done my PhD at NUS.
On hindsight, would you have chosen the same research topic for your PhD?
Yes, this has been my interest in the last few years. I continue to work on research in this area even today.
On hindsight, would you have chosen the same research supervisor for your PhD?
I think my supervisor really opened a lot of doors for me. If only, I regretted not having had the chance to work more closely with him.
How did your experiences as a graduate student shape and guide you in your current career?
I perform research and advise my own PhD students today. So surely all that I have learnt by observing my advisors were necessarily critical. In fact, I observed that some of my behaviours started mirroring my advisors.
Suggest 2 or 3 things that graduate students should do to prepare for their professional careers?
First, I think graduates students should be very specific about their learning. It is easy to get swept away by writing (proto-)papers after papers, so it’s important to know what you are getting out of the process and how that contributes to your medium term goals.
Second, pick an advisor that matches your personality. I’ve seen cases of students who start to lose their passion because they just can’t click with their advisors. And losing your passion is a very dangerous thing.
Third, spend enough time with industry. When you start a professional career, you need to be independent and so you have to start depending on your own personal networks. This is something a lot of students neglect during their PhD days.
Name 2-3 things you wished you had been told when you started graduate school?
Think very carefully about whether you want to do a part-time PhD and which parts of the PhD can be done part time, if you are considering a part time PhD.
Also, don’t raise your expectations of yourself too much and go in thinking you will change the world – less than 1% of people manage to do that. Keep sane and keep healthy.
I also wished someone would remind me just how much procrastination business I would get into.
What advice would you give someone considering doing his/her PhD at NUS?
Be clear why you want to do a PhD. Doing it for fun and interest is fine – just be clear to yourself how far you will go for your hedonism.
Briefly share something fun in your graduate journey at NUS that you remember
I went on a half-year exchange at MIT, and with another of my advisor’s students, so we stayed together in the same house and had lots of smashing parties, and terrible blizzards.
Any other words of wisdom to share?
The P in PhD stands for philosophy. Doing a PhD is like describing what your beliefs in research are. So don’t stop believing in the infinitude of the future.