Epilogue

Somewhere during my PhD research I learned that there is a special Dutch word for what I was doing: buitenpromoveren. It means you are doing a part-time PhD research while having a (busy) job outside the university. The fact that there is a special word for it, must mean it is different from a normal PhD research, right? The majority of the PhD students nowadays starts shortly after obtaining their master’s degree. When I started, I already had 20 years of experience as a consultant. That made me very different from the other PhD candidates. To start with, I was less interested in drinking beers in the evening. Furthermore, my experience made me more efficient in planning my research and writing my papers. On the other hand, I had much less time available to ponder about what I was doing in Delft. My experience made me also less open minded than the regular PhD candidates, who still approach everything with the (naive) enthusiasm of the youngsters. So, which one is better, or… is there no difference after all?

In my opinion there is no difference. Doing your PhD research gives you the unique possibility to work on innovation, and to follow your instincts. For me the most valuable part of my PhD research was working with similar minds, in a knowledge driven organisation. Having the discussions with my room mates, hours spent in the coffee corner, while debating topics I did not even know existed. In the end it is all about the journey, to grow as a person, exploring the unknown. And that makes it all very much worthwhile.