Big Decision
By ET
After spending 6 years at MIT. I decided to commit a major change in my life, I took the offer from HKUST (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology). That means, we are moving back to Asia, and it will be in the near future.
The job market was funny, I may write a longer piece later since I can’t really describe how much I experienced here. The IT market has not been any better than the previous years after the Internet bubble burst, as a consequence, there are only less than 10 openings in the so-called research institutions, which are generally considered to be better than "teaching institutions" since professors in research institutions have less burden of teaching and can do more creative things in research. The number of job candidates goes beyond 200 people. That means a lot of potentially creative people who might be great researchers will end up in teaching institutions and be burdened with 6 courses to teach a week. Some may just go to the industry and never will be able to use some of what they have learned to be a researcher.
I guess some people need to thank me since I gave up a few nice offers here in the US. I like these schools very much (again, this warrants a longer blog entry, I made some really good friends from these campus visits), but I can only take one offer and my optimization problem is a constrained one with factors about my wife, children, our parents, our friends, our career plans, etc… HKUST turned out to be the best option for me.
I’m eager to write about the great things about HKUST now, I may write a longer piece later with more details
research support
- it is comparable to top 10-20 US business school’s support
- as a consequence, it is not surprising that just by counting the number of top business journal publications, it ranked about 20 among US schools
strong faculty profile
- I was surprised to find that the majority of the faculty members are affiliated with very good business schools
- the dean got his PhD in U Chicago, the head of my department came from Stanford, … …
amazing history
- HKUST started in the early ninties, within 15 years, it has accomplished to be a major research institute in Asia
- it really sets a good example for how to build a good school, I know other universities in Hong Kong are strongly influenced by this
- there is a book written by the first president of HKUST about the history, I heard many good things about the book, looking forward to read it
gorgeous campus
- My friend Gordon Gao named it "the best campus in Asia"
- it has ocean view and mountain view, you can not be not productive with these :-p
Since I’m working on my thesis now and have to defend my thesis on May 1st, I really don’t have time to notify all my friends about this decision. Hope this entry can serve as an announcement to let you know about my future whereabouts. If you are in Asia, we are much more closer, and if you are in the US, don’t worry, I’ll be back at least twice a year, plenty of chances to hang out together!
April 15th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Thanks Jennifer! Hmm. I did not know there are so many lurkers around my blog
It’s great to receive comments on this. I plan to arrive HK at the end of July, I need your introduction to Laura and Yong, I guess.
April 15th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Congratulations! I am very happy for you. I am also happy for HKUST. I believe its ranking will go straight up with the joining of so many of my distinguished friends. Say hello to June, Laura and Yong. Hope to see you all in June.
April 5th, 2006 at 2:43 am
Welcome to HK. I am glad that 4 members of our Team 1 will be reunited in HK. Let me know if you need any help in HK.
April 4th, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Congratualtions on making hte right choice I hope it brings you all the luck inthe world!
March 29th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Congrats! Good for you and your whole family!
Now you don’t need to agonize, and I guess you also won’t immerse into your deep thinking at dinner table anymore, as we heard from Jade before.
Good luck in your dissertation and defense. Let’s get together after that, then Ashley and Eric can make their debut to each other,
March 29th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
No matter what you decide to do, you will be the best :))
Hope you will still keep working on this blog.
You really influenced me, and I just opened an account at blog.sina.com. If you have time, come and take a look. I can’t make it as pretty as yours, but I will keep working on it.
Good luck to all of us!
http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/1223992247
March 25th, 2006 at 11:03 pm
“A bomb”? I did not expect this decision to be so destructive. :-p It is “big” to me, as I can only follow one possible direction, and for this decision, if I make a mistake, severe consequences follow. For other people, they may have different priorities, so the decision can be totally different yet both rational. The decision is based on my confidence about doing good work in the future, and in academia, if you do good work, you have nothing to fear.
On a second thought, I take back the last sentence. I have friends doing great research, and got very few interviews due to the horrible market. I wish them all good luck!
(Heard about Duan WJ’s offer, congratulations to her).
March 24th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
Surpised about your decision. I was just back to Austin for Spring Break and heard people talking about the job market. It reminded me my painful last year. I tried to put in a few familiar names of this year’s candidate to find out some info and here it was, your decision.
While I am watching so many of my friends are still struggling in the State, your decision seems to be a bomb. It should influence our way of thinking. Why do we have to stay in the States? I myself wasn’t clear.
HK should be a very nice decision. And I wish to you a good future.