Back after a long break/Takaisin pitkän tauon jälkeen

A lot has happened after my last update over a year ago.
1) I started working as an account manager at Aalto University IT last September. I started with administrative customers and changed to research systems a couple of months ago.
2) I defended my dissertation: Essays on Personalization in Multichannel Financial Services last Nov. Here's a link to my dissertation http://hsepubl.lib.hse.fi/pdf/diss/a372.pdf
3) I took part in the Conferment of Degrees Celebrations at Aalto University School of Economics three weeks ago, at the end of May. It was great!
4) The younger girls had the last day of school before the beginning of summer holiday. Both did well at shcool. Our eldest is in New Zealand, near Auckland and has had the time of her life. After three months with kiwis she had a "blue period" but seems to recovering from it.

Maailman parantamista ja uusia tutkimusaiheita

Minulla oli tänään kaksi kovin mielenkiintoista keskustelua kahden eri henkilön kanssa. Ensimmäiseksi tapasin australialaisen nuoren miehen, johon tutustuin viime viikon kvalikurssilla. Keskustelimme akateemisen ja käytännön maailman eroista, käyden läpi molempien hyviä ja huonoja puolia. Toivoimme molemmat oppivamme toisiltamme. Ystävälläni on monikultuurinen tausta ja hänen päätymisensä asumaan Suomeen oli jo itsessään hieno tarina. Lisäksi jaamme molemmat kiinnostuksen ihmisiin ja tietotekniikkaan ja ihmisiin tietotekniikan käyttäjinä. Pehmeät menetelmät, jotka ottavat huomioon käyttäjät ihmisinä ja toimijoina kiinnostavat. Lupasimme pitää yhteyttää, minne tahaansa matkani minut viekään.
Toisessa tapaamisessa ideoimme vanhan tutkijaystäväni kanssa seuraavaa tutkimusaihetta, johon yritämme hakea rahoitusta ja josta toivomme saavamme leipämme jatkossa. Tapaaminen oli todella inspiroiva ja ajatukset lensivät vapaasti. Tavataan parin päivän kuluttua uudelleen, sitä ennen laitetaan paperille omia ajatuksia ja suunnitellaan aikataulua tekemisille.
Artikkelin kirjoittamisen kannalta päivä ei ollut kovin antoisa, aloitin vasta illalla. Välähdyksenomaisesti minulle selvisi, miksi reviewerit olivat suhtautuneet pariin niin nihkeästi: kontrollidatan puute on aito puute. Koetetaan kaivaa lisädataa jostakin kiven alta ja jatkan hommia huomenna. Nyt sänky jo kutsuu...

Change of language to Finnish

Koska taidan kirjoitaa lähinnä itselleni, siirryn suomeen. Viime kirjoituksesta on jo aikaa. Olen sen jälkeen kokenut muutamia positiivisia ja muutamia negatiivisia tapahtumia. Parempi keskittyä positiivisiin :-).
Osallistuin Mike Myersin (iso nimi tietojärjestelmätieteilijöiden keskuudessa) pitämälle laadullisen tutkimuksen kurssille. Kurssi oli kansainvälinen, noin 1/3 osallistujista oli ulkomaalaisia. Ilmapiiri oli rento ja osallistuva - hyvin harvinaista! Itse kurssin sisällössä ei ollut kovinkaan paljoa uutta, mutta omat, piilossa olleet oletukset nousivat tietoisuuteen. Ja harjoitukset olivat hauskoja! Kaiken kaikkiaan mainio kokonaisuus.
Keskiviikkona vierailin Dazzlen toimistossa. Osallistava toimintatapa kiinnosti. Mietimme markkinointiekonomien kanssa markkinointia tulevaisuuden menestystekijänä. Törmäsin lisäksi entiseen tuttuuni, jota en ollut nähnyt 10 vuoteen.
Torstai-iltana kuuntelin Esa Saarisen luentoa Inspiration, motivation and good life. Inspiroiduin ja motivoiduin. Mietiskelin itsekseni, että Saarinen on vastakohta kaikelle sille, mitä rationaalinen kauppatiede (tai ainakin meidän aineen professorit) edustavat. Saarinen puhuu työn tekemisestä kaiken hyvän ja kauniin edestä, vain siksi, että ne ovat asioita, joita arvostaa ja että naivius on asenteena kannatettavaa. Vertasin tätä proffiini, joiden kommentti jatko-opiskelijalle, joka halusi kontribuoida yhteiseen hyvää oli "miksi et opiskellut sairaanhoitajaksi?". What a difference! Saarinen toi uskoa siihen, että kannattaa pitää arvossa sitä, mihin itse uskoo antamatta muiden viedä uskoa ihmisyyteen ja positiivisuuteen. Jokaisen kannattanee miettiä vastausta kysymykseen "What do you stand for" ja elää elämänsä siten, että voi kuolinvuoteella todeta ettei tekisi mitään toisin. Kyllä näin kyyninen keski-ikäinenkin voi nähdän valoa tunnelin päässä :-)

Strange week

I have had a quite a long break in blogging. Actually I should be cleaning now but I came to check e-mails in between. We were supposed to plan action points to get a paper published that has been rejected in two journals already. The research design is not very solid, and we have not elaborated on the variables and relationships as much as we should have. Well, we just have to lower the quality of the journal...So, I came to check if my co-author had worked on my suggestions. No - she already said that she doesn't feel too good. I better continue with cleaning as well.
BTW, my eldest daughter is going for an exchange to New Zealand next year, I still have not resolved the issue about the school of my second daughter, and my third daughter will get braces...
I myself was told that I will not be empoloyed as a senior researcher in a reseach institute to which I applied - for the second time! I won't apply for the third time! I hold a sample lecture (is this the correct term, maybe not)for the course multicultural teaching. I was too quick, as always...
ok, now: cleaning!

This and that

My darling daughter got accepted to the school! And she would not like to go...what to do??
I basically just organized my papers the whole day. In the evening I attented a meeting arranged by the PhD student organization of the three universities that have merged. I have fairly positive feelings about the evening. The presentation about the tenure track revealed nothing new, Pekka and Mari had nothing new to say since I already know the practices at toko. Maybe they painted a slightly brigher picture of the reality than it really is. However, based on the comments of the students of the other schools we have it really well. Pdh-student Mari focused on the positive atmosphere at toko and on the possibility to meat researchers that come from totally different traditions. Arno was excellent as always. He had even written a memo on what things you should take into account while studying. After the official program we had some sallad, wine and chips. I met a couple of really nice 40-something ladies with whom it would be nice to collaborate.

In anticipation...

I have been sitting in front of the computer for almost an hour waiting for the website to be updated. My middle daughter gets to know where she'll go to school for the next three years. I sort of influenced her to choose a school with half Finnish, half English teaching. None of her best friend applied to the school and now she is horrified that she might be accepted to the school and she would have to say bye-bye to the girls with who she has gone to school for six years ...
My eldest daughter was in an interview for a position as an exchange student yesterday. Her favorite location would be New Zealand - as far as you can get from Finland. She told me that the interview did not go too well, but I really don't know how it went since she always exaggerates. Well, we went to sushi together to calm her. It was lovely. In addition, she will start in the upper secondary school next year - we hope that she can stay at her present school.
I am in a look-out for new job. I already was in an interview a couple of weeks ago - it would be a research-oriented job, but mostly about rearranging and organizing work practices, and later on, working on methodological development. In two weeks I'll have another interview lined up at the university, coordinating and organizing the international partnerships. I am going to apply two other positions, first as a head teacher for service business, another as a post-doc researcher in a research group. Writing applications is actually really time-consuming. No wonder I haven't have time for continuing my old research :-).
Only my husband and our youngest daughter do not face major changes in the near future. Having said that, my husband would actually like to change jobs, after all he has been with the present employer for over 14 years!
I'm still stearing at the website - the info did not appear at 9 am as it was supposed to. Arg!

Spelling mistakes

What a pity that there is no embedded spelling check for blog texts - wouldn't that be a good service? I don't usually notice my mistakes when I have made them. So no matter how many times I read my texts, the mistakes stay unnotices - until I publish my writings.