My DBA journey so far:

In a nutshell, FUN...!!!

It's all coursework for my first 2 years, before my doctoral dissertation kicks in. So far, 2 semesters in, it has been immensely enjoyable because I'm getting exactly what I've been wanting - the knowledge I need in management now that I am an Executive Director.

Due to work pressure, I'm taking the recommended path as a DBA part timer at UNITAR. First sem, Entrepreneurship & Social Innovation that gave me a glimpse of what it takes to run your own business venture, the pitfalls, the School of Hard Knocks that most entrepreneurs go thru, the global trend towards ESG and the Lean Startup Method.

This sem, Strategic Planning & Performance Evaluation, covering the strategic planning process, the tools + models and how to apply them to conduct a strategic biz audit.

Both are directly relevant to me at my career stage where I need to help steer the agency I work for and, as such, the assignments aren't difficult at all. You just have to manage your time and find a way to put in the hours. Sometimes work deadlines occupy my time and I find myself lagging a bit, so I gotta keep reminding myself to stay disciplined.

The difference between DBA and my Master's is that my classmates are mostly roughly my age (35-50) mid to senior level professionals. None of them are spring chicken anymore, all of them with serious expertise and experience in their respective fields - finance, engineering, education etc. The lecturers and professors have a keen interest in hearing our 2 cents' worth when discussing a topic, because that's where our hands-on real-world work experience kicks in. For me, I find it fascinating to hear from my classmates how different companies adopt different approaches in adopting what are essentially the same models. That's definitely good to know when you're in management, you get to compare notes and develop the idea that there's more than 1 way to skin the cat.

The only downside is that, since the classes are online, I have only met 1 in real life for an assignment that required us to conduct an in-depth interview with a social entrepreneur. He had to abandon his PhD a few years back, now that he runs his own consultancy setup he's back in school with a vengeance.

DBA's focus on real-world business application is apparent - while I was buried eyeball deep in academic literature in grad school, now it's mostly case studies and critical discourse of current business issues.

Next semester, Strategic Operations Management. And I'll have to begin the groundwork for my dissertation proposal to get a head start.