How to write a thesis while working part-time

1) "One of the hardest, but at the same time the most important, part of my thesis writing process was to keep on going no matter what. Writing a thesis is not a sprint, but more like a marathon. It cannot be finished without constantly moving forward. So, keep working on it and eventually you'll hit the finish line. And after you do, nothing feels better."

- Paul Laihonen, Adoption of DevOps practices in the Finnish software industry: an empirical study (2018). At Eficode since 2015

2) “Keep to a routine. Try to do even just a little bit every day. Avoid having days where you do absolutely nothing."

- Hamzah Mohamed, Continuous integration and information security (2018). At Eficode since 2018

3) "Organize to regularly meet with your supervisor or another group to keep you accountable, like Eficode’s Thesis club. Try to make at least a little bit of progress before each meeting. That way you get to solve thorny issues quicker together with your supervisor or with peers."

- Aleksi Mustonen, Improving the quality of test automation in a software development team (2018), working at Eficode since 2018

4) “Think hard about what the research question of your thesis is and keep it in mind when you start writing. It helps you recognize which parts of the text you are producing are relevant and irrelevant.”

- Antti Paloposki, Enabling Continuous Integration through deployment automation case study: Property transaction system of Finnish National Land Survey (2018). At Eficode since 2016

5) "When you’re working hard on your thesis, remember to take breaks! Taking a one hour break every few hours really helps you keep your sanity and stay focused."

- Aleksi Simell, Discovering and visualizing metrics for different stakeholders by dashboards to evaluate software project status (2018). At Eficode since 2016

6) “When the time came to start writing my thesis, I had no idea what it could be about. Basically, I just went to Eficode’s thesis club and started discussing possible topics and, based on my interests, one of our mentors helped me to decide the topic. Eficode also helped me with providing the data I could use in my research."

Sonja also mentioned the role of humour in successful thesis writing. "We started to link to one another a 1 hour version of Diggy Diggy Hole, as a joke. It continued through the writing process and we both even added the song to our writing playlist. As a result, every time we see each other now, the song starts to play in our heads immediately."

- Sonja Somero, The effects of using Lint for JavaScript apps on their maintainability. At Eficode since 2017

Thanks for the advice! Eficode organises a Thesis Club (aka "Dippapiiri") at our head office in Helsinki once a week for all the students working at Eficode currently writing a thesis.