Leap Walking

I feel I’ve had a lack of education, coming from a developing nation in the Far East. I wish I had been enrolled in a school that actually taught history and geography in all its wonderful richness.

I don’t care so much about math because I feel it’s hard to screw up math because it has been made comparatively standard and agnostic from politics and subjectivity, that I assume it hadn’t been whitewashed or dumbed-down for our consumption.

And life isn’t all about numbers.

About an hour ago, I was flipping through the pages of a free, relatively unpolished ebook by Seth Godin. Despite his rough outline about blogs and how to write them, I could tell that by mere reference to specific names and his understanding of journalism and the publishing industry set him many miles apart from so-called “blog experts” that promise to sell you the secrets to blogging success (and I’m not even mentioning “social media”… ugh).

And I feel that the difference about a man or woman is brought about by his perspective of the world, and more importantly, the appreciation and critical self-assessment of that worldview.

I feel that topics like history and geography actually provide the building blocks for thinking about important issues like culture, politics, business, society, philosophy and religion. I may never know what it’s like to have that rich perspective of life without a proper understanding of these basics – because it feels like I’ve been robbed of an opportunity to learn stuff like history and geography in all its richness when I was growing up, except for those moments when my mom was actually teaching me.

The overemphasis of rote learning could’ve been the cause of this. And I remember that I was told off for asking “why” so many times, despite genuinely seeking answers. Did I surpass my superiors’ ability to thirst for answers at that young age? Heaven knows.

Wikipedia only helps so much. Don’t take your education for granted.

This is a response to Penelope’s post about how you shouldn’t dodge the recession with grad school. But before I go on, I want to state that I am in grad school, but I made my decision before the recession came. So for those of us who are already in grad school – this probably won’t matter (since we probably made decisions to do this based on other reasons).

Penelope’s post makes sense for people who are looking for a way out of the recession. And for the most part, I do agree with her. I don’t think it is a good idea to go for an MBA, an MFA, a PhD, whatever – if you’re trying to seek refuge from the storm.

But in a way, I don’t think that’s going to stop the tens of thousands who will end up in grad school. So, if you’re in that camp, well… my best advice to you is not to see grad school as a safe haven. It’s extremely deceptive to think that all you have to do is read books and write papers, and do well in class. There’s a lot at stake and a lot to lose in the years spent in grad school.

Grad school is deceptive

One of the main reasons is this – your professors have their own agenda that’s not the same as yours. They tend to value your intelligence and critical analysis of your work (and will reward you for it), rather than your ability to make money and survive. It’s noble, by all means – but far from practical.

The solution to this is to give them what they want, but get what you need. And what you need are:

• connections
• skills
• ‘tricks of the trade’
• opportunities

Connections: Know what’s at stake

It is incorrect to say that there is a huge gap between the corporate and academic worlds. Often times, very established leaders and experts move seamlessly between the two, providing an essential bridge for mutual benefit.

I was just given an opportunity to work with Microsoft for my Masters thesis, and I owe it to my lecturer through her connections. In a way, the process felt a little like going for a job interview, because I knew that it would make a difference to know what the stakes were, and at the end of the day – there were some students who didn’t get what they wanted.

Skills: Discern well between learning and applying

Penelope was right in saying that, to learn entrepreneurship, you have to do it. It can’t be gained by just reading books. But I also believe that there are some people who are so clueless they can’t tell the difference between reading a how-to book and saving their own lives.

If you can’t understand how to translate knowledge into practice, you’re in big trouble. If you think that books should be written in a style suitable for adolescents to make it easier to understand, you’re digging your own grave. This brings me to my next point.

Tricks: Learn the benefits of failing

One essential benefit of grad school that you can’t always get in the working world is the opportunity to fail, and fail often. Don’t take this for granted – smart folks know that getting out early and getting your hands dirty is key to understanding what works and what doesn’t.

In my meeting with the head researcher at Microsoft, I made an absolute fool of myself when I claimed that ethnography was the same thing as field studies. It took me a week before I realized this, but they still let me in. Students are easy to forgive, but there’s always a limit.

The tricks aren’t about failing, but learning from them. It’s easy to say, but I doubt that you’d throw yourself in the deep end of the pool if you knew you couldn’t swim. My take: jump first, swim later. There’s always a way out.

Opportunities: Practice, preach and play

From the onset of the course, I was determined to take the road less travelled. While some students avoid part-time work and external activities in order to concentrate on studies, I run the other way.

I hunted down a flexible job that would pay me enough but not drag me down, signed up as a volunteer on a project with the Interaction Design Association, tried my best to attend every single free event related to my industry, and started following industry leaders on Twitter and started a blog to share my thoughts. I got to work with industry experts almost overnight, and it makes a difference when they know you by name and can vouch for your work.

When it comes to push and shove, all that extra effort clearly stands out. If you’re in a really good school with the smartest bunch, you won’t just be able to collaborate – you’ll synergize with the best. There will always be opportunities to learn and lead, take what you can (or should) and run with it.

The biggest problem isn’t time management – it’s focus.

I admit – I feel a bit lost being a full-time student, after being in employment for the last 6 years. I no longer have paid projects to work on, a company vision to fulfil, or quarterly performance reviews. At the same time, I don’t have to worry about promotion or about getting a bonus. I am slowly starting to forget all the employee jargon I got so used to like ‘action points’ and ‘agendas’ (I thought really hard to come up with these as well).

More so, I feel lost about this blog. How can I assume to have any advice about work, when I don’t even have a regular job?

Job responsibilities are like scout badges you don’t get in graduate school

All my working friends have very fixed schedules – I understand, because the corporate world lives between 9 to 5. It’s very different executing work in practice than it seems in books. There is constant pressure for employees to perform and meet deadlines – a whole system depends on this. If I screw up my assignments, no one else bears the pain (except maybe those who have put their faith in me).

By not being a part of this pattern of work makes me feel like I’m no longer a part of who I used to represent – the workplace, practitioners, and employees. It’s as though job responsibility acts as a “qualifier” for status – the more responsibilities you have, the better you look in other people’s books.

There are almost no scout badges in graduate school. Previous working experience does blur that line a bit, but there’s almost no politics. To some people, that sounds utopian. But politics is real and unavoidable, and we don’t cover this in class.

The gap between academia and the workplace

I also find that there’s a wide gap between academia and the workplace. Ideally, we want this gap to be bridged well so that we can put into practice the stuff that’s learnt and researched. But this is not always the case.

Company goals and academic goals are two very different things, even though they do contribute to each other at times. This conflict makes it hard for students to compare between what’s taught and what’s practiced.

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and forums in the field I am interested to pursue my career, but I find I have no credibility whatsoever, because I’m not doing the ‘real’ work. The credibility that academic folks impart onto students are often based on academic work, which aren’t always a true reflection of what happens in industry.

Associations, events, blogs, and message boards

I’ve been getting my share of the user-experience (UX) industry goings on through associations, events, blogs and message boards. Even though London is small in comparison to the US UX industry, folks here use the Internet enough to get attention, plan meetups, and share ideas – which are all good to pick up on.

Sadly, though – I feel that not a lot of companies are into making full use of students or interacting with them, apart from getting them to fill up questionaires and showing off how good their brand is, and of course, to attract top talent.

Not all practioners are like that, of course. Associations have student discounts to encourage membership, and their events don’t discriminate between students or practitioners. But students tend to take the backseat – as though we were meant to view things from the sidelines. There’s no PR, no real discourse and interaction, no synergy.

Maybe it gets better over blogs, twitter, and LinkedIn. I have yet to find out.

Reprise

The reason for this post is because I love the brazencareerist community, and I’ve learnt so much from people I haven’t met, I’m encouraged to keep sharing my side of the story – because it is as much as adventure to me as it is to another person reading it. I believe that despite my being in graduate school, my career and life goals are very much alive and kicking – and that’s what this is really all about.

Thanks for reading, and for coming back.

I’m a month into my postgraduate program right now, and a thought got to me – what if I could do all the things I was doing now without being enrolled as a student in the course?

The obvious result would be avoiding lectures, examinations, and the chance to work with similar minded people. But apart from that, it’s quite possible to obtain the postgraduate experience without ever paying a single cent.

Read, read, read

It’s a long shot, but it basically involves a lot of focussed, disciplined reading. What I would do (if I ever decided to go this route in the future) is to look at recommended reading lists for MSc programs published on university websites. Here are a few for Electronic Engineering courses offered at Queen Mary, University of London (quite a reputable university).

If there’s a course outline available, you could match your reading plan based on the recommended reading list with the course outline, and produce a reading schedule with specific reading goals. It’s a bit more focussed than, say, picking a general book on the subject.

In contrast, practitioners often claim that you seldom ever reuse school textbooks in the real world. That’s partly true because the head knowledge has been imprinted as guidelines that help practitioners make decisions about their work. So, it’s not that school textbooks are useless, but that they are meant to provide a sound basis for judgment and decision making (you don’t want to be reading textbooks to solve problems when a deadline is looming).

Try making your own exams

Some universities will publish course material online, even examinations. Some of this stuff can get quite rudimentary, but some of them will prove useful in defining thought-provoking and essential questions on a subject matter. Getting a real expert to vouch for this is a good way to gauge your learning, and to ‘test’ your progress.

In a sense, you could create your own exam, although that sounds quite circular (who would take an exam made by themselves?). But the point is not about scoring grades – it’s about getting to grips with the subject matter.

Besides, exams are only part of the postgraduate experience. The real test of a postgraduate is in academic writing, and the dissertation (thesis in the US) marks the focus of any Masters program.

Write a dissertation, sort of

In essence, a dissertation is an academic study of a topic. You have a claim (a hypothesis), you go out and study it (using a specific method, which you can define or quote), and you very carefully and methodically analyze and address for what it’s worth.

Dissertations can take up to three months or more, and often gets people outside their comfort zones into contextual environments to be able to study issues where “it all happens”. You could do things like interview people, observe how things are run at their specific locations (flight control, anyone?), or experiment on lab mice. Of course, you may lack the resources an academic instution has to offer, but then, it all depends on what you want to study.

Some universities make their dissertations publicly available, so that you can get a flavor of what it looks and feels like. There are tons of resources available to help students familiarize themselves with acedemic writing and research, so there’s no need to go to a university just to do that. Even professionals do it from time to time, and some companies make their living by publishing research findings.

The whole purpose of a dissertation is its learning value. Does it change the world? Does it offer help to problems that are evident? Is it a worthy, reliable source of information? Does it test the hypotheses well? Is the argument sound?

While you won’t get is a piece of paper that qualifies you as a MSc degree holder, you might earn the learning experience of the process. And it is useful in shaping your understanding and investigative skills. Maybe you might tell yourself it’s not worth the trip, and decide to blow your life savings on a real MSc program. But then, you might only want a part of the whole experience.

I am currently halfway through induction week here at graduate school. To be honest, I am totally enjoying myself, and I am so happy I made the choice to do this despite the struggles I went through together with my wife and the potential obstacles we will be (and in some cases, are) facing.

I might be too quick to judge here, but I don’t think my career has taken a back seat just because I’m in graduate school. The reason why I’m here is absolultely clear – I need a better guarantee into the field of Human-Computer Interaction, and a Masters in HCI has generally been sought after by practitioners.

But just in case you might want to gain more confidence in deciding to get a Masters, think again.

Avoid Graduate School for careers in traditional roles

This particular report based on the UK industry noted that “traditional graduate occupations may be reaching saturation point”, and that “new graduate occupations might still be growing”. If you are in a more traditional role such as Finance, Accounting or Project Management, it may be better to obtain professional certifications rather than a Masters degree. The reason is because they offer more effective training with less money and less time, and they generally hold their value quite well. I hold a PMP accreditation for Project Management, and it’s internationally recognized as a proper qualification for practitioners in the field. It’s a better deal than a Masters qualification, especially if I’m practicing and not into academia.

For emerging industries, maybe

A Masters is OK for the HCI industry, because it’s a relatively new field. I know at least one person who’s been in the industry for a few years tell me verbally that demand for HCI practitioners is increasing internationally, such that they’ve had to import them from various places because there isn’t enough talent locally (she was speaking of the Australian market). She also remarked that HCI has traditionally been established by academia and found its way into the corporate world, such that skilled practitioners were previously researchers with Masters or PhD qualifications, causing a large gap in the industry. In fact, from a recent survey, there are more HCI practitioners with Masters degrees than there are Bachelors. For more emerging jobs, take a look at this article from US News and World Report on Best Careers 2008.

Graduate School isn’t about taking a break

In my perspective, graduate school is about a career extension, not a career overhaul or a career upgrading. I don’t think employers buy that anymore, and they are less likely to substitute experience for credentials (1, 2, 3, 4). This of course, again, depends on whether this experience is mostly gained in the workforce. If it requires complicated mathematics and in-depth study, it may change the game a little. But in short, don’t do it just because you think it’s going to get you a better salary.

Graduate School closes doors?

Penelope Trunk wrote an article about how graduate school closes doors instead of open them. While I don’t agree with her completely, I do agree that the cost of graduate school is very high now, and that it will influence the decisions you make past graduation point. This does limit your options quite a lot. Graduate school is not just expensive, but taxing too. It’s not easy to launch a startup while you’re busy writing that thesis.

In a sense, if you have the means to innovate and start fresh without challenges and limitations of a particular environment (could be graduate school), then what you need is motivation, discipline, and a sound way of getting things done… not a Masters qualification.

If you’re 200% sure, go for gold

If you’re darn certain a Masters degree is for you, give it your 200%. I am one happy camper, and I am relishing the learning, intellectual discourse, networking, and potentially unlimited opportunities that this new field can offer me through this Masters programme. But that means I’ve had to form new habits of planning my schedules properly, strategizing my studies, make full use of my networks, and be more focussed about my goals.

I read the article posted by the Sun written by you. It’s discouraging to see repeated attempts by the Malaysian government to discourage students from entering the national education system, but I’m keen to hear your thoughts on the alternatives.

The only reason why I see non-bumiputra students still keen on local scholarships and placements is because of cost. A secondary reason could be family. But I don’t know. I’m not in the position to say much. You and the students in the same boat as you should know better.

But I want to ask if the alternatives seem as bleak. Will the National University of Singapore be equally uncompromising to high achievers? Or even other overseas universities? Some universities in India are world-renown, especially in areas such as medicine and engineering. You don’t have to go as far as the UK or the US, though I feel that it would broaden your perspectives even further.

Try to think for the longer term (5 to 10 years). It appears that the kind of experience a high achiever stands to benefit from in other countries seems much more fulfilling, compared to some of our local students here. At the end of the day, I believe both types of graduates stand the same chance to enter the workforce – it does come down to personality, attitude and experience. And what you gain from that experience can be worth everything.

My question to you is – what do you want?

If it’s a fulfilling education experience you want, I don’t know if you’ll find it here as compared to overseas. If you stay, the obstacles you will have to put up with may not even be related to your field of study.

You’ve already come this far – I’d hate to see your qualifications and experience go to waste. The world is a big place, and sometimes searching for the right thing can be extremely frustrating and lonely. But the treasures that you will end up receiving is worth far greater. My advice to you is to broaden your perspectives, challenge the status quo, seek alternatives, consider all your options, and work hard to find what you want.

You have a potentially rewarding life ahead of you. For your own sake as well as your family’s, I hope that you will continue your fight and determination to get what you deserve and desire.