Education & Learning

You are currently browsing the archive for the Education & Learning category.

How to avoid frustration due to expectations in graduate school

September 28, 2006 in Education & Learning, Getting Things Done, Graduate School, Ph.D. | No comments

frustrationAre you in graduate school doing a Ph.D. or a Master’s thesis? If yes, read ahead. Is it going well? Are you on schedule? If yes, then you don’t need to read any further. Ok, now that you are still with me means not everything is as you expect. Let me tell you a secret – you are not alone. Ohh, you already knew that. Good. I bet you have already read about the 6 Ph.D. myths, and who should do a Ph.D. and why.

So, what is really going wrong with your thesis/dissertation/project? You work hard, but your advisor always expects more. Your committee decides the scope of your project but in next meeting it goes further beyond. You work with your advisor to produce something but your collaborators dump it. The goal and requirements keep changing. Others, who started with you, have started graduating.

I have experienced some of these in past and in recent too. It is frustrating to be in such situations. I could have avoided it in some cases but I didn’t know the rules of the game. Now that I have already burnt my hands, I’ll list down some rules to save you from such frustration.

Write it down

writeNo matter what you discuss with your advisor/committee/collaborators, put it in writing and send them a copy. Humans are not really that good with memory. People believe in something today, and tomorrow they forget. If you put it in writing, you can refer back to it and challenge others on what was decided.

Get feedback

Your hardwork doesn’t count if it is not producing something useful. The usefulness of your work is decided by your advisor/committee/collaborators. Even if you put things in writing and send them email, it will not help till they acknowledge and give feedback. Feedback keeps you on track and tells you about their expectations.

Meet face to face

Even if you keep in touch through emails/phone, nothing beats meeting face to face. You avoid the pitfall of interpreting their words, moods, and tone. Talking face to face gives you an opportunity to get immediate feedback and discuss the concerns regarding the details which people tend to avoid responding to.

Don’t keep them hungry for long

They are not there just to give you feedback. They need to see results for the time they give to you. So, keep them in loop. Tell them about your progress from time to time. In fact, best is to fix a weekly/monthly meeting just to present what you did since last meeting.

These rules are not new. Rob has already mentioned them with respect to a product development cycle. After reading his article, I could clearly see how these rules apply to my situation too. I could relate to them easily. Only if I had known them earlier…

So, remember that you have to keep not only yourself on track (by seeking feedback) but also your advisor/committee/collaborators (by showing progress frequently).

Popularity: 9% [?]

Are You In Motion

September 26, 2006 in Education & Learning, Meaning | No comments

motionLife without motion is as good as being dead. Understand that motion here doesn’t mean to move your body from here to there. Being in motion means to add value to life of yours, your family, your friends, and everyone else. Adding value to yourself by learning. Adding value to others’ life by giving. Life in motion is always moving upwards towards becoming an educated being.

I am a graduate student but it is not just the technical stuff that I am learning. I am also learning to cope up with life. I am learning to face the ups and downs. I am learning to protect myself from what people think about me and my situation. I am learning to choose my attitude. I am learning to see life having a purpose no matter what you are currently doing. I am learning to raise myself to a higher consciousness level. I am learning to define myself. And it does feels good.

The easiest way to give something away of value to others is to share what you have learnt. That’s one of the things I want to accomplish through Educated Being. Everyone has something to give. You don’t need to be rich to give. You don’t need to be an expert to teach. You’ll become rich and an expert if you give and teach. Many concepts I understand when I teach and share with others. If you truely take efforts to evolve and help others to do the same, you’ll always find people who would appreciate the efforts.

How to keep life in motion

Popularity: 1% [?]

Getting ahead without MBA

August 18, 2006 in Education & Learning, Graduate School, Personal Development | 2 comments

Few days back one of my friends, who is working as a consultant in a software firm, was contemplating on whether he should do MBA or not. He is still undecided. Anyone in his shoes would be. You have to give atleast two years and thousands of dollars to get an MBA. Is it really worth? Can you compete and progress without an MBA? I had no answers to his questions.

race

So, I looked around to find some information that could help my friend. And I found a wonderful ebook ‘When you can’t earn an MBA’ by Rajesh Setty that talks about getting ahead in your career without MBA. According to him, if for some reasons you cannot do MBA, you can still get ahead of others following an alternate plan. I’ll list down his suggestions with my two cents in addition.

  • Check your attitude: Greatest of human freedom is to be able to choose one’s attitude. You can choose either to feel as a victim of the circumstances for not being able to do MBA or to take positive actions to do something about it. Your choice will either let you be where you are or allow you to move forward towards your goal.
  • Design an alternate plan: While the formal MBA provides you with a structured plan, learning by yourself will take you to develop your own plan to check your progress. This requires you to come up with metric to measure your growth from time to time.
  • Acquire knowledge at a breathtaking speed: Learn as much as you can from books, blogs, magazines, newsletters, websites etc. Today knowledge is accessible very easily but to avoid information overload you have to create a long term structured plan of knowledge-acquisition.
  • Belong to powerful networks: As Rajesh puts it, “It’s not what you know but who you know. And it’s just not who you know, but how you know who you know”. You can join professional organizations in your field, non-profits, alumni associations, etc. Building a network will always help you in long run. But it is a two-way road. Be ready to offer something valuable to others. Networks rely on trust, so be trustworthy.
  • Build great long term relationships: From your networks, you will know many influential and powerful people. Build good one-to-one relationships with some of them. But as for networks, this relationship is also a two-way road. You should be giving something of value to them and receiving something valuable in return.
  • Volunteer for engagements of higher value: Other than just doing your work efficiently, try to look for opportunities to participate in higher value enagagements. People do notice people who add higher value to the organization.
  • Lead a volunteer effort: Create opportunities to develop and demonstrate your leadership skills by taking initiative in volunteer efforts. Start on small scale in your group, department or organization. Do something where others can join you volunteerily.
  • Work with a startup for free: Identify a startup company and offer your services that are of interest to that startup. Use your networks to find such startups. Startup size is generally small, so they are always looking for people who can take more responsibilities and are well-experienced in one or two areas.
  • Make others win: Help others to achieve their goals, and you will find yourself moving forward towards your goals. If you help others, you will find no troubles in getting help from others.
  • Get a good mentor: Finding a good mentor is not that easy. You need to find someone who cares for you and your goals and is able to provide answers to your questions. But again, it is a two-way road. You won’t get a mentor unless you are of some value to him/her, because they would be investing their time and expertise in you.

Rajesh also lists 10 things that you have but the people doing MBA won’t have. In essence, you’ll have more time, money and experience than others to build on your strengths. Download the complete ebook.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Lincoln’s letter to his son’s teacher

August 1, 2006 in Education & Learning | 12 comments

Here is the letter that Lincoln wrote to his son’s teacher:

He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true.

But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero.
That for every selfish politician, there is a dedicated leader.
Teach him that for every enemy there is a friend.
Steer him away from envy, if you can.
Teach him the secret of quiet laughter.

Let him learn early that the bullies are the easiest to lick.
Teach him, if you can, the wonder of books.
But also give him quiet time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky,
bees in the sun, and the flowers on a green hillside.

In the school teach him it is far honorable to fail than to cheat.
Teach him to have faith in his own ideas even if everyone tells him they are wrong.
Teach him to be gentle with gentle people and tough with the tough.

Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone is getting on the band wagon.
Teach him to listen to all men.
But teach him also to filter all he hears on a screen of truth and take only the good that comes through.

Teach him if you can, how to laugh when he is sad.
Teach him there is no shame in tears.
Teach him to scoff at cynics and to beware of too much sweetness.
Teach him to sell his brawn and brain to the highest bidders but never to put a price-tag on his heart and soul.

Teach him to close his ears to a howling mob and to stand and fight if he thinks he’s right.
Treat him gently, but do not cuddle him because only the test of fire makes fine steel.

Let him have the courage to be impatient.
Let him have the patience to be brave.
Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself because then he will have sublime faith in mankind.

This is a big order, but see what you can do.
He is such a fine fellow, my son !

Well, I guess there are very few teachers who teach these things now-a-days. In school, I learned mostly about how things work, who invented what, which is the longest river, which is the highest mountain, who won which war and when, and many other useful things.

But it seems that the letter was not originally written by Lincoln himself. The letter first appeared on an Indian website as mentioned by Jose A. Carillo in his articles: part-1 and part-2. But even if it is true, it doesn’t reduce the value of the content.

Popularity: 8% [?]

« Older entries § Newer entries »