Over the course of the past few weeks I have managed to discover an interesting difference between my American and European classmates.
Our statistics class is taught by Professor David Juran. Juran, as his students know him, tends to be quite likeable. He hands out 'Juran's Own Microbrew' beer to students who say clever things. He spent ten minutes one day teaching us all the Columbia fighting song. Most importantly though he approaches his role in our life as getting us to know enough Statistics to 'pass the test'. He realizes few of us intend to become statisticians and develops the material with that understanding.
The American students love this black box approach to the black art of stats. The Europeans hate it. They all complain about how Juran never tells you why a formula works. They complain about being asked to follow a process that they have not been convinced works. Shockingly, the Europeans all complain that Juran is a terrible teacher. "Sure, he reads well out of a book but he never explains anything".
I do not understand this attitude at all. I don't need to understand how a car engine works to hail a taxi. In fact I would rather not know. I like a professor who is not so in love with his own material that he forgets there is a reason that we are learning it.
Eight weeks ago I did not know what a standard deviation was. Today I can create my own regression models and understand the implications of the results. I am truly impressed. The Europeans would rather fixate on details.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Last week I had a chance to perform some public service in the form of mock interviews for a non-profit called I-Prep. In one hour I interviewed two people who were trying to get normal jobs and get off of welfare. It is amazing to me how a simple thing like this can really change a person's life.
My first interview candidate was a woman desperately in need of coaching. I perused her resume and noticed that her major in college was 'mortuary sciences'. In the role of interviewer I said, "Now that was an interesting choice of major. What attracted you to it?". She said she had no idea and frankly it was really creepy. At this point I needed to break from character and tell her that this was a real problem. She agreed to change her major to 'Life Sciences' or something to that effect.
I asked my second candidate, "What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?" He spent 5 minutes (no exaggeration) telling me the ins and outs of speed reading. Everything you could possibly want to know on the topic was revealed to me during the course of this rambling discourse. I finally stopped him. "Why are you telling me all this?" He seemed puzzled by the question.
In the end both candidates needed the same advice. Get an elevator pitch! I worked with both of them to come up with a 2 paragraph 30 second description of themselves. I taught them how to answer any question in 1-2 minutes by referring to the major points in their elevator pitch. I taught them that the answer to "what is your greatest weakness" is not as both of them originally replied "I have no weaknesses".
Its a shame that both of these I-Prep clients graduated high school and college without these skills. Come to think of it, so did I. I was lucky to be surrounded by professionals throughout my life. They were not.
My first interview candidate was a woman desperately in need of coaching. I perused her resume and noticed that her major in college was 'mortuary sciences'. In the role of interviewer I said, "Now that was an interesting choice of major. What attracted you to it?". She said she had no idea and frankly it was really creepy. At this point I needed to break from character and tell her that this was a real problem. She agreed to change her major to 'Life Sciences' or something to that effect.
I asked my second candidate, "What makes you uniquely qualified for this position?" He spent 5 minutes (no exaggeration) telling me the ins and outs of speed reading. Everything you could possibly want to know on the topic was revealed to me during the course of this rambling discourse. I finally stopped him. "Why are you telling me all this?" He seemed puzzled by the question.
In the end both candidates needed the same advice. Get an elevator pitch! I worked with both of them to come up with a 2 paragraph 30 second description of themselves. I taught them how to answer any question in 1-2 minutes by referring to the major points in their elevator pitch. I taught them that the answer to "what is your greatest weakness" is not as both of them originally replied "I have no weaknesses".
Its a shame that both of these I-Prep clients graduated high school and college without these skills. Come to think of it, so did I. I was lucky to be surrounded by professionals throughout my life. They were not.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Please answer this case on a single, typed, sheet of paper. Put your name on a separate, attached, piece of paper. It will be discarded after your name is recorded, and before the answer is read. In short, no grade will be given for this assignment.
These were the directions at the top of my first 'Managerial Economics' assignment. You can imagine my astonishment when I received the assignment back this week with both the cover sheet attached and a grade!
When I asked my Professor to explain how this could be she claimed I must have misunderstood her. "Why would I give an assignment that I have no plans to grade"? Good question indeed.
When I asked my classmates what they thought about it I got some interesting responses.
One classmate whose nationality rhymes with 'wrench' told me "I received a good mark with the comment of 'fantastic'. Why would I want my fantastic work to go unnoticed"? I could not seem to convince him that the dishonesty of the whole thing trumps his positive outcome.
Another classmate told me, "Yeah. It was deceitful but clever. How else would she see what we are really like"? I think there is still an opening for president of the Machiavelli club.
After polling nearly fifteen students I could not find a single one who felt outraged by the matter. Am I too much of a purist? Naive? The only person in this whole school who thinks that people shouldn't blatantly lie to you in print and then tell you it was your mistake?
These were the directions at the top of my first 'Managerial Economics' assignment. You can imagine my astonishment when I received the assignment back this week with both the cover sheet attached and a grade!
When I asked my Professor to explain how this could be she claimed I must have misunderstood her. "Why would I give an assignment that I have no plans to grade"? Good question indeed.
When I asked my classmates what they thought about it I got some interesting responses.
One classmate whose nationality rhymes with 'wrench' told me "I received a good mark with the comment of 'fantastic'. Why would I want my fantastic work to go unnoticed"? I could not seem to convince him that the dishonesty of the whole thing trumps his positive outcome.
Another classmate told me, "Yeah. It was deceitful but clever. How else would she see what we are really like"? I think there is still an opening for president of the Machiavelli club.
After polling nearly fifteen students I could not find a single one who felt outraged by the matter. Am I too much of a purist? Naive? The only person in this whole school who thinks that people shouldn't blatantly lie to you in print and then tell you it was your mistake?
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