This morning I read Javier Agüera article in Kernal magazine Don’t be Just Another Brick in the Wall. From the article:
“Our old education system hasn’t been able to catch up with the present, which is constantly evolving. Rather than providing children with the tools needed to tackle the unexpected and to deal with uncertainty, the world is preparing its children to solve problems that will be outdated by the time they reach the “real world”.”
This was a major problem for me during my eduction. Most of the material in the “required” marketing courses were out of touch in what was going on in the market. Luckily I went to a school that offered some great elective marketing courses such as Customer Relationship Management and Internet Marketing Strategy that helped me realize there was more to marketing than Ad Agencies and Public Relation Firms.
When I was in grad school, I decided to give back and created a class on modern marketing topics, such as marketing automation and CRM systems, online marketing and social media. The basics marketing principals I learned continue to help me today, but those in Universities right now (and those in the job market) need to supplement their education with an understanding of practices and tools used in the market.
There is a need to open our minds beyond what the Dean of (your program) requires you to learn and find mentors to help you understand what you should learn. I write this mainly as a reminder to myself to continue to learn new things and keep fresh, I hope we all can keep learning and find ways to impart knowledge on those coming up that we will one day work for or that will take our jobs.
My wife and I are currently enrolled in an online Computer Science 101 class from Stanford taught by Nick Parlante. Having completed an MBA at Boise State while working full-time for MySQL, I can say that this format is much better for me as a fairly new dad and working full-time. The class is available from Coursea at https://www.coursera.org/course/cs101.
The topic of disrupting education has been a hot topic as of late. Today MIT and Harvard announced an new online learning venture. A friend of mine, David Blake, @davidblake, is also working on disrupting education in a different way. His company Degreed feels education is broken and feels someone should do something about it. They are and instead of explaining it, just read about it here http://degreed.com/what-is-degreed.
I look forward to my daughter growing up in a world where she can learn skills from all over the world whenever she wants. I am also happy my wife and I can learn some CS skills in the comfort of our home after night-night time for the baby girl.
Update: my brother sent me another company, Udacity.
My two younger brothers are in college and often ask me about career advice. They are sick of hearing it, but my answer “learn to understand and analyze data”. My other brother and our dad are Financial Analysts or excel nerds.
I am lucky to have worked for great companies where I have been able to learn these some of these skills. Currently, Datameer is working to make analyzing big data and Hadoop accessible for all users (data scientists, business analysts and IT).
Here are a few articles about the need for more Data Analysts and Data Scientists.
Acquire data skills now or pay big money for analysis later - Computing.co.uk
The Problem with Big Data is that Nobody Understands It - Gizmodo
So you want to be a Data Scientist? - Dataversity
Big Data’s Big Problem: Little Talent - Wall Street Journal
Talent Shortage could make Big Data a bit Smaller - Technorati
Perhaps now that I am a 30something in “management” I have turned into a cynical person. I remember the long summer days with my Grandpa landscaping the backyard. I was 11 and all my friends were off doing other things without me. I was learning how to work. Every Saturday morning my Dad would wake me up with what I assume is his favorite saying “Rich, I have a little job for you.” Weeding, digging ditches, pulling out a tree, reorganizing the garage, mowing our lawn, the neighbors lawn, the subdivisions lawn, were all jobs that my dad found for my brothers and I.
I read an article today on How to Make Twentysomthings Happy. The three points are: They want to be happy, They want to have a purpose and They want freedom. These are great things and I assume everyone wants them. But we need to start somewhere to earn them. I find there are many of those in their 20’s that have great ambitions and are doing amazing things. I also find it is hard to find people that are willing to work and prove they earn the right for more freedom.
My wish is that everyone can be happy, find purpose in life and find freedom. I hope I always add value to my employer, coworkers, community and especially my family. I hope we all look to add value and earn what we want in life so we can then give back to those that are having a hard time.
