Job Choice Under Uncertainty
As
I mentioned in the last few posts, a successful organization has to deal with goals,
rules and participants. From the perspective of the organization, participants
are one of uncertainties that the company can control with reasonable goals,
well-defined rules. In short, good management can help companies to solve
uncertainties in certain situations. What about individuals? How do a manager
or an employee deal with uncertainties? In this post, I want to talk about what
actions can an individual (me) take to lower uncertainties or risks.
Based
on the prompt given by Professor, the situation is that I am going to graduate
and what will I do to reduce my uncertainty in job market. Let me begin from
discussing my major, Economics, which is really not a risk-averse major. When I
was going to graduate from my college, I talked to some of my professors that I’d
like to purse my graduate degree so I can enhance my understanding of Economics
and know more about how to apply economic knowledge in real life. Half of them
told me that get a graduate degree is a good choice because you may find a
better job or get higher payment with the degree. Another half encouraged me to
apply to Economics PhD. “Why don’t you do PhD? You are not going to find a job
easily with your master degree in Economics.” They told me.
We
can learn two things from this experience: (1) graduate degree can earn you
more money, and (2) econ graduate students cannot find job easily. The first
one is a public-known truth. You can even learn this truth from some
Econometric courses. The latter one is, however, more ambiguous. I didn’t
realize that how hard for an econ student to find a job until I did some job seeking
last semester. I found that companies are more interest on students who major
in mathematics, statistics, or computer science. Maybe is because that students
from those majors have better analytical skills or computer skills than econ
students. At least companies think so.
There
are still some places need economists, like Word Bank, Federal Trade Commission
(FTC), or universities. Unfortunately, most positions in those places required an
Econ PhD degree. So, my graduate degree is kind of in a grey area between
undergraduate degree and PhD degree. My opinion is that choosing Economics
major actually increases my uncertainty and risk in the job market. This major
is unlike accountancy, finance or management which require students focus on a
specific area. Even though I have taken mandatory accounting, financial, and
managerial courses in my college, those classes didn’t make me more competitive
in finding jobs related to Economics.
Since
my major brings more uncertainty of what kind of jobs I can do in the future, I
have to take some strategies to reduce the risk of being unemployed after
graduation. I spent a lot of time on learning new stuff that I haven’t learned
before, such as programing. Not only did I use STATA or R in my econometrics
courses, I am also learning Python and Latex hoping someday I’ll have chance to
apply those skills in my workplace. Well, more skills are better than less. Another
thing I have to do is building my confidence. I can tell that Americans like confident
people and most American students are more confident than me. They like to ask
questions, answer teachers questions. Believe or not, Asian students don’t do
these things in their schools.
Moreover,
language is a high barrier for me, I understand most of conversations but it’s
hard to express myself in a right way, or an American way. Maybe is because
most of graduate students from my program are international students, and over
54% are Chinese students who speak Mandarin as well. Or maybe is because I didn’t
spend enough time on learning American living style. Even I watched a lot of
Hollywood movies and some American TV series, there are still some slang that
I don’t understand. For example, I haven’t learned “soccer mom” in my English
textbooks. My point is, to build confidence, language is an important factor
which I really need to put more effort on.
What
if companies do not like my skill sets and I cannot find a job in USA? In that
case, I can still find a job back in my country. Some companies could hire me
because I got my graduate degree in the States and UIUC is a well-known
university. Either way, find a job in USA or back in my country, I believe that
the result will be good enough for me. After all, have a job is better than unemployment.
Your post is interesting to me because of what I understand about the MSPE program. (My understanding is clearly out of date, so this is how it used to be or at least how I thought it used to be.)
ReplyDeleteStudents in MSPE should not, in general becoming straight out of an undergraduate program. Instead, they should have work experience in their own country - in a government agency, a bank, or some other employer who would value the employee having the graduate degree. The employer then pays the tuition for the MSPE program. So the risk is really borne by the employer, not by the student.
Obviously, that didn't happen in your case. I gather that you are slated to graduate this spring. There is then the question of what you might do now to get a good job after you graduate. A related question that you hinted at is where such a good job might be - in your home country or elsewhere.
Now I will pretend I'm not a professor anymore and imagine that I am you. This is what I'd do. I would find some other people on campus to do Skype calls with them and practice doing video interviews so you are comfortable in that setting. You need to have a decent camera and a good microphone. Then you need to do a few of these so that your first such call ins't for a real job.
Then I would spend some time drafting a generic cover letter explaining your current situation in the MSPE program and the type of work you seek after graduation. You need to emphasize how your graduate training has better prepared you than a typical undergrad major in economics.
Then I would send my resume out to anyone and everyone who might possibly have a position for you. After that I'd keep my fingers crossed and hope that something sticks.
Now, returning to being the professor, I hope you are getting better advice about this process than what I can offer. I really am remote from the current job market so it would be good to get advice from somebody who is more informed.
I don't know what happened to MSPE program these years, maybe the head of the program have changed strategies of accepting students. Now, there are more than half students enroll MSPE right after their graduation from college. The majority are Chinese students. Probability one reason is because of the PhD track, students who attend the PhD track can continue doing PhD degree if they fulfill some requirements. A strange thing is that students who are in PhD track are neither MSPE students or PhD students. If they fail to fulfill requirements, they need to spend more time to get their graduate degree in MSPE program. Moreover, they are not invited to any PhD activity such as parties or math camps. Which seems ridiculous to me since students have to bare much higher risk. So, why does MSPE program want to admit students who just graduate and offer them the chance to try PhD track? That is an unsolvable question.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honesty regarding how you have gone above and beyond to ready yourself for the job market. Your actions regarding working to enhance your skills, such as the programming languages you have mentioned, is admirable. In addition, in working with you in class as well as through the project, I would say that you have really impressive communication skills. There are a lot of nuances in the english language, especially with as you have mentioned, specific expressions. Keep up the good work in this area!
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, as someone who is going into the field of Human Resources, I would say that there are a lot of ways when looking to enter the job market to see what are available in terms of your potentials. As you have mentioned, you have taken advantageous steps to help with your future options. A lot of companies have specific information regarding opportunities for international students, as well as resources for those who are in terms of specific information. Additionally, job search websites also have filters that can help guide you to opportunities. Having a degree from the University of Illinois opens many doors, and I wish you the best in your future job search!