Kriti Khare, graduate student, Faculty of Education
As an international student pursuing a graduate level career at the University of Alberta, there have been many times when I have asked - what do I want to do after this degree?
The experience that I gained from being a teaching assistant made me love, appreciate and enjoy teaching. On top of that, coming for a family of professors, it is hard to ignore the drive to contribute to teaching and research. But being a computing scientist, it is even harder to ignore avenues that might be open to me, if only I look outside my box. I did find what I wanted to do after my MSc in Computing Science and I am currently pursuing the Master's in Educational Technology, offered by Faculty of Education, hoping my skills as a computing scientist would help make better tools for education and maybe forward the field of educational data mining. Even if I know what education I want, it is not the same as knowing what I want to do or I will do once I am out in the industry. Or if I will ever venture out to be in a non-academic position.
This article is not a reflection on my career path. It's about the thoughts I had after I attended Invest in Your Future, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research's Graduate Career Symposium Fall 2016, held November 8-9. It was a great two-day conference where I got the chance to attend presentations about employment trends, entrepreneurship, networking and workplace conflicts. I made some new friends, met some alumni of the university (I am one too now haha), got my professional photo taken (cheese!), experienced a quick interview at the Headhunters info booth (without knowing what I had walked into). Overall, it was a great experience and following are my reflections on what I learnt by attending sessions by the phenomenal speakers. My reflections relate to Dr. Marvin Washington's session about navigating one's career and Dr. Michael MacDonald's session on engaging in knowledge translation.
Firstly, I admit I am stressed a lot about my future. I am sure you are too when you think about "what's next?". We generally have an idea of what we want to be. When I was in Grade four, I wanted to be an archaeologist ( my dad was really into getting me books on dinosaurs and I was big on reading, hence, I knew the profession). However, over the years, my idea of the perfect job has changed to become a professor. So… how do I get there? Get a PHD and do a PostDoc maybe? But I am doing a second Master's, how is that going to play a role in all this? Two more extra years on top of the PhD before I can even apply for a job! No!
It is amazing how much pressure we put on ourselves by wanting to be in our perfect job, because that is THE dream. The search for the perfect job, that takes full advantage of our education and experiences, is a great idea but looking for it and containing yourself to just wanting to be in that one job means you are limiting yourself to the other possibilities out there. One of the biggest points that came up at Dr. Michael MacDonald's session was that as life expectancy increases (it is 81.85 years in Canada currently), so does retirement age (65 years at the moment) and for our generation, we are looking at least 40 years in the workforce. To be in a same job forever might be the dream but there is always the option to build on experience for that job before we actually go for it. And this is something I had not considered seriously before.
Which brings me to the next point that I learned from Dr. Washington's session: it is not as important to have a plan, as it is to know the next step. Without knowing the next step, we can never get where we want to go. It is great to have dreams but one also needs the path, the minute milestones that have to be achieved first, the little parts of the picture that need to be painted before the whole picture is complete. It is overwhelming to stand at the bottom of the mountain and cramp our necks, trying to get a glimpse of the peak that is hidden by the clouds and thinking how am I going to get there? Well, maybe collect all the rock climbing gear and food supplies, and find the path that leads up. If it is an undiscovered, uncharted mountain, hey you can figure it out! Someone must have written about something related to this on the Internet.
It is also important to celebrate every small achievement. We have huge daunting tasks that we must do before we get to the final destination. Before you defend your thesis, you must research and do a literature review, prepare a presentation, instill this confidence in yourself that the only person at the defense who knows the most about your thesis is you. I remember the relief I felt when I handed in my MSc thesis. Took a month to write. (I know you are thinking I should have spent longer on it and I agree.) That was my first academic writing. I remember sending it to my committee and thinking "Now for the seminar presentation". I got home and my family congratulated me and told me to go read a book (I love reading and I hadn't in the long month I was busy writing). I picked up a book, I no longer recall which one it was, and remember the feeling of relief - I had submitted my THESIS. I had spent a month non-stop composing that 150-page document. There is a balance between being egoistic here and just genuinely happy for successfully completing what you set out to do.
At the end of the day, it is up to me to find out more about where I can work, what kind of work I want to do and what skills I need to do it. Also, it is important to recognize that some of my skills and thinking would only develop when I am not at the university. I have a friend and colleague with whom I am taking a course. Every week, we read a paper and in the next class, everyone poses one question or comments that they have about it. It is an educational technology course and she has worked as a teacher. Her questions relate so well to the paper and how it can be applied to the school environment that I cannot, with my teaching assistantship experience, come up with anything close. Until I teach, I cannot expect to help others teach. Without being a teacher, how do I develop the tools to become a teacher? This is experience I am currently working on gaining. I have started to take advantage of the opportunities we have on campus, such as the Graduate Teaching and Learning program and the Teaching Circle. I have even received a Graduate Student Teaching Award. I look forward to developing and polishing my teaching skills.
I have to come out of my comfort zone to talk to people, "network" as we professionally call it, learn more about the kind of jobs out there and then just go for it because every job hones some skill. No one else can do this for me. One question that came up during the sessions was does it look bad to apply to multiple positions at the same place? And the answer was no. It never hurts to try as long as you know what they want and what you can offer.
I appreciate that the university has realized that it is important to give graduate students like me these opportunities, time to reflect on our career paths and be more receptive to the world we live in.
Note: The live stream recordings and some of the speakers' presentations are now available on a FGSR's professional development resource page.