My Bellevue Experience

India turns to distance education due to teacher shortage

2009-11-20T06:07:00Z

It looks as if India is looking at distance education as a way to cope with a severe teacher shortage. They will utilize technology to increase teacher accessibility, probably in much the same way we use distance education here in the U.S. One has to speculate however if they will be soliciting any instructors from abroad, such as the good old U.S. of A. I have to wonder because we seem to have so much stiff competition for online teaching gigs here in the U.S. whereas China and especially India seem to be suffering from a shortage. Given the respect shown towards U.S. universities and colleges outside of our nation, I wonder if India will look across the seas in an effort to fill their gaps yet keep costs at a reasonable level?

Of course this isn’t just at the college level though I assume that will be a large portion of the concern. India as a whole is striving for 90% literacy for example. I’m not sure how online and distance education will work without literacy so this is absolutely vital. Reading and writing comprehension is the foundation upon which distance learning is built, without strong reading and writing skills I don’t think it’s possible to do much. I have several coworkers from India, one of whom is also an adjunct professor in computer programming at a local university. So I think next time he is available for lunch I may pick his brain a little to see what he sees happening. Who knows, he may very well have Indian contacts who could answer more definitively.

See http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/sci-tech/distance-education-could-address-dearth-of-teachers-sibal_100277178.html

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10 Things you can do to improve your marketability

2009-11-19T07:20:00Z

I believe I’ve written a post similar to this in the past but I’ve been asked to write on this again. A reader noted that in my blog and often in the forums I write about education being just one facet of the overall makeup of someone to be hired or potentially hired for a job. I was asked what are some areas people can improve in to increase their marketability to prospective employers. Well I am going to go ahead and break this into two categories, getting the interview and what to do during the interview to increase your marketability.

Getting the interview:

1.) Earn a degree if at all possible. Higher education says more about you than what you “know” or have done, it says a lot about your work ethic, ability to follow instructions, ability to see long term, to accomplish goals, etc. Also having a degree qualifies you on paper to many opportunities that would otherwise be closed to you. So get that degree and get that interview. Advanced degrees are especially helpful when looking for professional positions.

2.) Read the job posting, look for key words and skills and pepper these throughout your resume. In fact, write your resume to the job request. Yes this takes more time than spamming out a general resume to thousands of job postings but on the bright side, 10 really well written resumes are going to be a lot more effective than 1,000 poorly written resumes.

3.) Learn to write a cover letter, then use the cover letter to sell yourself. Think of a cover letter as a way of announcing yourself to someone from a professional standpoint. Highlight experience and accomplishments in a cover letter then explicitly tell the potential employer why you feel this ties into exactly what they are looking for.

4.) Industry certifications certainly help in two ways, 1 it turns you into a more knowledgeable candidate and 2 it shows on paper your advanced knowledge, don’t confuse these two as what you know and what you can prove you know are two very different things. For example if applying for a project manager position a PMP certification would really help.

5.) Understand the general concepts and language of the industry and/or field for which you are applying. No I don’t mean use a bunch of shop talk, but be familiar with the concepts. For example if you are applying for an information security analyst position, be current on encryption methods, various commercial products available and some industry trends. Then use this knowledge in your cover letter and where applicable on your resume.

After getting the interview:

1.) Practice your speaking skills. Slang, cursing, etc. just will not cut it. If at all possible learn to pronounce words correctly such as “specifically” rather than “pacifically” or “mine” (individual ownership) rather than “mines”. I know this sounds obvious but you’d be surprised. Also when speaking speak confidently, succinctly and clearly. Avoid mumbling, talking under your breath, using words you don’t quite understand or are unsure of and if you can help it, don’t say “um” a lot, instead practice taking short pauses when collecting your thoughts. It makes you appear more thoughtful and careful rather than someone attempting to prattle on, of course this may be regional in nature as people in New York may just think you’re slow versus people in Texas, so be aware of your cultural surroundings as well.

2.) Dress to impress but be appropriate. Guys, I always recommend a suit and tie. Even if you walk into an environment where your boss is wearing a Hawaiian shirt a suit and tie says “professional” and “I’m taking this seriously”. Even if you somehow feel a tie is absolutely wrong, fine wear the pants and jacket with the tie off, it’s a little more “casual” though I personally would advise keeping the tie. Don’t know what to buy? No problem, go to your nearest men’s clothing store, look at the mannequin and buy whatever that thing is wearing. Hey I don’t have fashion sense and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Retailers pay big bucks to people with taste to pick that junk out, so why reinvent the wheel right? Just remember the kind of jobs we are likely looking for will be in professional environments. Women, I’ve seen the kinds of magazines on the racks and the big box mart stores and they’re filled with articles on how to dress so I won’t reiterate that stuff here suffice to say, be conservative, professional and try to resist the urge to wear any outfit where the color of it can be likened to a fruit (don’t be flamboyant).

3.) Make good eye contact and listen to the interviewer. You might be surprised at how many people look almost bored in an interview or who constantly fidget and look at everything but the interviewer. I for one understand that this is nervousness but some of my less than enlightened fellows may look at this as you are being deceptive, you are not paying attention, you are bored, you are distracted, you are simply waiting on your turn to talk, etc. Practice attentive and active listening skills. Need a primer? Google “active listening” and you’ll find a ton of tips.

4.) Be friendly. Seriously this should go without saying but practice small talk (not politics or religion and nothing personal) and smile, be happy that you’re there and excited for the opportunity to interview. I know that this is high stress but you want to be approachable and likeable during these brief moments, not a nervous, stressed out wreck.

5.) Lastly be aware of verbal and non-verbal cues of what the interviewer likes on your resume and about what your saying. If you see that they say or indicate that they like something you’ve mentioned expand on that and drive it home. For example if you are interviewing for a general management position and say “at XYZ company I helped develop employee benchmarks for merit increases” and the interviewer says something in return like “we are looking at doing that here” or “we could use that here” then you need to reply with something like “well I would be happy to help you do that in any way I can” and maybe give an anecdote or two of some things you did that may help their cause so to speak. In other words, look for opportunities to be helpful, find common ground where you can and leave the interview with them thinking they’ve learned something or can learn something from you if at all possible.

I hope that helps.

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Are we for sale?

2009-11-18T05:50:00Z

Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who likened his job to “mortgaging my life away in exchange for a paycheck”. He hates his job, doesn’t have any heart for what he does for a living and basically only goes to work so that he can get a paycheck to pay the rent, provide for his family and maybe for a few hours during a weekend go have a little fun before repeating the cycle all over again. He feels like he’s shaving days and hours off of his life in exchange for a sum of money that in the end just won’t amount to what he feels his life is worth, it’s sad really.

I spoke with him briefly on getting into school and doing something that he really wants to do for a living but his counter argument was twofold. First, he doesn’t feel that in this economy that a career change is feasible or advisable and due to that does not feel that investing further into his professional life (spending yet more time away from family and fun) just isn’t appealing. Secondly he feels that he only has in his words 10 to 16 years before he can “realistically retire”.

I didn’t push the point but in my eyes, doing 10 to 16 years of something you can’t stand, working with people you don’t care about for a boss who barely knows you exist if at all sounds more like a prison sentence than a “life”. Yes, getting a degree costs money and time, yes that amount of time can add up to years and yes it is a big decision and investment. But say for example it takes four years of work, that four years is going to happen anyway, but at the end of the road do you have something to look forward to or not? Have you done anything to change your tomorrow? Have you done anything that can cause a paradigm shift in your life?

It kind of makes me wonder how many of us really mortgage off our irreplaceable time for something as paltry as a paycheck. How many of us are really for sale?

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Time to order books for my next course

2009-11-17T04:21:00Z

It’s that time again, that time that every student dreads or at least should dread, time to order books. The thing I don’t like about ordering books is of course paying so much for something that just doesn’t seem worth it and of course there’s the dreaded resale value, talk about taking a beating. For those who haven’t been reading in a while my next course at Bellevue University is CIS 620 Management Information Systems.

Here’s the rub, I’m trying to order my books online, I know the term, Winter ’09, I also know the three letter course prefix of course, MIS and I know the course number 620, but what I don’t know is the next field which asks me for my “Section” number. Honestly I’m nervous about buying a $200 book without making darn sure I’m getting the right materials for the right course and I don’t have anything in any of my emails about a section number. So on to the BRUIN website I go straightaway and dig through all the many, many menus to find my course schedule and wouldn’t you know it, there the section number is, lucky me.

I found the book on Amazon for just over $120 which is always nicer than paying retail, but I had to order a second writing intensive book which is an additional $22.00 and change and is an MLA guidebook, just great. This is bad for two reasons, first is that my last class (at Bellevue) required APA formatted papers as did every paper for Ashford University and Western New Mexico University. The last time I used MLA was at Southwestern College almost 3 years ago (if not more). I wish each school would just pick a format and stick with it, getting gigged on little crap like the formatting of a paper rather than content gets really, really irritating, but I suppose I should just wait to see what happens before I complain. Suffice to say I have yet another MLA guide sitting in the top of my closet along with a huge APA guide, neither of which are apparently sufficient for this course (?). I hate buying books like those…

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When Schools and Big Business Behave Unethically: GMAT Scores used to screen applicants

2009-11-13T05:58:00Z

A thread on another degree discussion site linked to a Business Week article which covers a few “elite” recruiting firms using GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) scores to determine an applicant’s suitability for interviewing as one of the many criteria they use. These firms basically are looking for top 10 or top 20 MBA graduates and to weed through all the potentials they are inappropriately using GMAT scores to single out those they’d like to speak with further.

Here’s the article http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/oct2009/bs20091019_412671.htm

Some of you may have noticed I wrote “inappropriately” using these scores above because the Graduate Management Admission Council who write and administer the GMAT exams state the intended purpose of the GMAT exams explicitly here http://www.gmac.com/gmac/TheGMAT/GMATScores/HowtoUseGMATScores.

However to save you time I’ve taken the liberty of posting what they state it is for and what it is not for below:

“Appropriate Uses of GMAT Scores

GMAT scores should be used for the following purposes:

1.) Selection of applicants for graduate study in management

2.) Selection of applicants for financial aid on the basis of academic potential

3.) Counseling and guidance

Inappropriate Uses of GMAT Scores

GMAT® scores should not be used for the following purposes:

1.) As a requisite for awarding a degree

2.) As a requirement for employment, for licensing or certification to perform a job, or for job-related rewards (approved score-receiving institutions are not permitted to make score reports available for any of these purposes)

3.) As an achievement test”

(Emphasis is mine)

The Business Week article states:

“For a select group of companies, mostly top consulting, finance, and banking firms, employers routinely look to MBA graduates' GMAT scores as a reliable standard measurement of academic prowess—a fact that may be well-known to MBA students in the thick of the job search, but is relatively unknown among applicants when they're taking the test. Particularly when jobs are tight, and every element of each résumé takes on added weight, test scores can be the difference between an interview and the dustbin. “

Well, you may be asking yourself the question I asked when reading this article, how are these recruiting firms getting these GMAT scores when the GMAC specifically states that these are not to be used for this purpose nor are “…score-receiving institutions permitted to make score reports available for any of these purposes…”

Well a little further into the article and it looks as if for example some of the schools themselves are releasing these records to the recruiters, for example when the article quotes a director of the Mendoza College of Business

“Mendoza sent a letter to its 2011 class informing it of the test's importance in prestigious firms' recruiting processes and offered a four-day course for students wishing to retake the test. Five did, at their own expense, and increased their scores by an average of 19 points. "We see a large number of consulting companies, some investment banks, and a couple of corporations all looking at both GMAT and undergrad and MBA GPAs." says Patrick Perrella, Mendoza's director of MBA career development. "These companies are looking for a sustained record of academic excellence."

Now I’m not an attorney, I’m just some poor lost soul who went to an unranked school for an MBA from somewhere in the Mid-West that didn’t even require a GMAT to get into the program, but were I a graduate at Mendoza or a soon to be grad, I would have some serious legal and ethical questions for the people in charge.

Maybe one of the reasons we are in such dire economic straits these days is because our top B-Schools do not teach ethics and in fact do not themselves behave ethically as what I see in that Director’s statement, instead focusing on cut-throat, take no prisoners hard skills to meet a quantitatively measureable business objective, whether it be the best thing to do, the right thing to do or even to just to take a second to ask themselves “does this really even work?”

Obviously not everyone, including the GMAC would agree that the GMAT would even be a reliable or usable measurement of a potential applicant’s suitability for a job or success in business.

“Not every company cares about GMAT scores, of course, and not every school considers them as being useful for anything but admission. At the University of Connecticut's School of Business (UConn Full-Time MBA Profile) it was such a non-issue that the executive director said neither he nor his staff had even encountered requests for scores. In many cases, companies seem to simply rely on the schools' admissions departments to do that kind of screening for them.”

Bingo, UConn seems to have it right and themselves are behaving ethically by not releasing these scores to potential recruiters and employers. In fact hopefully they are not even going to solicit students themselves to provide proof of their scores to recruiters much less encourage them to retest in order to inflate a score which serves no practical purpose whatsoever other than to provide recruiters yet another flaming hoop to jump through in this circus that has become the modern American business culture. I for one would not provide this information to any recruiter and instead offer an alternative as an indicator to my future success, something more reliable, like oh, I don’t know, volunteer experience, internships, references, GPA, you know the things we used to hold in high esteem.

To further my point:

"But for companies that do request students' scores, often those that require lots of heavy quantitative lifting, the GMAT can be an equalizer in a world where traditional metrics are fairly nebulous. Many MBA programs have grading systems that vary widely or are solely pass-fail, making it difficult for recruiters to compare applicants from different schools, and others don't provide grades at all. Even at schools where grades are released, grade inflation may render As and Bs poor markers for actual skill. The tests can be a boon by virtue of their standardization, says Mareza Larizadeh, the founder of Doostang..."

I have to respectfully disagree with Ms. Larizadeh, perhaps recruiters should develop their own tests, specific to their needs and quit misusing scores from a test created for academic purposes only whose scores should remain confidential outside of academic circles. Hey, here’s a thought, how about better trained and educated recruiters who can screen applicants more reliably. After all, even these people admit that once an interview is granted GMAT scores are irrelevant. Even still because the economy is sorry right now, these recruiters know that they now hold the initiative and can make applicants jump hurdles they otherwise couldn’t and we as hard working Americans are expected to just forgive and forget when the tables are turned. The irony is these same big financial firms are the ones who started this whole mess in the first place.

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