We used to have many interns coming in and out of our department. And true enough, I get the opportunity to train and coach most of them. Most of the time, I will give them a chunk of my task and let them handle it their way. True enough, some will totally ignore me, some will actually do it but with minor disappointments but none manage to impress me.
As someone who is a lot older (Ive just reached my three O, not that old) and being someone who is the only girl in the family, i love to be their sister and make endless jokes with them but at the same time when it comes to work and career, i wanted to give as much tips or advise that I could. Of course, I don't want any of them to go through what Ive gone through in my search for a great career.
In fact, most of them worry about jobs but lack of determination to search for jobs . When I asked them about what they would like to learn, none of them actually have set any target on what they keen to learn given the short internship period that they have. And if I wanted to give them more responsibilities and especially works that involved thinking, I get a No-No saying that "Im just an intern". I clearly remember those days when I started working, I was entrusted to do most of the things, in fact I was more than happy even just to make photocopies of documents for others. And I feel that from basic thing such as photocopy, I can read all those documents and ask questions later on those things that I do not understand. What happened to graduates nowadays?
Being a post graduate student myself, Ive begun to wonder if college actually equips us , especially the fresh grads with enough skills to face the world beyond. problem solving is a valuable asset that will be required over and over in the working world. however, how sufficient will this skill be when new problems are spawning fast and need to be identified almost immediately? is problem setting taught enough then?
education has been very careful to indoctrinate us with analytical skills that help us identify arising questions and solutions to problems. scientific epistemology taught to us in college stress on formulas and strategies to solve possible problems we might encounter in our profession, and managerial practices provide us with just about every case study to analyze in hopes that we should be able to apply our course experience to real management dillemmas. no doubt these skills will be helpful.
with the intention of becoming a professional; be it an engineer, doctor, lawyer, etc., we hope that our degree can help establish a great understanding of what our profession really is. unless we decide to become an academic and continue to delve in research, the jobs that await us out there may be an entirely new world in which formulas and methodologies don't necessarily apply. instead we'll be dealing with a lot more than just straighforward problems and complex algorithms. work politics, lurking obstacles and ethical issues are some variables in which we will deal with a lot more, and definitely more than just a couple of times.
in which case, problem solving skills can't be enough to land us a competitive job. more and more graduates now are brighter and sharper that simply saying "Give me any problem, I will be able to solve it for your company!" to your interviewer may not be enough.
problems in the professions are now becoming more complex and unpredictable. it is all very well that one is equipped with knowledge to be able to handle problems and solve it. however there is no fixed equation of how a problem comes into being. they are unpredictable and develop along with the growth of the profession. problems that occured 20 years ago in the field of engineering may reoccur but along with the development of engineering, new problems arise. and in order to be a productive employee or problem solver, problem setting is just as important.
problem setting is simply a matter of reverse engineering - where we take all variables or background information at our disposal, create problems which are likely to occur and then create a solution. at work, we are not always presented up front with problems, but instead we need to view a situation and mine for possible constraints.
it may seem that we've been provided with similar scenarios in college, however problem setting is a skill that needs more emphasis. lawyers are trained to evaluate given situations in the most critical ways and detect every possible loophole that might occur. journalists are critical writers who mine for information and leave no stone unturned in order to be able to provide solid (and hopefully) credible articles. definitely, this ability also comes with experience. but it also is a subject matter that needs familiarizing with.
foresight is an asset to any company, and the skill to foresee problems is just as important as the ability to solve it. Companies today may still be looking out for that problem solver, but there is still a high chance that they are also looking for innovative candidates that are able to save their companies from future, unforeseen problems and act as soothsayers with the ability to identify obscure obstacles.
As someone who is a lot older (Ive just reached my three O, not that old) and being someone who is the only girl in the family, i love to be their sister and make endless jokes with them but at the same time when it comes to work and career, i wanted to give as much tips or advise that I could. Of course, I don't want any of them to go through what Ive gone through in my search for a great career.
In fact, most of them worry about jobs but lack of determination to search for jobs . When I asked them about what they would like to learn, none of them actually have set any target on what they keen to learn given the short internship period that they have. And if I wanted to give them more responsibilities and especially works that involved thinking, I get a No-No saying that "Im just an intern". I clearly remember those days when I started working, I was entrusted to do most of the things, in fact I was more than happy even just to make photocopies of documents for others. And I feel that from basic thing such as photocopy, I can read all those documents and ask questions later on those things that I do not understand. What happened to graduates nowadays?
Being a post graduate student myself, Ive begun to wonder if college actually equips us , especially the fresh grads with enough skills to face the world beyond. problem solving is a valuable asset that will be required over and over in the working world. however, how sufficient will this skill be when new problems are spawning fast and need to be identified almost immediately? is problem setting taught enough then?
education has been very careful to indoctrinate us with analytical skills that help us identify arising questions and solutions to problems. scientific epistemology taught to us in college stress on formulas and strategies to solve possible problems we might encounter in our profession, and managerial practices provide us with just about every case study to analyze in hopes that we should be able to apply our course experience to real management dillemmas. no doubt these skills will be helpful.
with the intention of becoming a professional; be it an engineer, doctor, lawyer, etc., we hope that our degree can help establish a great understanding of what our profession really is. unless we decide to become an academic and continue to delve in research, the jobs that await us out there may be an entirely new world in which formulas and methodologies don't necessarily apply. instead we'll be dealing with a lot more than just straighforward problems and complex algorithms. work politics, lurking obstacles and ethical issues are some variables in which we will deal with a lot more, and definitely more than just a couple of times.
in which case, problem solving skills can't be enough to land us a competitive job. more and more graduates now are brighter and sharper that simply saying "Give me any problem, I will be able to solve it for your company!" to your interviewer may not be enough.
problems in the professions are now becoming more complex and unpredictable. it is all very well that one is equipped with knowledge to be able to handle problems and solve it. however there is no fixed equation of how a problem comes into being. they are unpredictable and develop along with the growth of the profession. problems that occured 20 years ago in the field of engineering may reoccur but along with the development of engineering, new problems arise. and in order to be a productive employee or problem solver, problem setting is just as important.
problem setting is simply a matter of reverse engineering - where we take all variables or background information at our disposal, create problems which are likely to occur and then create a solution. at work, we are not always presented up front with problems, but instead we need to view a situation and mine for possible constraints.
it may seem that we've been provided with similar scenarios in college, however problem setting is a skill that needs more emphasis. lawyers are trained to evaluate given situations in the most critical ways and detect every possible loophole that might occur. journalists are critical writers who mine for information and leave no stone unturned in order to be able to provide solid (and hopefully) credible articles. definitely, this ability also comes with experience. but it also is a subject matter that needs familiarizing with.
foresight is an asset to any company, and the skill to foresee problems is just as important as the ability to solve it. Companies today may still be looking out for that problem solver, but there is still a high chance that they are also looking for innovative candidates that are able to save their companies from future, unforeseen problems and act as soothsayers with the ability to identify obscure obstacles.
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