Beyond academia: the view from where I sit
Written by Sophia Li Ferry, Associate Director of Graduate Programs, Recruitment, and Student Support
I have high expectations. Full stop.
I’ll give you some context about why before getting into the weeds of the post. When I taught high school mathematics in West Philadelphia, I expected students to put in the same amount of effort toward learning that I put toward teaching. For some, the classroom was a safe space — a place where they could focus on themselves and worry about their schoolwork. For a few short hours every weekday, they were released from their responsibilities as a child who helps with the finances and household chores, or as an older sibling who would make sure everyone ate breakfast before rushing to school on time. The effort they put into the classroom generally equated to how much they learned about statistics, trigonometry, etc. And at the end of the year, they were proud of their achievements because they worked hard and earned them.
Today, students at the Silberman College of Business know me to be no different. Taking some inspiration from our co-founder, Dr. Peter Sammartino, I have high expectations for these students and of these students. When they graduate, they should leave FDU with not only the academic knowledge but also the skills they need to succeed. So when a student doesn’t like my email reply, the fact is that I am using the teaching moments as opportunities for students to reinforce skills they may need in the future. At the moment, students tell me that I am being unfair, but months later, I see them beaming from ear to ear with diplomas that they are proud to share and personal emails that they are grateful for what they’ve learned.
So what are some of these skills? Many refer to skills outside of the classroom as soft skills. I like to think of them as critical skills.
Communication skills.
Communication skills are not the same across all means of communication. Not everyone can be referred to as “Hey.” Emails are not text messages. Emails deserve replies, but it doesn’t mean that replies are instantaneous. We live in a world where smartphones give us the impression that communication can be instantaneous. In reality, people have meetings. People are working on other tasks. There are other things that may take priority over your question. Your question may be more complicated than you think. Sometimes, a quick question requires research and in order to receive a well-thought-out response, it takes time.
Follow-up is also important, but please give someone at least one business day to get back to you and if you know, they are busy (e.g. April 15th tax deadlines), give them some additional grace to reply. Constant, repetitive emails every hour on the hour are not helpful. Also, don’t expect an instantaneous reply only to turn around and wait two weeks to confirm. Or you change your mind and don’t ever tell anyone. Communication is a two-way street. If you’re looking for timely responses, make sure you’ve replied to their emails, kept in touch, and followed up on whatever you are working on together. Going dark (meaning the other person is expecting you to reply to something and you don’t) and then coming back only because you need something (a recommendation, a job, etc.) doesn’t bode well.
Reading and more specifically reading comprehension.
Let’s be honest. How many of us read all of our email communications thoroughly? We get to a point where our attention span stops or something distracts us from finishing the last paragraph, or we end up skipping an important detail. It happens, but it’s still important to read and understand, especially when you’re agreeing to do something or need to follow directions.
Honesty.
Honestly, I was sidetracked by my last paragraph and decided to include this here. It’s not really a skill, per se, but like I said, I’m going off on a slight tangent here. When making decisions especially difficult ones that deal with financial hardship or time management, I ask all of my students to be honest with themselves. Can you really handle an extra class? Is online learning really the best modality for you? I can provide advice and my opinion, but I cannot make your decision for you.
Being detail-oriented.
Going back to the task at hand, paying attention to details is crucial to any job. We are constantly being asked to multi-task. Before I can even finish one thought, I am on to thinking about the next to-do item. Missing any detail could lead to catastrophic events, or if we’re being more realistic, it might just make your life more difficult. In finance, one missed comma could be the difference between profit or loss. In programming, that missed comma means that your script doesn’t run. In marketing, missing a comma could change the entire meaning of what you’re trying to convey. The list goes on so I’ll be brief and leave you with details that are important so pay attention to them. And my children (I’m referring to my family) will tell you that when they need to do things like their homework over and over again it’s more important to take your time and finish the task than it is to finish first and have to go back and make corrections. Paying attention to details can make you a more efficient and effective person.
Problem-solving and critical thinking.
This! There are so many things in life that we don’t agree with, and it’s much easier to be critical and find things that are wrong. In the workplace, how many times in the past six months have you decided to share something good (e.g. mentioning to someone’s supervisor how amazing they are outside of a formal HR evaluation)? Compare that to how many times you complained about something (e.g. I have too much work. So and so isn’t doing their job). One of my most successful bosses taught me the true value of problem-solving. There is a significant difference (no, I have not tested the statistical p-value 😉) between complaining to someone, in particular your boss, about all the problems with XYZ and stating your complaint followed by potential solutions. The latter, in my experience, is a much more effective method. “There’s an issue with the way we process xyz” sounds different from “There’s an issue with the way we process xyz and I have taken some time to think through the following solutions: a, b, or c. Would this be something we can work toward to make the XYZ process more efficient?” Will your solutions always be the “right” answer? No, but you’ll be seen not as someone who is always complaining, but as someone who identifies issues and makes suggestions on how to solve them; a leader, and a valuable team member.
Work smarter; not harder.
This may be a cliché, but do you know where I think about this most often? When I am working with Microsoft Excel. Why? Because when I work with larger (not big) data sets, I want to be able to evaluate the data. So if I am working on a spreadsheet and scrubbing data, and the process seems too manual, I start to google how to do what I’m trying to do in a better, more efficient way. I’ve been mostly successful in finding a formula to make scrubbing data easier and the manual process becomes almost obsolete. However, Excel isn’t the only place where it makes more sense. With the rapid advancements of artificial intelligence (AI), the question is how can AI help me work smarter? What can a machine do (we’ve had them for a very long time) that makes me more efficient? Why am I manually looking up each student’s email address when a computer program can do that for me?
There are many other skills that one could have, but I chose to highlight only a few especially since they fall in line with a theme: efficiency. Would love to hear from you in the comments about what other skills you think are critical to your professional success.
I will end this by saying, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading (or listening). 😊
