Lessons from my Advisor: Tips to Move Forward in Grad School and Your Career
Post was originally published on LinkedIn by Crystal M. Pee.
I am listening...
I am currently my 4th year (and hopefully last) in graduate school as a PhD Candidate in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. As a PhD candidate, I have made the decision to pursue a career in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) within the tech industry. In this process of transition, I have had to pursue many experiences within industry and articulate my research in different ways. As I journey through this season, I have been able to hang onto these lessons from my advisor, Dr. Walter Lee:
1. Understand the problem you are trying to solve.
2. Produce something for you and others to react to.
3. "No one is smarter than you, you just haven't read enough yet!"
I have found these lessons to not only be applicable to my grad school experience, but within my career as well. What I like the most about this advice is that is inspiring and actionable. I can ask more questions to understand the problem. I can write a rough draft. I can pick up a book or article to read. These are all things that I have control over to progress and take ownership over my future. (If you know anything about my proposed research on career adaptability and career coaching practices, then you know that I am all about figuring out how to work with you have.) The following are ways in which I have been able to incorporate this advice within my grad school journey and career.
1. Understand the Problem You are Trying to Solve
When I took Dr. Lee's special topics class, Diversity for Engineering, he kept reminding the class that as engineers, it is common for us to create more problems as we are developing solutions. We learned that this could occur do to many factors such as lack of stakeholder engagement, politics, etc. One thing he said is that it is just as "...important to engineer with people as it is to engineer for people."
“It is as important to engineer WITH people as it is to engineer FOR people!”
~Dr. Walter Lee
I had never thought of it like that before. Outside of engineering, I took this as insight for graduate school and my career as to also engage the population that I am trying to serve. For my dissertation research, I have tried to learn as much as I can about about my population (Black engineering students) and their experience in the workplace and higher education through listening, reading, and putting myself through various experiences. This has been really helpful in contextualizing what I currently know and am trying to find out. In my career, I ensure that I understand the company that I am working for (i.e. culture, current processes, pain points, etc.) or the career coaching clients that I have (i.e. goals, employment history, motivators, etc.) before I make any suggestions. (Side note: Not having a full understanding of the problem is why companies have a hard time retaining and recruiting minoritized talent as well as seeing results from DE&I initiatives, but we can talk about that another day.) If the goal is to leave things better than I found them, then I need to know what I am working with.
2. Produce Something for You and Others to React to
I am at the point in my PhD process where I control the momentum and my advisor and committee follows. Therefore, if I want feedback on anything, I have to write. What I have realized is that if I do not write anything, they have nothing to react to. Dr. Lee is constantly pushing me to write my thoughts no matter how "rough" or disorganized they seem to me. This has been hard for me to do, but has been a great exercise in articulating my thoughts (some weeks are better than others). In the words of my mom, "No one is a mind reader."
“No one is mind reader!”
~Beneature Pee (My mom)
This advice has not only been useful in my grad school journey, but in my career as well. As I gain knowledge, I have learned to show the insights I know (i.e. presentation, conversation, etc.), act based on what I know, and/or improve upon a process based on what I know. For me, I have found that knowledge is most useful if I am able to do something with it and relay it to others. The only way to have that type of impact is to produce something that the relevant stakeholders can react to. This statement is true in many facets of life. It is hard to sell a product if you never market it. It is hard to create a final draft without a rough draft. It is harder to get a job if you never apply. It is impossible to improve a process is there was none to begin with. I am still learning these lessons in one way or another, but I realized that I/you have to take the first step.
It is hard to sell a product if you never market it. It is hard to create a final draft without a rough draft. It is harder to get a job if you never apply. It is impossible to improve a process is there was none to begin with.
3. "No one is smarter than you, you just haven't read enough yet!"
I find myself repeating this quote everyday to encourage myself. In grad school and in my career, I have found myself sometimes getting caught in the comparison game and questioning whether I am a good enough researcher, student, partner, employee, career coach, etc. The truth is, I have things to learn in all of these areas, but that does not negate the progress I have made, what I have accomplished, the knowledge I possess, or where I am headed.
“The truth is, I have things to learn in all of these areas, but that does not negate the progress I have made, what I have accomplished, the knowledge I possess, or where I am headed.”
If I want to do better or be more, then I have to take the appropriate steps to do just that. My advisor told me, "No one is smarter than you, you just haven't read enough yet," after my first academic conference, Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD). It was at this conference where I was exposed to monumental research in the field of Engineering Education and became overwhelmed of who and what I wanted to become. His advice calmed me down by giving me something actionable to do. To this day, I haven't stopped seeking knowledge when I feel that I want to be a better [insert noun here]; therefore, I am a student all of the time! Whether Dr. Lee knew it or not, he gave a cure. I have found this to be a superior anecdote to comparison, imposter syndrome, or just self degradation because it is actionable insight. There is something I can do to become who I am trying to be.