INFORMS Open Forum

Good morning, INFORMS! I just posted this article on social: https://www.vox.com/even-better/23719790/post-graduation-advice-life-work-money but I thought it might be cool if everyone chimes in here with advice specific to OR/MS/analytics grads. 

Advice topics could include:

• What was the best piece of advice you have received?
• What skill(s) do you wish new grads have, but don't?
• Good interview tips.
• Get creative!

To our recent graduates, congratulations! A friendly reminder to update your email address to a non-edu address, we are your forever professional home, and can't wait to see how you grow.

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Mary Leszczynski
Director, Marketing
INFORMS
Catonsville MD
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To recent grads that about to start your new job: 

Hungry, Humble, Smart. (From book - The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni). 

When I started working, I was put in the training called the Ideal Team Player. You'll probably say, "that's something that everyone knows". Yes. Almost everyone knows about it. However, not many people can do it. 

Hungry, Humble, Smart. 

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Shannon (Xiaonan) Shang
Lead Data Analyst
Enovation Controls
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• What was the best piece of advice you have received?
  • Keep the most effective textbooks, rather than sell them back.
  • While you still have a student's curiosity, apply immediately to graduate school.
• What skill(s) do you wish new grads have, but don't?
  • Learn more about the field of study from current events
  • Become proficient in software tools: (e.g. Excel, SAS, AMPL)
• Good interview tips.
  • Ask plenty of questions. Have some prepared.
  • Take notes during the interview
  • Know the company's background and why they need a candidate

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Andrew Acosta
Data Scientist
Milesius Capital Resources LLC
Chicago IL
andrew@acm.org
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Mary,

Advice for new analytics graduates...

1. Invest time talking with people, developing relationships, and learning deeply about the problem you are trying to solve. Often a problem will have multiple hidden objectives that take time to uncover. Go to the office often as you'll learn more in person than over zoom.
2. Watch the video that Mary posted about a week ago on Doug Trent's "INFORMS Insights: Top Ten Lessons for a Productive and Fulfilling Career in Analytics". Lots of good insight in an enjoyable presentation. (Mary: would you repost it here in reply? I could not figure out how to repost it. maybe put it on Youtube?)

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John Milne
Clarkson University
Potsdam, NY
jmilne@clarkson.edu
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A good piece of advice that I got specifically for recent grads going to academia was "Do something about your research every day! It could be writing or making progress on a proof or doing some kind of analysis, but do at least something everyday!".

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Banafsheh Behzad
Associate Professor
College of Business
California State University, Long Beach
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Banafsheh, I agree. A big problem with recent PhD grads is finding a good research stream to hook into.  Your dissertation may give you a few papers, but you need to expand your horizons and dig into some new situations.  So I would advise looking around outside your dissertation for areas that interest you and where you can make a contribution with your skills. That usually requires finding a partner, someone to cooperate with, that you can work well with.  I found mine in Chris Clott, a fellow professor, who had some similar research interests.  We developed a fifteen-year collaboration on research in many areas.

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Bruce Hartman
Professor
University of St. Francis
Tucson, AZ United States
bruce@ahartman.net
website:http://drbrucehartman.net/brucewebsite/
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-09-2023 14:35
From: Banafsheh Behzad
Subject: Advice for recent grads?

A good piece of advice that I got specifically for recent grads going to academia was "Do something about your research every day! It could be writing or making progress on a proof or doing some kind of analysis, but do at least something everyday!".

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Banafsheh Behzad
Associate Professor
College of Business
California State University, Long Beach
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The book "From Day One: Success Secrets for Starting Your Career" by William White is excellent for new graduates; I have frequently purchased it as a graduation gift. 

Full disclosure: Bill White is a colleage of mine at Northwestern. 

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Barry Nelson
Walter P. Murphy Professor
Northwestern University
Evanston IL
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Similar to Barry's, my favorite book for graduates is "The Startup of You: Adapt, Take Risks, Grow Your Network, and Transform Your Career" by Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha. 

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Lawrence Seiford
Professor
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI
seiford@umich.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-09-2023 14:47
From: Barry Nelson
Subject: Advice for recent grads?

The book "From Day One: Success Secrets for Starting Your Career" by William White is excellent for new graduates; I have frequently purchased it as a graduation gift. 

Full disclosure: Bill White is a colleage of mine at Northwestern. 

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Barry Nelson
Walter P. Murphy Professor
Northwestern University
Evanston IL
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Look for a firm that has a clear onboarding process that includes a mentor

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Ken Fordyce
director analytics without borders
Arkieva
Wilmington DE
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My two cents. :)

• Give your speaking skill a little boost by sharing what you do in your coursework or internship with friends, family members, and neighbours! Though this might sound out of the blue to someone, breaking down a gigantic technical idea into some smaller bites of intuitive and understandable ones isn't that easy. For example, instead of writing P(A and B) = P(A) P(B) for independent events, how can I tell a kids' story to illustrate this? After all, articulation matters!
• ChatGPT is so popular that I don't need to explain it further. However, should applicants use it in their job applications? Wouldn't the process be inequitable if some use it and some don't, or worse, lack access to it? Yet, some are paying fees for career consultants to furnish their applications, and that's the part of status quo. Even worse, are admission committees and employers able to catch it if they decide to do that? Circling back to the question, graduates need to learn prompt engineering anyway, and that's a bumpy road ahead.

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Vincent Tsz Fai Chow
Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Email: tsz-fai.chow@polyu.edu.hk
https://tfvchow.github.io
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