In this article, I complete the occupational self-reflection I described in Part 4 as an example of what such a reflection might look like. Your story won’t be mine, so feel free to craft the reflection to fit your needs. This is just one sample of what it could look like.
Activity Overview:
| Step 1 | List out five activities that you have done in the last few years that inspire you. |
| Step 2 | List out five activities that you have done in the last few years that have drained/frustrated you. |
| Step 3 | For each activity on both lists, then write out what about it inspired you and what about it drained you. |
| Step 4 | Look through both sets of lists for common features. |
| Step 5 | Synthesize these common features into a one- to two-sentence story. |
| Step 6 | Tell this story to others who are close to you and practice it when appropriate with others. |
Step 1: List out five activities that inspire you.
- Show Rate Predictor at BronxCare
- Master’s Practicum
- Ethno-Data Blog
- Writing a Sitcom
- Networking
Descriptions:
(Note: You wouldn’t likely need to explain what each activity is to yourself, since, well, you are the person who did them. Just listing them is fine. But I am describing my activities to help give you, reader, context since otherwise, you won’t likely know what I did.)
- Show Rate Predictor at BronxCare: This was a major project I worked on at BronxCare. I worked with a clinic to build a machine learning show rate predictor that both calculated the probability an upcoming appointment would occur and estimated the number of appointments to expect for every doctors’ shifts. I started by conducting ethnographic user research into the problem to figure out exactly what they need, built two machine learning algorithms to provide the most useful information, and worked with a team to develop the app to communicate that findings to schedulers in real-time as they schedule.
- Master’s Practicum: The University of Memphis’s Anthropology Department required a practicum project, a 300-hour or more project with an organization for the master’s degree and documenting a detailed research report on the work. I did my practicum with Indicia Consulting in the summer of 2018. Here is my full report for your reference.
- Ethno-Data Blog: I am referring to this blog you are reading. So, if you are reading this, you have found it and know what it is.
- Writing a Sitcom: I have been writing an animated sitcom, which a few of my artistic friends and I are planning on developing.
- Networking: By this, I am thinking of the general activity of networking with other people to learn about their work and find connections with them. I do this particularly vigorously whenever I am looking for a job.
Now, yes, these are a range of projects: including a work project, a personal project, a school project, and finally a nebulous, informal activity like networking. This is by design, since encompassing a wide variety of different types of activities allows me to think about different facets of my life. Feel free to choose among any type of activities that would be most helpful for you.
Step 2: List out five activities that you have done in the last few years that have drained/frustrated you.
- Comprehensive Exams
- UX Research Consulting Project for Thriving Cities Group
- Data Pulling at BronxCare
- Retention Research Project with ServiceMaster
- Secondary Math Teaching
More detailed explanations for your reference:
- Comprehensive Exams: The University of Anthropology required a written comprehensive exam to graduate with a master’s degree. One must write a four in-class essays over the series of two days and then defend your answers to your committee.
- UX Research Consulting Project for Thriving Cities Group: Thriving Cities Group was seeking to build an app to help non-profits coordinate with potential funders and chose Memphis, Tennessee as the starting place to launch their beta-version. They hired me as a UX researcher in preparation for this launch. I really enjoyed the UX research I did, but I also learned a lot about what I need when conducting research as a consultant with organizations.
- Data Pulling at BronxCare: As a data scientist who specialized in developing machine learning and statistical models for data, my role as a data scientist at BronxCare typically did not require simple data queries to pull data for a project. But, occasionally it would. These would generally be one-time SQL queries into the database system (since another team would generally conduct repeating queries). This was my least favorite aspect of my job there.
- Retention Research Project with ServiceMaster: As a data scientist, I worked on a year-long project building a model to predict and understand retention. I appreciated the idea of the project and the nature of the work, but its implementations had some issues: the abrupt departure of my manager who had commissioned the project, the lack of managerial buy-in for the project above him, issues collecting the necessary data, and departmental politics. These led to the project being overall frustrating, although also a learning experience on aspects of organizational research projects frustrate me.
- Secondary Math Teaching: I taught secondary math in both Gary, IN and Chicago, IL for a few years before deciding to move into data science. Through this, I learned middle school and high school teaching is not a good fit for me.
Notice again that this list covers a variety of different types of projects from different contexts and times in my life. Feel free to do the same.
Step 3: For each activity on both lists, then write out what about it inspired you and what about it drained you.
Here are what aspects of each list energized me and frustrated me.
Note: Yes, I wrote both what energized me and what frustrated me for both lists. Even the most life-giving activities have aspects about them that frustrates you and the most frustrating activities have positive aspects. You learn a lot about thinking about the ugly in the good and the good in the ugly.
Energizing Activities
| Energizing Activities | What Energized Me | What Frustrated |
| Show Rate Predictor at BronxCare | Trying to break down and solve a complex problem Figuring out the optimal machine learning models to useDesigning the software’s architecture and design Presenting/selling it to those in the clinic and receiving their buy-in/support | Bureaucratic red tape to get the proper software access to build the app Internal politics within the organization in getting the project off the ground |
| Master’s Practicum | The work itself: solving the problem and completing the task with Indicia Researching and seeking to rethink the historic relationship between anthropology and data science (my key intervention in my report) Presenting my work at conferences and the recognition through the various awards I received for innovative research | Committee members seemingly unwilling to entertain the thought of rethinking the discipline and its relationship to data science Committee members trying to cast my work as not anthropology because it did not fit their pre-assigned mold of what anthropology is |
| Ethno-Data Blog | Researching and developing interesting ideas, analysis, content, and explanations Writing blog postsEspecially writing this Job Hunt mini-series People coming to me saying they appreciated my blog and/or to ask questions about it | Using the WordPress software interface, particularly difficult is transferring articles from Word Documents in which I originally write to WordPress Rushing to meet posting deadlines |
| Writing a Sitcom | Developing the characters and their back stories Developing the overarching story structure for the show, outlining plots of specific episodes, and developing specific scenes Meeting with other artists to build a teamFeeling accomplished after finishing a draftSeeing other people excited about the idea | Editing: constantly polishing over the dialogue to make it shine (necessary but can be agonizing) Trelby’s interface (the screenwriting software I use) |
| Networking | Reaching out to and connecting with people Learning about other people and their work/experiences Thinking through ways to work together to solve problems | Its cyclic nature: constantly repeating the same cycle of reaching out to new people after concluding with current connection Monotony of reaching out: generally having the repeat the same set of tasks with minor yet hard to automate tweaks |
Frustrating Activities
| Frustrating Activities | What Energized Me | What Frustrated |
| Comprehensive Exams | Researching and developing the ideas to write about Writing out my prepared essays Wanting to talk about my intellectual journey and what anthropologists should learn from other disciplines and ways of thinking in order to think through how to engage with others in the world | Some of my committee members tried to force how I would think about things in the prompt by including what seemed like false premises into the questions themselves Some of committee members seemed to want me to parrot why anthropology is great and superior to all other disciplines Already dealing with burnout at the start of the assignment |
| UX Research Consulting Project for Thriving Cities Group | Hearing about people’s work at various non-profits around Memphis and their stories Analyzing issues with the app Working with engineers to come up with innovative solutions to the problems users brought up | The team seemed to be trying to find a problem that matched their “solution” they have already built instead of seeking to understand what issues/needs people have and then crafting a solution to those needs Top-down and forward-moving marching orders, which, in this instance, ignored the app’s severe issues with users on the ground |
| Data Pulling at BronxCare | Figuring out how to make Python scripts to automate these processes Building and analyzing models on the data after getting it together | Tedious Unnecessarily time-consuming yet trivial and unstimulating intellectually Data was stored in inconsistent and frustrating ways to access later |
| Retention Research Project with ServiceMaster | Planning and scoping out how to do the project The ethnographic portion of the project where interviewed and observed customer service representatives to learn about their experiences/expertise in communicating with customers Networking and collaborating with people from other teams to obtain data needed for the project and to learn about their own related projects Felt like the work connected well with the goals and bottom-line of both organization as a whole and my team specifically | When developing the research questions for the project, I felt like my supervisor could only think of limited, close-ended questions, instead of thinking open-endedly about the project. This seemed necessary given the complexity of the issue at hand. The research questions I was given for the project overly reductionist and simplisticThe data was half-hazard and messy, which made analysis with it difficult. Frustrating inter-departmental politics to access and use of the data I got |
| Secondary Math Teaching | Public speaking One-on-one teaching and mentoring Helping students develop the critical thinking skills to solve complex problems themselves | Managing childish/immature student behavior The tedium of grading Teachers did not have enough time to collaborate in the school. |
Step 4: Look through both sets of lists for common features.
Looking through them, I found the following common features within both columns:
| What Energized Me | What Frustrated |
| Talking with people and learning about what they are doing, whether through interviews, ethnographic research, or another means. Networking and collaborating with others on a project Analyzing and developing strategies to solve complex problems (e.g. whether the problem is data science-problem, mathematical/statistical, social or “people” problem, and so on.) Communicating solutions to others (both conversationally and through public speaking) Writing creatively | Monotony, tedium, and rote work Having to follow a seemingly unproductive and non-innovative procedure Not having an innovative strategy I have been developing be understood or appreciated by those I am working with, especially my supervisor Feeling my innovative ideas were shut down or attempted be shut down due to close-mindedness and the inability to think outside of the “conventional” ways of doing things |
Step 5: Synthesize these common features into a one- to two-sentence story.
I did this synthesis twice, first writing a very large and cumbersome one-sentence version and then shortening it to make it more manageable.
Synthesis #1 – Large Cumbersome One-Sentence Version:
I am passionate about developing innovative ways to solve complex problems with others in situations for which the conventional approaches do not work, but I become frustrated when those with whom I am working (especially supervisors) do not understand or appreciate that innovation and try to enforce conventional ways of thinking that they have always employed.
Synthesis #2 – Final, Shortened Version:
My passion in a job is to develop innovative ways to solve complex problems, but I become frustrated when those with do not understand/appreciate that innovation and try to enforce conventional approaches.
Step 6: Tell this story to others who are close to you and practice it when appropriate with others.
I cannot easily show this stage in a written article like this, but suffice to say that it is extremely important to show and practice this in front of trusted family and friends. You learn a lot from their feedback.
Photo Credit #1: Pexels at https://pixabay.com/photos/fountain-pen-note-notebook-page-1851096/
Photo Credit #2: StockSnap at https://pixabay.com/photos/people-girls-women-students-2557396/
Photo Credit #3: Allan Rotgers at https://www.flickr.com/photos/122662432@N04/13740073235/in/photostream/
Photo Credit #4: kaboompics at https://pixabay.com/photos/young-woman-girl-lady-female-work-791849/
Photo Credit #5: Kelly Sikkema at https://unsplash.com/photos/-1_RZL8BGBM
Photo Credit #6: 742680 at https://pixabay.com/photos/chalkboard-story-blogging-believe-620316/
Photo Credit #7: Christina at https://unsplash.com/photos/LQ1t-8Ms5PY