Moving from being a student to
becoming a Student What happens after you finish your graduate degree?
Carl James Schwarz
Statistics and Actuarial Science
Simon Fraser University
cschwarz@stat.sfu.ca
1
Student as a student.
• Graduated 1899,
• Joined the Guinness & Son Brewery in Dublin.
• 1935, Head Brewer in North West London
2
Statistics as a Discipline
• The top 4 jobs were:
1. Software Engineer
2. Mathematician
3. Actuary
4. Statistician
• “The job statistician will become the "sexiest"
around.” – Google’s chief economist.
• Powerful and very cheap computing
• Massive data sets
• Large n, small p  Large p, small n
• Increasing collaboration with health sciences, life
sciences, computing sciences, physical sciences …
3
Objectives of Graduate Programs
• Train students to learn on their own
- M.Sc.: new methodological areas
- Ph.D.: new research areas
• Specific goals
- Technical knowledge and skills
- Conceptual, integrative, “big picture”
understanding
- Problem formulation: science  statistics
- Communication skills: oral and written
4
Important characteristics for Graduate Students
• Keen interest in the discipline
• Strong intellectual curiosity
• Your objectives
- Get many strong reference letters
- Start building your professional network
- Real life experience
• Avoid narrow focus
• Attend seminars/ thesis defenses
- What scientific problem is being addressed?
- Why is this scientific problem important?
- How was it formulated as a statistical problem?
- What assumptions were made? Reasonable?
Artificial?
- What are the main accomplishments/findings?
- Is this a scientific/statistical area that interests
me?
- How does it relate to areas that interest me?
- Can I use some of these ideas and techniques?
- Strong/weak points of the presentation?
5
Choosing an Advisor
• Not that crucial at M.Sc./ Critical at Ph.D. level
• Good choice increases likelihood of:
- Large network
- No competition
- Stability throughout program
- Availability
- Quality of guidance
- Attitude and communication skills
- Sense of purpose/interactions in group
• Don’t procrastinate!
- time management important in later career
- need time to “ruminate” on ideas
- try and present early and often
o student paper competitions (WNAR, SSC,
ASA, etc)
6
Final days as a graduate student
• When are you done?
- M.Sc = 1 paper/project
- Ph.D. = 3 papers
• Possible career paths in academia, government,
industry, non-profits, etc
• M.Sc. in Statistics is MINIMUM for doing
interesting work
• Ph.D. in Statistics is MINIMUM for academia
• Visit http://stattrak.amstat.org/
7
Where are M.Sc. Careers
DATA mining?
8
M.Sc. – Getting the job
• Apply for Accreditation (e.g. AStat from SSC)
• Often hiring process done through human resources
who are NOT statisticians and may not know much
about the position.
• Government positions (e.g. Statistics Canada)
require you to write civil service exam
• Networking
• Be flexible in your job hunt – most jobs are NOT
labeled as Statistician.
• Emphasize contribution to the organization and
NOT your technical skills.
9
M.Sc. – Getting the job
• How do I get EXPERIENCE?
- projects at school
- consulting service at school
- volunteer work
• Standard questions from HR (no technical
questions)
- what are your short/long term goals
- where do you see yourself in 5 years
- how will you fit into the organization?
- they are judging you on communication skills!
• People are NOT hired because of interviews, but are
NOT given offers because of the interview!
10
During your career
• Avoid Narrow Specialization
- you don’t have the luxury of specializing
- you must be proficient in a number of areas
o linear models, esp regression
o survey sampling
o generalized linear models
• Improve software and programming skills
- several packages (e.g. SAS, SPSS, R)
- Excel and Access
- general purpose programming language
• Become more than a technical asset
- soft skills essential to long-term success
- oral and written communication skills
• Focus on the IMPACT of your results
- what is the “bottom line”.
- Answer “so what” not “how to”
• Be Flexible
- different styles of collaboration
- extra hours on weekends/travel on short notice
- juggling number of priorities
- learn to say no gracefully
11
Seven deadly sins for your career
1. No sex please, we are statisticians.
- tread with care in office liaisons!!
2. The exact analysis will take a month.
- An approximate answer in a day is often better
than an exact answer in a month
3. I only do “statistics”, and not …
4. For getting to (gently) “toot your own horn”.
5. I’ll save some money by writing my own software,
etc.
6. I don’t need to learn anymore ….
7. My partner/family can wait until later.
12
Ph.D. Careers
• Start writing papers/project NOW, don’t wait until
the end.
- 6 month to 1 year delay in publication is not
uncommon
- common format is to put three papers together in
thesis
• Teaching experience; Do you need some? YES!
- tutoring, lectures for faculty, short courses
- sit in on faculty at various levels to see styles
• Start thinking about life post-Ph.D.
- Post Doctoral Fellow (PDF) – more common now
- academia?
- industry
- government
• Start applying to academia in Sept prior to your
defense
• CV should include research interests, research
details, teaching experience, teaching philosophy
13
The job interview
• Seminar on your research area
- don’t try to dazzle with complex math
- pitch towards fellow graduate students
- practice, practice, practice, practice!
• Teaching seminar (sometimes is research seminar)
• Interview with search committee
- what are your short/long term goals
- where do you see yourself in 5 years
- how will you fit into the department?
• People are NOT hired because of interviews, but are
NOT given offers because of the interview!
14
Negotiating your first faculty position
• Don’t sell yourself short
- Starting salary $cdn75,000
- Reduced teaching load in first year
- Start up funds ($30,000) for
* computing (office and home machines)
* conference travel
* student support
• Once you have an initial offer, make a counter
offer. They can’t rescind the initial offer based on
your counter offer.
• Common to be offered a 3 year initial contract,
renewal upon satisfactory progress
15
Your first years as faculty member
• The first 100 days are the worst!
- moving (try to arrive in July)
- office set up (computers, etc)
- getting to know your way around campus
- what is campus culture?
- what are normal expectation for assignments and
tests?
- what are your colleagues working on?
- who are the graduate students
16
Challenges when you start a faculty position
Research
• 40:40:20 (traditional) vs 60:60:10 (start up)
• Developing an independent research program
- get 3 papers directly from thesis
- develop 3 follow up paper from thesis
- be on the lookout for new research directions
* attend seminars
* attend conferences
- write some papers WITHOUT your supervisor as
co-author
17
Challenges when you start a faculty position
Teaching
• No one gets tenure for being the “best” teacher
without a research record. Save being “best” for
later in your career
• Teaching can be a BIG time sink!
- teach same course multiple times
- intro courses can be easy if dept has support
* markers/ tutors/ etc.
- limit office hours (7-10 hrs/week) on 3 days
- don’t be afraid to beg/borrow/steal notes from
colleagues
- developing electronic versions of notes?
* think of a multi-year plan, i.e. do a few
revision each year rather than a complete
bundle all at once
18
Challenges when you start a faculty position
Graduate supervision
• Can be difficult to make transition from graduate
student to faculty member
• Start small – e.g. 1 M.Sc. student
• What is your style?
- Do you closely supervise students or give them
plenty of room to flounder?
- who decides upon research topic?
- Do you use the supervisory committee?
19
Challenges when you start a faculty position
Service
• Service activities
- limit until you get tenure
- be proactive to select your administrative
committees
* “good” committees
Tenure & Promotion Committee
Library committee
* “bad” committees
Space
Parking
Undergraduate/Graduate studies
Recruiting students
University-wide committees
Curriculum reform
Chair of Department!
• Don’t be afraid to say NO
20
Writing your first grant proposal
CV and Budget
• 3 major agencies in Canada
NSERC/ CIHR/ SSHRC
• Applications have several parts parts
- CV
* papers in last 5 years
* major contributions of papers
* student supervision
* referees are aware of startups
- Budget
* don’t be modest
* $15K support for graduate students
* $ 5K materials, supplies, software
* $ 5K travel (2 conferences/year)
21
Writing your first grant proposal
Research proposal
• Research proposal (6 pages)
- short term proposals (3.5 pages)
* describe 2 or 3 projects and general
method of attach. No necessary to be completely
explicit on how to attach problem
- long term proposal (1.5 page)
* how does all of above fit into long term goals?
- HQP training and other info (1 page)
• Ask people to read their grants for ideas on
structuring
• Ask people to review your proposal for problems
• DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!
22
Good habits to develop
• Use RefWorks/EndNote/ProCite etc to develop
bibliographic database of papers read and work
cited.
- creates bibtex and bibliography for papers
automatically
• Subscribe to keyword matching service on many
association sites
- lists of articles that meet keyword criteria
- table of contents of key journals
- both easily integrated into bibliographic software
• Read general interest magazines such as Chance,
American Statistician
• Keep your CV up to date because you will forget!
* record everything!
- every course taught
- every seminar given
- every paper/note/comment published
- every administrative duty performed
• Work on 2 or 3 projects at the same time.
• Read 1 new paper every week.
23
Contract renewal (in year 3)
• Opportunity to sit back and take stock
- don’t be afraid of frank feedback
- don’t be afraid to change what you are doing
- don’t “accept” a “pro forma” review
• What will be standards for tenure and promotion
- in some cases, there are “written” guidelines
- in most cases, guidelines are “informal” – learn
them!
24
Applying for Tenure
• Live or die decision
– no appeals, no second chance.
- often tied to promotion to Associate Professor
• Usually in start of 6th year after hiring.
• Documentation
- Complete cv (which has been kept up to date)
- Samples of 3-5 publications (choose wisely)
- Explanatory material (tell the world how great
you are)
- External referees
* arms length (not supervisor)
* respected in field but familiar with system
* in BC, you choose all referees (be careful!)
25
Associate -> Full Professor
• Usually 8-12 years after tenure and promotion to
AP
• Not a live-or-die decision – you can reapply
• What are standards for you institution
- clear, independent research of international
stature
- adequate research funding
- success in teaching
- graduate student supervision
- good citizen in department
26
Full Professor
• Congratulations!
• Not a time to slow down, but to take a more active
role doing things you’ve always wanted to do
- improve teaching methods
- writing textbooks
- writing review articles
- university administration
- more active role in professional societies
- more mentoring of students
27
Consulting ??
• Two sizes
- small projects (week or less)
- BIG projects (major research projects)
• Types of projects
- routine (?) analyses
* client runs software, but doesn’t understand
output
* client runs software, but misses correct models
* lots of money available
- methodological development
* no standard method available, so you need to
develop new methods
* good source of research projects, but no money
from client.
• Rates (don’t sell yourself short!)
- $100/hour or $800/day.
• How much to do?
- limit to < 1 month/year.
• The first 1000 projects are the worst!
28
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
of being a faculty member
• Flexibility in defining your work schedule and
environment
• Teaching/Research/Service can take over your life
with 60/70/80 hrs/week of work!
• Sabbatical leaves
* GO AWAY!
• Stimulating colleagues and students.
• No pressure/ self pressure
• Office, university politics
• Lifestyle vs money tradeoff
29
Seven deadly sins for your (faculty) career
1. No sex please, we are statisticians.
- beware of harassment charges
* keep office door open at all times
* don’t invite students to home on one-on-one
2. I’ll write it up later when it is perfect.
- not necessary to polish manuscript to perfection
but don’t submit half-finished manuscripts
3. The current textbook sucks so I’ll write my own
while an assistant professor.
4. Forgetting to (gently) “toot your own horn”.
5. I’ll save some money by writing my own software.
6. I can rest on my laurels.
7. My partner/family can wait until later.
30
Final Words
• Think Bottom Line / Science
• M.Sc. Public perception:
Statistician = Running Packages
- establish value to organization
- communication skills
- communication skills
- communication skills
- Adapt to changes
• Ph.D. Fellow academics perception:
Statistician = technician
- think SCIENCE
- develop collaborations outside of Department
- publish
- publish
- publish (at least in first 6 years!)
31