That, of course, was wishful thinking.
Over the intervening years, I've gone back to school and did graduate courses, wrote more exams, researched more papers and learnt more about astrophysics than I expected. It was rewarding, even though I've suspended my M.Sc. due to financial considerations. Astrophysics wasn't something I expected to fall in love with but there you go. Of course, this was a distance learning online program, albeit from a reputable university - no one was more surprised than I was to find out that that particular university ranked in the top 10 centers for computational astrophysics (simulations, etc). It seriously reset my views and expectations of what distance learning could offer. Mind you, I'm being careful here - I said distance learning, not "online university". There's quite a few online universities out there. They're not brick-and-mortar institutions but exists purely as a virtual learning center. I'm sure there are quite a few online universities that are genuinely good. Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to determine how good they are when the instructors' credentials can't be verified. Likewise, I'd be concerned about accreditation concerns if that virtual institution that the degree came out of suddenly disappeared - websites disappear all the time, e-mail accounts can be closed out at a click of a button. Without someone or something to attest to the authenticity of an accreditation, it's no longer an accreditation but merely an unsupported assertion. Not the best thing to take to a job interview. Likewise, if a virtual university disappeared, anyone can claim that they've graduated from there. If they're good, experienced people, great. Otherwise, you'll find that degree's value depreciated by charlatans who don't have the training to do what they claim to be able to do.
Of the three post-secondary institutions I've learnt from, all of them are brick-and-mortar institutions officially recognized by its provincial education ministry as having the right to issue degrees and other accreditations. Over the years, I've also had to take courses paid for by my employers and given by learning institutions that are really companies whose goal is to promote one methodology or another. I'm not sure what the experience is for the online-only universities though. I do shake my head when they offer "Learn how to get
I'm going for my PMP accreditation next year, which was why I was away this past week. It's a graduate certificate program in project management geared towards people who want to get their PMP certification. I could take the exam on my own without going through this program but now that I'm in it, I'm very glad I enrolled as there's a lot more to it than I expected. Yes, I probably could have passed the exam on my own but I wouldn't actually have learnt much from that. Here, in this program, I'm learning project management done right, sometimes in excruciating detail. The PMP exam only focuses on the methodology; it tests people on whether they know the processes and the steps, documents and end results of all those processes as per their specifications. There's nothing wrong with the processes as they were originally designed by people who knew what they were doing. Unfortunately, what the PMI can't test for is whether people know why those processes are needed and why they're done that specific way. To use a cooking analogy, it's the difference between adding salt to a dish because a book told you so vs. knowing what the dish is supposed to taste like and adding salt if and only if it's needed. Project management gets a bad rap because people learn it from a book, usually minus the context and reasoning behind those processes.
This past week was a full immersion experience - classes began early in the morning and ran through the entire day, after which we went back to our dorm and studied some more either quietly in our rooms or as a group in the kitchen/lounge. We were taught the material that is needed for the PMP exam but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that their focus was on interpersonal skills and people management. As what the instructor said, project managers don't really manage projects, they manage the people who will make the project either a success or a failure. In short, this past week was a crash course on leadership and people management. Now that were in the distance learning component of the program, we're expected to take what we've learnt and apply it to managing the teams that we were assigned to. If we hadn't had that face-to-face time and the leadership training, I can see teams coming apart easily during the online component. Indeed, even with that face time some teams are already coming apart. I don't envy the instructors, who have to ensure that these teams stay on track over the next half year.
Now that I've had some time to decompress after that full immersion experience, I'm realizing that there are many areas at work that I could do a lot better in so I'm kind of looking forward to Monday as well. To reuse my analogy, it's a little humbling when you have an Aha! moment that you've been robotically salting a dish for years that didn't need salt because you never understood what the dish was supposed to taste like. Of course, I have to deal with some cultural issues at work, where project management isn't very well regarded even though it's desperately needed.
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