Five Lessons From Life
1. Perseverance
I started my SET career by nearly flunking fifth grade math. Fortunately,
my father was very good in math and tutored me until it eventually
became my best subject. Although I hated every minute of it, I am
now incredibly grateful that I had someone in my life who refused
to allow me to quit. Without his help and his flat out insistence
that I was going to pass math one way or another, I might never
have discovered how naturally gifted I am at it. I was struggling
to get over my first "hump", which was learning the multiplication
tables. Once I got past it, math started to "click" in
my head. It then seemed very interesting to me. I eventually struggled
through several other "humps" in college and graduate
math classes, but I did not allow them to stop me. I had brief moments
of insecurity when I thought maybe I had reached my limit in math,
but I always reminded myself of that first failing experience with
my father. I attacked every difficult class with a determination
to learn it and a conviction that I could do it if I tried hard
enough. I studied twice as hard, reviewed the book and my lecture
notes multiple times, and repeatedly met with the teacher. Every
time I had to put in that much work to learn a math topic, I ended
up getting the highest grade in the class and the topic ended up
being among my favorites. I now believe that learning math is like
putting together the pieces of a giant puzzle. Each piece affects
the other, so there will inevitably be parts of the puzzle that
will be hard to figure out. The struggle of figuring it out is part
of the excitement, and finally succeeding after a lot of hard work
is deeply satisfying and highly rewarding.
2. Flexibility
I never had a detailed career plan. My career decisions were all
made step-by-step as I tried things out and decided whether I liked
them. If I liked something, I continued to pursue it. If I didn't,
I'd change direction and try something different. Interestingly,
I always knew more about what I didn't want to do, as opposed to
what I did want to do. When I was in high school, I could have listed
a thousand things I didn't want, but I only knew three things about
what I did want:
a. I wanted a career.
b. I wanted my career to have something to do with math.
c. I wanted to make enough money to support myself, to live comfortably
without having to constantly worry about bills, and to be able to
afford a few expensive purchases (maybe not immediately, but if
I saved for them).
3. Passion
By the middle of my Sophomore year in college, I had decided to
double major in math and statistics. What is the difference between
math and statistics? Math always has an exact answer and gets more
theoretical and abstract the higher you go. After calculus and linear
algebra, math courses become mostly theoretical without numbers.
My passion was manipulating the numbers and using them to solve
problems, not proving the theory of why math works the way it does.
On the other hand, statistics is a kind of applied math that deals
with finding patterns in data (numbers), explaining the patterns
with an equation, and using that equation to draw conclusions about
the data or predict how the data might change in the future. Statistical
modeling has no right or wrong answer and is not an exact science.
Statistics deals with the best answer or the most likely answer.
Basically, math is black and white, while statistics deals with
the gray in between.
(See my entries in the March 12, 2002 Daily Digest at
for a more thorough explanation.)
4. Long Range Goals vs. Short Term Tactics
At the beginning of my Junior year in college, I accepted a job
in the math department as a student teacher for a new calculus honors
program. After almost a year of teaching calculus to college Freshman,
I decided I wanted to teach at a university, which requires a Ph.D..
I had already learned that math was entirely theoretical at the
Ph.D. level and I wasn't interested in theory. I was interested
in applied math, so I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in statistics.
At the end of my Junior year, I started asking my statistics professors
what things other than a Ph.D. should be on my resume to make me
a good candidate for a job as a university statistics professor.
Most of them indicated that there were two main ways to proceed:
take an academic route by publishing academic papers during and
after my Ph.D., or take an industry route by working for a company
to get applied data analysis experience before completing a Ph.D..
I was struggling to pay my tuition and other bills, so I ruled out
the possibility of publishing without a paycheck and chose the industry
route. I then asked what I needed to get a good industry job in
statistics and was told that a Master's degree would be best.
I finished my Master's degree in statistics, then searched for
jobs on the internet using "statistics" as a keyword.
I eventually took a job analyzing data for a consulting firm that
specialized in sales and marketing for pharmaceutical companies.
While there, I learned how to write computer programs in a widely
used data analysis and statistical software language called SAS.
I also worked in a company that provided health care information
to hospitals and spent two years working as the statistician for
the GEM-SET program. Now, I am at another crossroads and am uncertain
where I will end up next. Although I am not interested in pursuing
a Ph.D. at this point in my life, it is still in the back of my
mind as a long term goal that I will want to achieve someday. (I
went to college with a grandmother who was pursuing her Ph.D., so
I know it's never too late to do it!) In the short term, I am looking
for a new path in my SET career and hope to find a direction that
interests me.
5. My advice to teenagers
If someone had told me when I was in high school that this is the
path I would take in life, I probably would have laughed. The best
advice I can give to today's teenagers is:
* Pursue what you're passionate about, even if you're not sure
yet how to make a living at it. If you love what you are doing and
ask enough questions of experts in that field, you will eventually
find a way to support yourself doing it.
* Work hard and don't quit just because something becomes difficult
or you encounter a roadblock.
* Stay open to new possibilities and be willing to change your
direction if you find out your chosen path isn't working for you.
* Keep one eye on where you are now and one on where you want to
be in the future. Changing directions is good, as long as your new
direction doesn't prevent you from setting a long term goal or achieving
a lifelong dream.
* Listen to that little voice in your head that tells you what
is right and wrong for you. Do not give in to pressure from others,
regardless of whether that pressure is coming from friends, teachers,
family, or strangers. Don't waste your life doing something you
hate or are apathetic about just because someone else wants you
to. If you follow your gut instincts and pursue what you love doing,
you will have an amazing life that others will respect, even if
they don't agree with your path.
If I had not done those things, I would not be half as happy or
as successful as I am today. I am sure that there will be even more
twists and turns for me before retirement, but for now I am very
happy with my accomplishments and I am looking forward to a new
adventure...
Education:
B.A. Honors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in math, statistics
(honors), and French (triple major)
M.S. at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in statistics (graduate
fellow), with a double minor in French and psychology
Previous Career positions:
Senior Data Analyst for a U.S. company specializing in providing
health care information to hospitals
Project Coordinator at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Center
for Research on Women and Gender
Operations Research Consultant for a global consulting firm, analyzing
sales data for pharmaceutical companies
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