Saturday, May 06, 2006
My Commencement Speech
Thanks Michele. I started studying for my MBA here in August of 2004. Three months earlier, almost 2 years ago, my father died of cancer. My father was a blue collar man. He worked as a trucker, a welder, and a machine operator. He never went to college. But one of his proudest accomplishments was that he put all four of his children through college. In fact, my brother Tom even went on to 4 more years of school to become a veterinarian. And I know that if my dad were here today, he’d look at me and say, “Son. You’ve been through 4 years of college. You then spent the next 4 years of your life studying for and passing your actuarial exams. Now, you’re wrapping up 2 years of graduate school. Enough is enough already! How about you stop learning and go get a job, Brainiac!”
My dad would have a point. It IS time for me to get a job, to support my family. But it’ll never be time for me to stop learning. Life is nothing BUT learning. And just because you’re leaving UIC, it doesn’t mean that YOU’RE done learning either. You’re only just beginning.
The first thing you’re going to learn is what a waste of time your classes at UIC were. I’m sure the Dean loves to hear me say that. 90% of what you learned here was completely useless. When you start working, you’re not going to be using the CAPM. You’re not going to be figuring out the optimal dividend ratio. You’re going to be figuring out whether your boss likes his coffee with cream or sugar. You’re going to be figuring out that if you hit alt-tab, you can hide your game of solitaire when you hearing someone walking towards your cubicle.
What UIC DID teach you is HOW to learn. When your boss hands you a project and says he needs it first thing in the morning, you’ll know what to do. You’ll email your friends all day and then stay up all night doing the project. What UIC taught you was: how to research, how to think critically, how to write coherently. (Well, most of you anyway.) Now you have to learn how to apply these skills to your careers.
One of the things that UIC won’t have prepared you for, though, is when you first realize that you hate your manager or you hate your job. Eventually, you’re going to work for a terrible manager. It’s inevitable. You’re probably going to hate your job at some point too. Don’t look at this as a bad thing. In fact, it’s a godsend.
Bad managers are quite possibly the single greatest learning tool ever invented. We can learn so much more from them than we do from good managers. At my very first job out of college, I had a GREAT manager. I didn’t even notice. He encouraged me. He was patient. He let me make mistakes and then figure out how to correct them, never losing his temper in the process. And it wasn’t until I had a different manager that I realized how great he was.
And that’s because bad managers stand out like a zit on a supermodel. You can’t HELP but notice them. They do things that drive you insane, that have you calling your friends and saying, “You won’t believe what this jerk just did.” And that’s such a great learning experience. Every time your manager does something like that, you just take a mental note to do things differently when YOU’RE a manager. While it’s a whole lot better for your sanity to work with a GOOD manager, it can be a much better learning experience working for a BAD one.
And if you hate your job, it’s not the end of the world. Most people hate their jobs, but most people don’t learn anything from it. You see, it’s the things you hate about your job that are going to lead you into a job you love. So, if you hate sitting behind a desk all day, you might be inspired to become a park ranger. If you hate getting attacked by bears, you might want to quit being a park ranger and become a civil engineer instead. Of course, that would bring you right back to school. But this time it’d be more useful since you know what you want to do.
As Michele pointed out, I’ve had a couple different careers and worked for a few different companies. Those varied experiences encouraged me to get my MBA, and I’m so happy I did. My past jobs helped me learn what I want to do. My education here helped me learn how to do it.
Of course, I fully realize that I might hate my new job too. And that’s okay because I was thinking about going back for my PhD anyway. (My wife probably just had a heart attack.) It’s all just one big learning process. Even if I don’t go back to school, I’ll always be learning.
So, as you enter the next stage of your life, keep in mind that you’re not done learning. There’s a whole world out there waiting for you. Every day, it’s going to throw something new at you. Hopefully, you’ve learned enough at UIC to prepare you. At the very least, I hope you’ve learned HOW to learn. I know I have.
And if my father were here today, I’d tell him: “Dad, I’ve learned a lot so far. But to paraphrase Karen Carpenter, I’ve only just begun.” Thank you.
My dad would have a point. It IS time for me to get a job, to support my family. But it’ll never be time for me to stop learning. Life is nothing BUT learning. And just because you’re leaving UIC, it doesn’t mean that YOU’RE done learning either. You’re only just beginning.
The first thing you’re going to learn is what a waste of time your classes at UIC were. I’m sure the Dean loves to hear me say that. 90% of what you learned here was completely useless. When you start working, you’re not going to be using the CAPM. You’re not going to be figuring out the optimal dividend ratio. You’re going to be figuring out whether your boss likes his coffee with cream or sugar. You’re going to be figuring out that if you hit alt-tab, you can hide your game of solitaire when you hearing someone walking towards your cubicle.
What UIC DID teach you is HOW to learn. When your boss hands you a project and says he needs it first thing in the morning, you’ll know what to do. You’ll email your friends all day and then stay up all night doing the project. What UIC taught you was: how to research, how to think critically, how to write coherently. (Well, most of you anyway.) Now you have to learn how to apply these skills to your careers.
One of the things that UIC won’t have prepared you for, though, is when you first realize that you hate your manager or you hate your job. Eventually, you’re going to work for a terrible manager. It’s inevitable. You’re probably going to hate your job at some point too. Don’t look at this as a bad thing. In fact, it’s a godsend.
Bad managers are quite possibly the single greatest learning tool ever invented. We can learn so much more from them than we do from good managers. At my very first job out of college, I had a GREAT manager. I didn’t even notice. He encouraged me. He was patient. He let me make mistakes and then figure out how to correct them, never losing his temper in the process. And it wasn’t until I had a different manager that I realized how great he was.
And that’s because bad managers stand out like a zit on a supermodel. You can’t HELP but notice them. They do things that drive you insane, that have you calling your friends and saying, “You won’t believe what this jerk just did.” And that’s such a great learning experience. Every time your manager does something like that, you just take a mental note to do things differently when YOU’RE a manager. While it’s a whole lot better for your sanity to work with a GOOD manager, it can be a much better learning experience working for a BAD one.
And if you hate your job, it’s not the end of the world. Most people hate their jobs, but most people don’t learn anything from it. You see, it’s the things you hate about your job that are going to lead you into a job you love. So, if you hate sitting behind a desk all day, you might be inspired to become a park ranger. If you hate getting attacked by bears, you might want to quit being a park ranger and become a civil engineer instead. Of course, that would bring you right back to school. But this time it’d be more useful since you know what you want to do.
As Michele pointed out, I’ve had a couple different careers and worked for a few different companies. Those varied experiences encouraged me to get my MBA, and I’m so happy I did. My past jobs helped me learn what I want to do. My education here helped me learn how to do it.
Of course, I fully realize that I might hate my new job too. And that’s okay because I was thinking about going back for my PhD anyway. (My wife probably just had a heart attack.) It’s all just one big learning process. Even if I don’t go back to school, I’ll always be learning.
So, as you enter the next stage of your life, keep in mind that you’re not done learning. There’s a whole world out there waiting for you. Every day, it’s going to throw something new at you. Hopefully, you’ve learned enough at UIC to prepare you. At the very least, I hope you’ve learned HOW to learn. I know I have.
And if my father were here today, I’d tell him: “Dad, I’ve learned a lot so far. But to paraphrase Karen Carpenter, I’ve only just begun.” Thank you.
