Lead for the Win

            When I started writing for this blog, I wasn’t sure what to do.  I could write whatever I wanted, for as long as I wanted, in whatever style I wanted.  I had never had that kind of freedom before.  I’m so conditioned to pander to page limits and answering certain questions that it was tough to only have “write a good post” to go on.

            I’m starting to feel like this about life as well.  I don’t have to consult my parents on every decision I make, and I have to take care of more problems myself (for example, my car tire popped a couple weeks ago and I had to get it repaired).  I can take whatever classes I want, and try to find a job doing whatever I so please.  It can be difficult to find a place to start when you have that much leeway; this is why so many college students change majors. 

And career path isn’t the only way you can pursue your interests.  Colleges provide tons of resources for students to form clubs or bring in people to speak on different topics.  The number of student groups is tremendous, and if you can’t find one for your particular hobby or interest, you can start one (I did!).  You’ll be able to pursue some things that weren’t possible in high school as well.  For example, I am now working at the student-run recording studio, something I’ve always wanted to learn about, but which was too difficult to get into in high school.  Spend a little time thinking about what you want to try out, and look for opportunities on campus to follow what you are passionate about.  Be creative about it and don’t restrict your thinking, the possibilities are pretty much limitless.

            College opens up new avenues in every area of your life.  If you embrace this freedom and take advantage of it, you can make the most of your college experience.

Technorati Tags: Career, choice, College, interests, life, major, passion, student groups, Student Life, university

            Do you ever hear about a really neat idea and say “Wow, I wish I could come up with something as useful/interesting/helpful as that?”  I know I did.  Up until my first semester of sophomore year at college, I didn’t really see myself as someone who was creative; I was excellent at achieving goals, but I wasn’t really bringing much new stuff to the table.  However, after being rejected by a second business group on campus, I thought about my career goals, and how they similar they were to other kids in the engineering school.  It turns out a lot of us aren’t necessarily doing engineering to build bridges (or computers, cars, ultrasound machines, etc.); we want to end up in business in some form.  As a result of this thinking, I formed a student group to cater to this group of people.

            Now I needed all kinds of new ideas.  What are we going to do as a group?  How do we recruit and advertise?  How can we work with other student organizations?  My executive board and I were coming up with all kinds of cool things we could do.  Then it spread to other areas of my life.  I started this blog and began working at the student-run recording studio on campus.  Even simple but very enjoyable things like having my brother (who is a high school senior) fly down for our last day of classes concert.

            How I got started on this path all goes back to my mindset.  Once I started believing in myself as creative, I started noticing ideas that I was coming with that I previously would have ignored.  Secondly, I wasn’t filtering them out as stupid or unrealistic without at least giving ample consideration to how an idea would play out.  I do have a lot of bad ideas, but even they are usually interesting at the very least (for example, team test taking).  I think it’s actually easier to start with the second step first.  Once you can break down mental barriers such as “too expensive” or “too time-consuming,” you are more likely to eventually arrive at an excellent idea.

By thinking about a situation without boundaries, you can take your ideation process to a new level.  I believe that the brainstorming process functions sort of like a web; new ideas branch out and interconnect with other previously unrelated ones.  If you simply increase the number of nodes (by coming up with supposedly “outrageous” ideas), you can reach a final state that is better than if you had limited yourself in the first place. 

If you can achieve a mental state where you believe in yourself as a good idea person and can brainstorm properly, you will soon have others asking you how you come up with so many great ideas so effortlessly.

Technorati Tags: brainstorming, College, creativity, idea, innovation, Leadership, Student Life, thinking

            What do you want to be when you grow up?  I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was five; needless to say, that has changed (I still think it would be cool).  Regardless of whether you know what path you’d like to pursue or not, it’s certainly important to consider (i.e. it’s why you’re at college in the first place).  So how do you get started?  The college career center is an excellent place to start.  They can help you focus your interests and find a similar career, as well as look for an internship in that field to see if that is something you would like to do coming out of school.  Talking to the professors of classes you particularly enjoy can be another good route for discovering a career path that excites you.

            Now that you have some idea of what you might like to pursue, try to find a friend of a friend or an alumni in that line or work, so you can get a first-person account of what it’s like day-to-day.  I did this for management consulting, and it helped me understand both what a consultant does as well as how to get into the business.

            Finally, start working on a resume (and later on, cover letters) for actually trying to find a position in the field.  The career center can also be very helpful writing these; there are a lot of subtle points that can be difficult to perfect without the help of someone with a trained eye.  Write a good one as soon as you get to school; I can think of two specific opportunities that I wasn’t able to take advantage of simply because I just had a list of the activities I did in high school plus a few odds and ends from college.  Try to differentiate yourself; businesses aren’t looking for someone straight out of a mold.  They want someone who can think critically and analyze situations at a higher level.  Hopefully this can get you started on the right track to finding a career you are passionate about.

Technorati Tags: career path, career search, College, job search, Student Life

When assigned a group for a class project, it can be difficult to be productive early on. Scenarios where one person asserts control and micromanages all the other members or indecision and deliberation bring progress to a screeching halt are all too common. High school group projects generally involve the smartest person doing greater than half the work (either because they want to get the best grade possible, or because some member slack off); at college that trend (thankfully) isn’t as prevalent. However, it still can be difficult to make the most of meeting times and maximize productivity. I like to sit back at first and see if someone steps up and starts things off right. If so, great, I just have to do my part of the work and nothing more. If things seem sluggish and setting up a meeting is a problem, I start to take things into my hands and be a little more assertive in getting commitments from the members.

• Try to make sure the first meeting gets set up at a time when everyone can go. If someone isn’t there when initial decisions are made, they are less likely to be motivated to contribute later on.

• If everything is going well, don’t derail things by trying to assume control. Let things play out and trust your group to do what they need to do. The end goal is a successful project, not being in charge. Check your ego at the door.

• When making decisions, make sure to be adamant about your opinion, and push the group to decide once there has been significant discussion of a topic. People usually want to be nice and let others decide if they don’t have strong feelings on a topic; this is fine, but if everyone feels this way, a decision will never be made.

• Summarize what each person is responsible for at the end of a meeting. You don’t want to show up next time and have one member say they didn’t know they were supposed to do that part of the project.

Technorati Tags: group assignment, group project, Leadership, Management, meeting, project, Teamwork

Near the end of every semester, it’s time to pick classes here at Duke. Everyone seems to go through about five or six different iterations of their “perfect” schedule, which can range from classes till 1 PM to four-day weekends. I’ve taken various arrangements of classes that gave me a day off (well, I had a recitation, but it was optional; i.e. I didn’t go), class straight from ten till four, and 8:30 classes five days a week. One of my friends has had classes on only Tuesday and Thursday. Here is a list of some of the observations I’ve made about different schedule layouts, as well as some deeper examination of what types of classes to take. Just so you know where I’m coming from, you take four classes a semester at Duke. Five is “overloading,” the earliest class is 8:30 in the morning, and the latest is (I think; too lazy to check) seminar-type classes that end around 10 at night.

• Lots of early class. No matter how much of a morning person you are, getting up early at college is difficult. When I had five 8:30 classes, I tried to go to bed around 1 and get up at 8 (which ended up being 1:30 and 7:30). I averaged about six hours of sleep a night; I’m going to do everything in my power to not have this again. I rarely miss class (usually only when I’m sick) and even I have trouble getting up and going every day; if you are not terribly disciplined or have a propensity to sleep through alarms, avoid this at all costs.

• Having days off. These are a blessing and a curse. Depending on when your work is due and where exams fall, you’ll either have a ton of time to relax or really have to focus to get things handed in. My friend who had four-day weekends had a lot of trouble with that. Also, he would stay up till 5 in the morning and wake up around dinner time. Another thing to consider is the chance that multiple tests will fall on the same day. This is never good news. Days off are nice, but just be aware of how disciplined a worker you are so you can take advantage of them when you need to stay ahead.

• Having large gaps between classes. These are great to either nap or do work in. It usually turns out to be mostly the latter for me, since most of my problem sets and labs are due at 5. Finding out you don’t understand anything that was taught an hour before the assignment is due is not fun. You may or may not have this problem depending on the types of classes you are taking (homework based classes versus reading classes).

• Consider transit time. I think it’s pretty common for colleges to have more than one section of campus (here we have East and West Campus; maybe 15% of classes are on East). If two classes are more than 10 minutes away or involve any transportation method that isn’t walking or biking, you might want to rethink that decision. It might not be a big deal for normal class periods, but on test days you don’t want to take any chances.

• Take one fun class per semester. Even if you like most of your classes, and maybe only hate one, you still won’t be happy. This has happened to me and several of my friends, and it just sucks to try to get through tons of unfulfilling work for requirement classes. You never know when a grad student is going to end up teaching a class, or a teacher whose style doesn’t gel with you. Having one class that you are passionate about can soften the blow of one or two crappy ones.

• Be flexible. This is probably the most important tip. That awesome 1:00 sports finance class is probably going to fill up. Spend a little extra time to find some second and third choice classes, and be ready to completely redo your schedule if (and when) classes fill up.

Technorati Tags: classes, College, schedule, Student Life, university

Sleep and I have a love-hate relationship. I hate when I don’t get much, and I love to sleep in. This can be difficult to achieve at school, especially since I am one of the lightest sleepers I know. My dorm happens to transmit sound very well (and I have an inch and a half gap under my door), so I end up being awoken by the housekeeping staff changing the garbage bag outside my room. Sometimes loud footsteps can wake me if I’m not wearing earplugs. In contrast, some of my friends have slept through fire alarms. As such, here are some things to try to optimize your sleep.

• Try to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same times each day. Once you get your sleep patterns into a rhythm, it’s easier to maintain.

• Use ear plugs if you are a light sleeper. First semester this year, I consistently got less sleep that I should have because I didn’t follow this.

• Ask your roommate to use a desk lamp instead of the overhead light. This makes a small difference, but it’s better if they can do work somewhere else so you can turn off all light.

• Use multiple alarms if nothing short of a siren outside your room can wake you. Usually an alarm clock (located across your room so you won’t just turn it off and go back to bed) in combination with your phone on vibrate under your pillow will do the trick.

• Don’t have caffeine too late at night. If you’re pulling an all-nighter this will obviously change, but otherwise you’re just going to make falling asleep more difficult. Try to be more productive during the day so you don’t end up working too late at night.

• Exercise during the day, but not too close to when you are going to sleep. The more tired your body is, the easier it is to fall asleep. Too close to bed and you will be too jazzed up to fall asleep.

Technorati Tags: College, sleep, Student Life, university

“So how long did you study for this test? 10 hours? 15 hours?” Not quite. I’m not a big fan of marathon study sessions. I don’t go to the library and stay there from dawn till dusk. If that works for you, excellent, you don’t need my advice. I aim to get 90% of that person’s score in half the time. My studying techniques exist to maximize not my score, but my “results to work ratio.” I am intrinsically lazy to some degree, so the question I ask myself while studying for each test is “how can I get the highest possible score while spending a minimal amount of time?” It’s not so much an excuse to slack off as a way of working smart (as opposed to working hard). I’ll use the example of a circuits analysis test to illustrate the points of my method (I just had this test today, I think I did pretty well; I did feel well prepared, at the very least). Also, on a side note, please be aware of the engineering bias to this article; let me know how these tips work for reading-based classes (like history or political science).

1. Write down all the topics that are on the test. This doesn’t have to be terribly specific, just a general list of the important concepts that will be covered. This coincides pretty well with chapter and section titles, so that’s a good place to start. Also, take a look at end of chapter summaries to generate this list.

For my test, the main concepts were applying differential equations to A/C circuits, transfer functions and filters, and using phasors for A/C analysis (3 chapters). I wrote these down as well as important subtopics.

2. Find out what you don’t know. The best way I’ve found to do this is to take practice exams (for all of my classes they’ve been on the BlackBoard site for the class; ask your teacher if they can give out any if there isn’t a website). These take around an hour, maybe hour and a half, to do, and can give you tons of information of how well you know each topic. Make sure to do at least half of each problem, instead of saying “Oh, I know how to do this.” There might be a little twist that you haven’t seen before. If you know something well, look over it quickly, but don’t spend a ton of time on it. If there aren’t practice tests, another way to evaluate your knowledge is to try to teach it to someone else and see where the gaps are.

I didn’t have practice tests for my circuits class, so I started reviewing the oldest material first. After skimming each chapter, I went through the basic thought process for each type of problem and created a flow chart so I knew which method to use when I got to the test.

3. Learn the conceptual basis for the concepts you don’t understand. This usually amounts to reading the book closely to try and break down what you are having issues with. Also, asking other people questions can be very helpful here. I’ve had mixed results with office hours. Odds are, if the professor can explain a concept in office hours, they probably taught it well the first time around (meaning you don’t need the office hours). Bad professors probably still can’t teach in office hours (I don’t go to a ton of office hours, so this may be a rash generalization). A good TA can make the difference between an A and a C, so consider that route as well (on the other hand, don’t rely on them, because they usually have as much other stuff going on as you do; you don’t want to be left hanging the day before the test when they cancel their office hours because they have an exam the next day too). Looking over old homeworks and quizzes (and midterm exams when you are studying for the final) can help too; sometimes test questions are straight from one of these sources (if you can recognize this about the teacher’s testing style before everyone else, you will do well).

I knew all of the material reasonably well for my circuits class save for one or two minor subtopics. I looked those over in detail and talked to some friends about them, but didn’t do too much else.

4. Practice the concept you don’t know by doing problems, looking over examples, or rereading the respective section. This is pretty self-explanatory, but make sure to spend the majority of your time on this material. Why review in-depth an idea you already know backwards and forwards? I haven’t measured the time I spend studying in this way, but I imagine 80% of your studying should be used for the 20% of the material you understand the least.

For this test, my understanding of how to apply the concepts was developed better through examining the thought process of each problem type, so I spent time on that instead of doing problems. When you encounter something that is an easy concept to understand, and the teacher can make the problems range from child’s play to impossibly hard in level of difficulty, you probably want to do problems rather than just review concepts, to develop an intuition of which method to use to solve them. Solving integrals and DC resistive circuit analysis are two examples of this; there are many ways to solve the problem, and it’s not intrinsically obvious which to use right off the bat.

5. Find as many people as necessary that are having problems and help them. This is optional on some level, and depends on how much you can apply the other points (i.e., if there aren’t any practice tests, you might have to employ this method to a greater extent). In high school, my main study method was teaching other people. This is probably the single best way to solidify a concept; teaching the information requires an intuitive and fundamental understanding of the information, and if you can answer someone’s questions, you will likely have little difficulty with the test questions. Most exams deal more with applying the concept versus the concept itself. My general chemistry final gave us a specific chemical compound to which we applied all the concepts that we learned during the semester in various situations. It was hard, but I was able to do well because I had a good intuitive understanding of how each topic worked.

I talked to one or two people for the circuits test, asking them what they were having trouble with, rather than bringing them specific questions. This is another technique to use to find out where to spend the bulk of your time when there are no practice tests.

6. Stop when you get bored. Or whenever you know you’re ready. This is a tough point and this will definitely depend on how much discipline you have, how well you know yourself, and your confidence level, among other things. You know best when you are ready. Usually I can’t focus any more and I will go do something else without really thinking about it. I’ll try again a little later, but if I still can’t sit still and concentrate, I’m usually done. Even if I’m not very confident in how well I know the material, my subconscious usually stops me at a certain point. I think a big portion of the excess time people spend studying is to work up their confidence level. Finding the right balance between not enough and too much is something personal. If you can find a way to gauge it, let me know. My method of knowing when to stop may or may not work for you; I’m curious to hear your feedback on what signals the end of studying for you personally.

I had a hard time getting focused for the circuits test in general, so I just made myself do a final look-over of my notes and then went to bed.

7. Relax. I played basketball before almost every test my freshman year. Do whatever you do to unwind (but don’t do drugs or drink, obviously).

Other tips:

• Get some sleep. One thing I try to do without exception is get a lot of sleep before a test. The reasoning behind this is obvious. Usually I’m so worked up or anxious that I can’t fall asleep for two hours (despite going to bed early), and I sleep less than I do on a normal night. Even if I can’t get any extra sleep (not for lack of trying!), you should still try.

• Eat breakfast. A lot of people don’t. If you usually don’t have something in the morning, try it. You’ll feel better.

• Don’t have tons of caffeine before a test. I did this for the first circuit analysis test, and when I started looking through it, I freaked out because I couldn’t figure out which method to use to solve the problems. I finally settled down, but those first five or ten minutes were pretty much wasted trying to organize my thoughts.

• Learn the teacher’s testing style after the first test, and apply what you learned while studying for subsequent tests. This may be the most important tip here. Not all classes are created equal. You will have to change how you study based on how long tests are, how easy or hard the teacher is, and where they draw their questions from. Hopefully they take questions straight from the homeworks or quizzes. It’s more difficult when they pick completely unrelated situations that you then have apply the concepts to (thought this is more satisfying when you do well, because it means you actually know the stuff rather than just taking advantage of the teacher’s testing idiosyncrasies). Usually I will do about average on the first test, examine where my study methods failed, and develop a new approach for the next test.

Technorati Tags: College, reduce studying, school, Student Life, Studying, university

Running meetings is a skill that most people learn by trial and error. While this may result in eventual proficiency, we’d all like to shorten that timeline. Through my own experience and research, I’ve boiled down some strategies for dealing with difficult situations that can (and will) arise during your meetings. Problems I’ve seen or encountered include persistent negativity, lack of direction, and inability to brainstorm new ideas. I’m sure you can think of many more.

Here are some simple suggestions to improve the quality of your meetings (implementing these for a group in which you do not hold a leadership position is a different topic altogether):

• Make an agenda, and distribute it ahead of time. This allows people to get an idea of what is going to be discussed, keeping the meeting focused and directed at the problems that need attention.
• Moderate discussion to keep people from being attacked. No one wants to talk if they think they will be verbally abused; this will also contribute to a more positive atmosphere.
• Keep it short. This is more of a general suggestion than a method or technique, but people will be more responsive to what you have to say if you keep the group aimed at the problem at hand.
• When brainstorming, keep tangible goals separate from methods of achieving them. Increasing profit 10% is a goal; devising a new marketing strategy or decreasing the cost of production are ways to reach that goal.
• Break down mental barriers while brainstorming. An idea may be too difficult, too expensive, too time consuming, or possess any number of issues, but it may spur a new train of thought in the group which leads to the best solution. Foster an environment that is tolerant of outside the box thinking and don’t let ideas get shot down before they can be considered fully.
• If an argument is occurring, wait and listen to what people are saying. Have them voice their issues clearly and attempt to dissect what the root problem is. Often poor communication can obscure what is really going on.

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Management, meet, meetings, Teamwork

Welcome to Lead for the Win, my new blog delivering information on leadership, entrepreneurship, and general life for students.  Hope you enjoy it!