Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Desperate Times Call for Expensive Measures

So it's been a while since my last post.  And honestly, I debated back and forth whether or not to share this post for several reasons:
1. I'm a private person, I prefer to hold on to personal information rather than share it, even when to the average bear, the information seems arbitrary. [I certainly inherited this behavior from Linda (mommy), that woman can keep secrets, but I digress.]
2. In the spirit of keeping to the theme of this blog, (food, health policy, and the rantings of a crazy woman) this post doesn't necessarily fall neatly into any of those categories, and the key to a good blog is that it is focused, relatable, and entertaining. [and consistent, oops]
3. I'm a lazy ass heifer, and to demonstrate how the topic of this post falls into two of the three aforementioned categories to my full satisfaction means I can't just pull this post out of my ass.

BUT in the spirit of Belle and Toya's latest blog posts of "Do You Know Where You're Going To?" and considering that I haven't posted in almost a week and I'm trying to win this internal battle to not emulate some of Linda's crazier behaviors, I've decided to share.

Last night, I went to my very first, but certainly not last, private tutoring session for Quantitative & Qualitative Data Analysis & Statistics.

[you may be asking aloud, "What?" "Why?" and "How expensive?"]

Without actually telling you what that shit is if you don't already know [for those with inquiring minds, click the link above], I'll just say that its a critical health policy job skill that I LACK [thanks for fucking nothing Master's Degree in Health Promotion] and is a recurring theme that's beleaguered my ONGOING job search, and I've had ENOUGH!

It's not that I didn't know that I needed this job skill when I first began to realize that I hated my effin job and it was time for a new one. I just told myself, "I'll learn this skill in a semi-entry level position within the field." It's what I told myself when I had the mother of all epiphanies and realized that I wanted to work in Health Policy rather than Health Education. I even tried to take a formal class at the University of Baltimore a few months ago, but OF COURSE the intro level class is only offered in the FALL semester [and so help me God, if I'm still at this job come fall, I'm going to do this]. But it was last month, shortly after realizing that my phone interview was all I was going to get out of the PERFECT JOB and hot on the heels of a rejection email from a different job, I decided it was time to grab the bull by the horns.


Aren't you loving my dodgeball reference? I'm no underdog though,  purple cobras!
I have had enough of not even being able to apply to positions because this skill is a mandatory requirement for all applicants.  I have had some education in this subject area, but haven't used it since that take home final senior year of UNDERGRAD, after which I promptly began drinking in celebration of being "done" with my college studies. In hindsight, perhaps that was a poor choice, and in further hindsight, its more than obvious that my college studies are far from over. [God appreciates irony. Usually I do as well, but today, I do NOT].

So after 2 hours of basic statistics roundup, I'm a little bit smarter [it turns out, I'm not completely inept when it comes to this crap, its just requires me to really apply myself and focus] $XX poorer, feeling a bit more encouraged, and certainly 1/2 a step closer to getting where I want to be.

So yes, this post is a rant about how focused I am at getting a job in health policy, and yeah, I got a pile of homework waiting for me at home. So it turns out this is a health policy and rant post. Shazzaam!

If you were in my position, would you do the same? And are you just as pissed as I am that I didn't get this skill drilled into my brain in grad school like I was SUPPOSED to? Are any of my readers experts in this skill and willing to tutor me for free? (or for food, y'all know I like to cook!)

3 comments:

  1. I would absolutely do the same in your position, and I -will- do the same before or during grad school if I need to. Kudos to you for recognizing you needed to help yourself in order to achieve the next step in your
    plan. That is so much more ambition than many people have, and it's going to pay off for you soon.
    Cheers, and good luck with all your anovas meta-analyses and all that jazz.
    Kim
    haliwoodsaywhat.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I applaud you for conquering the beast. Qualitative and Quantitative methods in one course at the same time sounds like a bit much, but I don't write the curriculum.

    I have an MA in Sociology from a very quantiative department and I took 3 graduate level statistics courses and 2 graduate level research methods courses before it finally sank in. Now that I'm working on my Ed.D. I FINALLY know how to do qualitative and quantitative analysis. It took 12 years for me to get to this point (counting undergrad).

    I believe that sometimes we aren't ready to acquire new skills because we don't know where we'll apply them. Once the skills become relevant to our job (or future job), we focus and get it right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @ Kim, thanks for the encouragement hun! anovas...sounds fearfully familiar...forward march, lol

    @ keeley, you're soo right about aquiring skills once they become relevant. i've always had the blessing/curse of either getting things very easily and therefore achieving well or not getting things easily, thinking that because its not easy, its not relevant and not applying myself. i've probably taken 4 basic stats classes, learned the same stuff each time, at point had a grasp on quant/qual analysis, and then dumped it all out of my brain. hindsight is a mother...

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Disqus for Eat, Read, Rant!