The Switch

At the start of October 2018, I started an online data science bootcamp course to begin my transition from education into the world of computers, technology, and heftier paychecks.

Education has, for the last 3 years, been a roller coaster. At times, it would ignite my passion to leave the field altogether as I became fed up with all the bureaucratic red tape and general administrative incompetence. After my first year of teaching, I felt like I would definitely leave because of the students–those hormone-driven demonic entities that lacked any sense of self-control or virtue. However, I inevitably overcame the incredibly steep learning curve and found that the student population was rarely the central cause of any calamity. Students will always be students, and it is our job to ensure they become proper adults.

Along the way, the things that have frustrated me the most was a general culture that accepted incompetence in administration, faculty, staff, and even the student body. It seems as if everyone within the education system is simply okay with passing; there is no positive drive to become better for the sake of academics and for the sake of students’ futures.

This lack of drive has many origins–overworked and underpaid teachers, overtested students, high student-to-faculty ratio, increased micromanagement on all levels, and poor resource allocation are just some of the sources of this corruption–so it is impossible to pin the fault on one outlet, but the overall effect is felt by everyone from teaching assistants to superintendents, and it is incredibly draining and no amount of dangling carrots in the form of financial incentives can stem the bleeding of public education.

As part of my commitment to the data science course, I will practice writing blogs about data science, both from a general and technical level. I hope this does not deter newcomers to the field, as most of the technology in the next decade will come from this field and revolutionize the way the world works. However, I hope that alone is not the prime incentive, as I’ve found the whole process to be extremely challenging and rewarding–something I haven’t felt for a while with education. With that, it is time to make the switch.