IIT Beginnings
I am a student once again!
I met an IIT grad last night at a meetup. I told her I was an IIT student. She thought I meant an alum.
Nope. I’m a bona fide IIT student. My first course on Recommender Systems starts in early July.
It is rather clear to me that I will be in mode of some rather serious self-training for quite a while. Indeed, in the Data Science arena, constant learning is pretty much required.
My TRA/TAA program is in an odd state of limbo. Things are so backwards working with the government. I was supposed to have multiple options for comparison. But for each option I needed to have been accepted, registered and have the complete curriculum mapped out such that the institution could send the government a letter testifying to such. Only IIT was nimble enough to make this work for the time constraints I faced.
Call out to Nuala Power. This woman knows how to make things happen quickly.
Depaul was just too slow to get back to me. Their program would have been better to help me towards the Cloudera certs. But ehh… I’ll do that on my own in time.
And University of Illinois… chuckle… sheesh those wheels are turning slowly. But they are turning. They’ve sent me an email that they received my application… weeks after they received it. I think this means it bumped from one stage in the process to another. If I do get accepted, I’ll have to determine what to do at that point. I’ll probably beg for a deferral. I will not be able to do it while under the oversight of TRA. The government is very clear on this point. If they’re involved and pay for something they approved, thou shalt not pay for anything else, anywhere else on your own.
But, the wrinkle is what happens when I get a job. I’m getting mixed signals. But it seems that I can drop everything at my whim. Or I can complete any courses underway. However, support for completing the previously approved program may end. Furthermore, because my first IIT course has an odd schedule, we’re going to apply for another waiver and then apply for final approval. This is what I mean about things being in limbo. I have not yet actually been approved.
So… in theory… if I get a job in the very near future this IIT program may simply evaporate.
Oh well.
None of that matters so much to IIT. They’re comfortable with the odd aspects of these governmental things. So I’m fully registered with my own new IIT email and such.
The course instructor sent me a request to help him get to know me. Silly me. I thought this meant send him an email. No. He provided a link to a Juji chatbot session. This was quite a bizarre experience. I essentially had an interview with an AI. At the end of it, Juji provided me an assessment of my strengths. This would be cute on its own. But it actually dovetails with some of the more rigorous assessments I’ve done recently. So much so that it was creepy if it pulled all that from a short interview.
For example, here’s a snippet from a Birkman Assessment.
Your Usual Style is the proactive, positive, and adaptable behavior you have learned to use to achieve successful outcomes. These strength behaviors help you work productively and are often seen as your strengths by others. Strength behaviors are comfortable and easy for you to use.
Your Usual Style is:
- Friendly, decisive and energetic
- Socially sensitive
- Fairly methodical in your approach
- Fairly assertive without being domineering
In describing yourself to others indicate that:
- You are responsive to a variety of demands
- You encourage healthy competition
- You pay attention to detail and follow through
- You spend enough time on decisions that mistakes are not made due to hasty action
Hmm…