What an Assistant Professor at UC Riverside Wishes They Had Known Before Entering Academia
Michael, an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Riverside, advises undergraduates considering a similar career path to "take more math" and "look for opportunities to conduct statistical analysis," highlighting the importance of statistical skills and practical experience through research assistantships or internships, a lesson learned through their own experience transitioning from a history major.
Data Analysis, Statistical Analysis, Programming, Higher Education, Career Development
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Michael Bates
Assistant Professor
University of California Riverside
University of Michigan
History & Economics Michigan State University, (PhD) "Michael Bates has over 6 years of experience in policy research, advising, and teaching across in the areas of labor economics, education, and econometrics.
Economics, History, Art History
Education
Education
Honors Student, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. Take more math courses, especially if you did not major in a quantitative field.
2. Seek opportunities to conduct statistical analysis to develop relevant skills.
3. Gain experience through research assistantships or internships to build practical experience in data analysis and programming languages
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone would have told you before you ever started?
I think the first thing would be to take more math. That's probably a little bit specific to me since I started off as a history major.
I did happen to take a lot of math as a history major, and that would have been helpful. I ended up going back and taking a few classes in the evenings after I was done teaching middle school, just to brush up my chops, I guess.
Another thing would be to look for opportunities to conduct statistical analysis. So, learn R, learn data, or some other statistical programming language, and then use it with either a research assistantship or an internship. Those would be sort of the two main things that I would advise undergrads to be doing.