Rant about working in the tutoring lab: How should I deal with this?

Frabjous said:

What exactly is your current status and what are your career aspirations?

Have a masters in physics was not able to secure a job as a programmer or data scientist so I took this tutoring job.

PhDeezNutz said:

Have a masters in physics was not able to secure a job as a programmer or data scientist so I took this tutoring job.

What are your career aspirations?
Have you made any progress on them while on the tutoring job?

Frabjous said:

What are your career aspirations?
Have you made any progress on them while on the tutoring job?

Don’t really know. I thought I would have climbed the ladder in my current role but apparently that’s just a dead end.

I need to take time to think about it.

At the very least I plan to go through this book from cover to cover.

https://mml-book.github.io/book/mml-book.pdf


Mathematics for Machine Learning

PhDeezNutz said:

Don’t really know. I thought I would have climbed the ladder in my current role but apparently that’s just a dead end.

I need to take time to think about it.

At the very least I plan to go through this book from cover to cover.

https://mml-book.github.io/book/mml-book.pdf


Mathematics for Machine Learning

You have an interview coming up. It is not clear that it is a dead end. You are dismissive about doing it on Teams, but it might be policy to treat all applicants the same.

I am not sure that learning the mathematics of machine learning on your own will make you hireable.

Some questions to ask yourself.
Where do you want to be in n years? Where do you need to be in 1 year to be on that path? What do you need to do today in order to get there?

Good luck.

Frabjous said:

You have an interview coming up. It is not clear that it is a dead end. You are dismissive about doing it on Teams, but it might be policy to treat all applicants the same.

I am not sure that learning the mathematics of machine learning on your own will make you hireable.

Some questions to ask yourself.
Where do you want to be in n years? Where do you need to be in 1 year to be on that path? What do you need to do today in order to get there?

Good luck.

Thanks for the encouragement. These are important questions to ask and I have not really taken the time to answer them. I’ll have to do some soul searching and “land surveying” before I can come up with answers. No time to start like the present.

In addition to learning the mathematics I will be posting projects on GitHub. A portfolio of sorts would probably help.

Also gonna learn more about data structures and tackle the “Blind 75”.

Thanks again.

PhDeezNutz said:

cooler heads prevail. Luckily I’m not starving and I have money saved up. And eventually they will pay me (they have to). It’s just a matter of principle.

Isn't there an ombudsman or similar in your school you can speak with? Or, can't you simultaneously find a job outside the lab? Your setup is not likely to change over the middle run, let alone the short run.

WWGD said:

Isn't there an ombudsman or similar in your school you can speak with? Or, can't you simultaneously find a job outside the lab? Your setup is not likely to change over the middle run, let alone the short run.

There is certainly a complaint department I can go to but I don’t want to use that card and burn those bridges until I absolutely have to. (I’m trying to move up the chain to a salaried position).

If I have to I can find a job outside the lab. But before that I’m going to apply for the vacant job of supervisor. My first interview is Tuesday.

If I get the job I will be happy and I’ll have a salary as opposed to hours that have to be approved.

With that said, many posters in this thread have shown me the truth: I need to be building up skills in the meantime and be ready for a way out. Like you and many others have said management seems completely lost and the situation is not likely to improve.

Just got to bite my tongue in the meantime.

With whom will you interview? Try to make a friend and ally. You don't really want the job unless there are some reasonable people in the organization with whom to partner.. So be relentlessly affirmative but do not hide your hopes and plans for improvement. Positive.......Good Luck.

hutchphd said:

With whom will you interview? Try to make a friend and ally. You don't really want the job unless there are some reasonable people in the organization with whom to partner.. So be relentlessly affirmative but do not hide your hopes and plans for improvement. Positive.......Good Luck.

Same person who presumably approves my hours now. I sent her an email about it (that wasn’t accusatory). Hopefully she responds Monday (my interview is Tuesday).

No I really don’t want this job but it will sustain me in the meantime as I work on an exit plan. But maybe I’ll be able to change things by acting diplomatically. Ultimately I care about the students and the changes as of late make me wonder if higher ups share the same sentiment as I do, and even if they do, are they even aware of student needs? The people who I did get along with and look up to left.

So update…..I’m a little bit calmer now. She told me that the system (for approving time) crashed Friday and they were all instructed to wait until Monday. This has never happened before…..but it’s not totally surprising that it could happen. After all it’s a large infrastructure.

I guess I let my mind go to the darkest place and assume the worst because of largely pre-conceived notions.

Edit: regardless I’m going to continue studying that mathematics behind machine learning along with learning about data structures and algorithms. If for no other reason than personal growth.

Have you tried teaching at one of cc? Although pay can vary, and be on the low side for first time timers. Maybe teaching will make you happier in the short term? Theres los helping students with GED,at least in California, the cc pay about $70 bucks an hour. Enough free time to work on what ever skills you want to learn...

PhDeezNutz said:

I guess I let my mind go to the darkest place and assume the worst because of largely pre-conceived notions.

And it never hurts to repeat the one truth in all of this $$The~only~behavior~I ~can~control~is ~ my ~own$$ Sometimes difficult to really believe this.