A student wrote:
Hello, I’ve been researching a career in the field of statistics. I’m writing a high school paper on my career field which requires interviews of people working in that field. Would you consider scheduling a fifteen minute phone interview to help me with the paper? Please let me know if you would be willing to participate and when you are available. Thanks in advance.
I asked him to send me questions by email and received the following:
Okay here are a few questions and thank you for time:
How much and what kind of education is needed to be a statistician?
Once getting the job, is there any additional training that is needed to remain in the career?
What are some of the daily activities that you perform in your career?
About how long is a normal workday, and are there many cases in which you may have to work extra to meet deadlines?
How self-dependant must a statistician be?
Are there any personal qualities such as being organized and having good communication skills that are needed as a statistician?
How stressful is being a statistician?
Is there a labor union for statisticians to be involved with?
Do you have to deal with other labor unions in your career?
Is there an opportunity to advance in a company as a statistician?
In five years, do you think there will be more jobs as a statistician or less of them?
My reply:
1. College, M.A., or Ph.D.
2. You just have to keep doing your job.
3. Writing, talking with people, and doing data analysis on the computer. Also teaching, but that’s part of my “professor” job, not my “statistician” job.
4. 9-5 and Yes.
5. Depends on where you work.
6. Good math and computer skills are the most important; after that, yes, oral and written communication skills are important.
7. Not very.
8. Very rarely, I think.
9. No, not really.
10. Yes.
11. I don’t know.
The labor union questions seem odd to me. Am I wrong in thinking they're odd?
awww – so nice of you to answer, but you could have answered "more" on 11 ;-)
These are strange questions, though – I wonder if s/he doesn't have something more specific to ask or feels constrained by the assignment. I'd just assume that someone who says "I want to be a statistician when I grow up" might have a little bit of an idea what that entails and thus more specific questions.
Finally this one is great
wow.
Recall Tukey once put "writing and editing" at the top of his list of what his job involved.
Some succint explanation of the main role of a statistician – other than professor (research and teaching) might be helpful (and a topic of another post).
This popped into my mind this morning "Enable others to be less unsure about what they should be unsure about and just how unsure".
Before that it was "Enable others to be less likely to be seriously misled when trying to learn from observations."
K?
I would assume that the questions were suggested by the teacher as the kinds of questions you might ask, and the student took took them verbatim. (That, or the teacher did a self-interview for the class. Seems like the questions are not-so-strange for a public school teacher.
My first thought about the odd questions was that possibly each student in the class is researching a career, and they are using set questions where the plan is to pool the data. Possibly this student has a sense of humor writing to a statistician. Meta something.
Your last response is surprising. There are regularly articles about the ever-increasing availibility of data, and the need for people who can analyze it. Hal Varian says statistician is the next "big profession", the computer scientist for the 21st century.
Why the uncertainty?
Arik: Why the uncertainty? It's very simple. I simply don't know the answer to the question. I'm an expert on statistics but I don't know anything about employment forecasts.
I think the word "yes" in your answer to number 6 is unnecessary. Other than that, you seem to have achieved your goal of using the fewest possible words. And you did an excellent job at not giving him an iota more information than he explicitly asked for. I especially admire the fact that you didn't even attempt to give any sense of what your job is like, something that I would have found almost impossible to resist, given that that is almost certainly the point of his questions. You've taught him a lesson that will be very valuable to him, should he become a lawyer (especially a trial lawyer or one who takes depositions). It would've been hilarious if he had asked, say, "Can you give me an idea of what your workday is like," and you had just said "Yes." Ha ha!
I love that he included the labor union questions, but I'm wondering if inquiring about professional organizations wouldn't have been better?
Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition
Statisticians
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos045.htm
Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2008
15-2041 Statisticians
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes152041.htm
Summary Report for:
15-2041.00 – Statisticians
http://online.onetcenter.org/link/summary/15-2041…
Phil: Give me a break, dude! If he wants to know what my job is like, he can read this blog. I have no reason to think the student was insincere in his questions, but I also have no reason to think that he thought one minute about his questions before sending them to me, so I responded accordingly.
I'm with Phil… That's the least encouragement I've ever seen in an informational-interview setting.
If you don't think this student was taking the assignment seriously, then it would have been perfectly okay to say you're too busy. Really. As it is, you've clearly not treated him seriously or respectfully.
If his questions seem a little awkward, remember that high schoolers don't yet have a good sense of what different careers are like (hence this interview assignment!), so however much though he put into it, it'd be hard for him to know what are good questions to ask on this topic. Anyway, on any topic it's generally hard to know what questions to ask if you're only allowed one shot up front — it's much easier in an open-ended conversation/interview where you can follow up on interesting points.
I'm worried his report might end up something like this:
"Based on a sample size of one, I find no evidence to reject the hypothesis that statisticians are rude. I will not seek out a professional statistician's help in the future with any data analysis I may need to do, since I extrapolate that they will give me terse, unhelpful responses and then proceed to belittle me behind my back."
That's the kind of stereotype that should be fought, not perpetuated. Way to scare prospective future data analysts away from the field.
Wayne:
That's an interesting point, that these are excellent questions to ask of a public-school teacher.
Jerzy:
Wow, this is a fun discussion . . . I have no idea if this student is reading the blog, but if he is, you and anyone else can feel free to answer all eleven questions right here in the comments, to whatever level of detail you like! I honestly think my answers were accurate and helpful, but if you'd like to elaborate, that's just fine.
As for me, I've worked with high school students more than most statisticians, I think. I also wrote a book about teaching statistics and I provide tons of free statistical advice right here. So if people are thinking that it's not a good idea to talk with statisticians, I don't think I'm the reason for it. On the other hand, I don't think most statisticians have much useful to say about labor unions or job forecasts, and I don't mind if people realize this. I also don't think it's so horrible for a student to learn that what you get out of a project depends to a large extent on what you put into it.
perhaps he's doing a psych unit, and his research is into the responses received from different professions …
Hi Andrew: it's way after the fact, but I wanted to apologize for my rude comment above. I still think it's hard to judge whether "he thought one minute about his questions before sending them to me" — for example, labor unions *are* relevant to statisticians working in government agencies. I'm starting out as a statistician myself and found it pretty discouraging to see a brush-off like this from a respected person in the field. But hey, it is your opinion and your blog, and I shouldn't have been so harsh. In any case, I have enjoyed a lot of your posts and admire your BDA book, so thanks!
Felix: ha, nice one!