The Law of Averages

Acing my music midterm has given me a much welcomed respite from receiving my calculus midterm (I know that I failed because I forgot vector direction. It was just time to get over it!). However, I am happy to say that partial derivatives will save my life and my grade because they are far easier than vector-valued functions!

It's Mathematically Possible

I have shared my college prep research experience regarding Bill Gates’ with a friend. The thing that still stumps me even after all of these weeks, is how I hadn’t known that I could be an engineer while sitting in calculus III! Well, I still can and I would study either chemistry, physics (I studied this in high school but did not have the math background. Now that I do I feel more comfortable with the formulas) or biology, for biostatistics. Mastering math opens a wider window of opportunities available to me right now or after receiving my doctorate. That's why passing the credit by examination proctored tests are so essential towards expanding my professional capabilities.

No longer will I depend upon someone else for advancement. Earning the nine statistics allows me to venture into other fields within my own department. I can also become a statistician, mathematical statistician and biostatistician. Now that’s recession-proofing my career because this year I will garner the credits necessary either through class or credit by examination to accrue 29 math credits to vie for these other jobs! Immediately I print all of the statistician jobs to review the requirements. My economics background supplies stellar transferable skills. Also it is a big plus that one of the largest government agencies hiring statisticians is under the same department as my employer. This distinction further would boost my candidacy.

This Is Not What I Want

Lord Have Mercy! Both ZP-III economist interviews were busts! During my morning interview, the interviewer gave me a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that I would be promoted without competition this May; however, I still felt that I wanted to vie for this position because it offered no competition for ZP-IV promotion. Becoming a Senior Executive Service Economist required ZP-V so every promotion was important towards realizing my career goal and I defended my decision to seek out other opportunities before my two-year anniversary. The interview was quite challenging especially there was not an abundance of information available; however, I was able to be honest in telling him what I did and did not know about the position since there was no information on the intranet. The afternoon one horrible because instead of a pure economist job, they were trying to sell me the okie-doke: an admin. support post with economist only in title! Yikes! What were they thinking? Luckily I had the phone interview tomorrow else I'd be depressed. Oh well, back to the drawing board!

The Economists Have Finally Reached a Consenus That We Are in a Recession But I Know That Already!

Finally! The WSJ has coped to a recession (It’s about time the paper gets its nose out of the sky! I regularly shop at Saks, Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales and the week before Christmas I was the only one in Jimmy Choo store (The author is also an economist!)). And like I have said even before Bernanke’s hire, I have openly questioned why an academic without any real-world job experience would be appointed to the Fed Chief position given that his predecessor held jobs outside of the Ivory Tower? The main problem is that the current subprime lending crisis did not follow the economic models and he is slow to respond. Bernanke cut interest rates but they have very little impact upon stimulating because unemployment is still higher and people are losing their house, their primary financial asset. Personally, I am purchasing savings bond to protect my assets from inflation. The remaining 2006 ARM will reset throughout this year but the real financial recovery will take at least another year given that America will have to adapt to another administration.

Opportunity Journal Entry #20: Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Another division has scheduled me for a ZP-III Economist interview! Yippee because that’s two ZP-III interviews in one day. However, still apply for the three outside GS-11 Economist jobs as backup. Furthermore, I will remember to mention at both interviews that I am an ALDP Finalist and this is a departmental plan. In addition, I am sticking to my price tag because I am currently making the minimum; plus I am on the tech committee and am a department-wide finalist and this alone speaks volumes about my proficiency (Personally, I believe that the other division will give me the better deal because they don’t know me, therefore, will pay me more money. Be prepared to move on and up to earn my worth.).

Opportunity Journal Entry #19: Reaping the Harvests of Mentoring

Until I researched material for my beautician’s son, the idea that sitting in a calculus III was somehow a great feat that most people did not accomplish. This week while reading the 2006-2008 catalog, I realized how close I was towards obtaining a BS in Mathematics. However, these epiphanies helped me unearth an abundance of available opportunities to recession-proof my current career. Attaining my math degree qualified me for the mathematician, statistician and mathematical statistician positions. Mathematicians required 24 math credits while statistician and mathematical statistician jobs required fifteen math credits and nine statistics. Presently, I had twenty credit hours but no statistics courses, that’s why the university’s credit by examination option presents the chance to earn them. For only tuition plus a $50 fee, I can test out of a class. Of course, I will schedule these exams upon achieving residency in July to save time and money. Testing out of all of my statistics classes would allow me to focus on differential equations, mathematical statistics I and II; thereby, allowing me to simultaneously graduate with both a BS in Mathematics and an MA in Economics.

Although this past Saturday I wrote in my journal that after taking one year off from American to improve my math skills, I should find a way to graduate because of all of the time invested in this endeavor. In addition, possessing a BS in Mathematics enables me to recession-proof my career (You have noticed that no one lay off the engineers?!). Furthermore, I can get almost any technological job that I want. Having always loved tinkering with electronics (I took PASCAL in high school), so math is natural. Having emailed the departmental chair, I will keep asking her until I receive a straight answer about the exams. If she decides no then file a grievance because the university says that I have a right to take it. Yet always have a backup plan. I am contacting the other university to see if it would schedule its statistics equivalency exam this summer so that I can test into the graduate statistics courses; thereby, enabling me to take higher-level stats classes which will resonate on my transcript. There are so many different avenues to venture and without mentoring my beautician’s son, I would had never known how wide open my future was!

Coming Full Circle

Tonight I returned to Shirlington to celebrate with my fellow Urban League Young Professionals at the conclusion of the legislative conference held here in Washington, DC. Though I was in familiar surroundings, my life was a complete 180 degrees from when I lived in Virginia. My bad credit was the reason behind my move (really, it was a force-out) from DC and anger and disappointment consumed me for the better half of that year. Determined to return to DC, I diligently paid off nearly all of my creditors and returned to the city. While on the 25A returning to Pentagon, I realized that it was me not the city that was the problem and the solution. Furthermore, returning to Virginia allowed me to reconcile all of my feelings and let go of all of the animosity.