My biggest thing. My biggest grievance. My biggest anxiety about this university course. Is without a doubt, group work. It's preposterous, to think that it causes me stress. I'm pretty good at working together, I've been doing it for my entire career. Look, I get it, they're trying to building soft skills for the work force, but for me it's just additional administration. There's something about university group assignments that lack the usual cohesion and screams of inefficient use of time. The administration of finding a group, the administration of deciding on a topic, the administration of booking library rooms and the administration of coordinating meeting times.
This semester I have two subjects, with two projects, which means two headaches. I should also caution, that I have made little to no effort trying to make friends in this course, so it should come as no surprise that I do not know anybody taking these two subjects. Step one, form a group. For the first subject I send out a public broadcast/plea to the entire class email distribution list. The email reads as follows (attached with pleasantries and salutations).
This semester I have two subjects, with two projects, which means two headaches. I should also caution, that I have made little to no effort trying to make friends in this course, so it should come as no surprise that I do not know anybody taking these two subjects. Step one, form a group. For the first subject I send out a public broadcast/plea to the entire class email distribution list. The email reads as follows (attached with pleasantries and salutations).
"I'm a part-time MSc BDT student looking for team members for the upcoming group project - I am interested in equity indices, or crypto, but am fairly flexible with project topic.
Please contact me if you are looking for a group, or interested in the above topics."
One week later, still no reply.
The second subject I take a different tact, I decide during the lecture break I will casual ask around and see if anybody wants to form a group, or let me join theirs'. It's a small class and I ask each person separately, only to be politely rejected. The panic sets in as I move around the class, only to be declined each time. I stop asking after the fifth person, it would seem that groups have already been formed.
Back to the first subject. Eventually, somebody replies to my email and then by means of WeChat we form a mega group of six people. I wonder why nobody replied, it could very well be a cultural thing. Or it could be a generation thing. I am after all on average 15 years older than these kids. Perhaps, nobody forms groups over emails. It's probably the equivalent of asking somebody out on a date by a hand posted letter. Get with the times.
The second subject I've decided to tackle solo. Yes, it means more workload for me, but it also means complete autonomy and all those issues above, suddenly disappear. Let's see how this semester finishes up.
