What I got out of my formal education

01 Sep 2020

Graduation at Cranfield University

image: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DDv2x6UXUAI-va0.jpg

In the last few days I read with interest an article by Seth Godin on education vs. learning (another great one on the topic…), one by Dr. John Sullivan on the value of a college degree and chipped in on a discussion initiated by Paolo de Caro on how Google plan to disrupt education. Then I started mulling over what I got out of my formal, post-high school education.

Education doesn’t prepare you for the real world - Shane Parrish, The Great Mental Models Vol.1

I got degrees from the University La Sapienza in Rome, from Cranfield University and from the IE.

From 1997 till 2002 I studied aerospace engineering at University La Sapienza in Rome. The course was very theoretical and very broad, very disconnected from the industrial reality. At the time I felt it was not deep enough on technical topics, that I was pushed to cover subjects I would never touch in my professional life, that I was studying them only to tick a box, without getting any added value for my future career.

Oh if I was wrong.

Yep, technical topics were dealt with theoretically, on basic examples with limited resemblance to industrial realities. Yep, practical applications were practically non-existent. Yep, I never again touched many subjects studied like geometry in hyperspaces or gas dynamics.

But…

I did get a very broad basis. I did get a good understanding of basic principles. I did get an understanding of the physics behind multiple areas, often disconnected from the (supposed) core of the course. I did get an approach to study and to learning or maybe I was just forced to get a methodology that worked for me in order to “survive” and complete the course on time (no small feat at the time, out of memory the average completion time for the 5 year courses was close to 9 years and the dropout rate was enormous, far, far above 50%).

What I did not get, and I sorely missed in the early phases of my career, was to open up towards different perspectives and ways of working. Moreover between commuting, attending lessons and studying, the time to be curious and cultivate other interests drop off dramatically.

It was a 5 years slog punctuated by refreshing breaks each semester that left me with a feeling of incompleteness.I felt my profile was incomplete because it was not up to speed with the latest technical developments, because it was too far away from any real applications. I was right to feel incomplete, but I now reckon the gaps where somewhere else.

Anyway, to close the perceived gaps at the time, I opted for a master in advanced materials at Cranfield University (2002-2003). I chose it because, on the paper at least, it offered a close link to the industry and the main topic, composite materials, was very hot in the aerospace sector at the time.

I was, again, wrong about my expectations.

I went to Cranfield to round up my technical profile, but I discovered that the delta compared with the theoretical know-how I already had was small and it was easy to move from the basic examples I was used to to real world applications. I saw classmates drowning in the studies while I coped with them with limited effort, not because I was better than them but because I had a better, more sound study methodology. That and the lack of commutingy freed me time to enjoy, really enjoy, campus life and to stifle my curiosity, my willingness to pursue disparate interests.

By far the biggest benefit I got out of studying at Cranfield is my opening up to the world and an increased understanding of how different people tick.

Cranfield is in the middle of nowhere but every year welcomes thousands of students from all over the globe: they make the difference, they make it a special places with their hopes and dreams, with their different approaches and attitudes. Cranfield is a micro-cosmos in which I could really experience the world. In 11 months, I went from my local bubble on the tiburtine hills to a melting pot of races and cultures, from gobbling down kilos of pizzutello to share the sunday rost at the Swan pub with people from 6 continents.

I opened up, I totally understood that people make the difference, but I’ve to admit I was still pretty much technically focused and put people behind (too far behind?).

But what happens when you join a technically focused company like Airbus?

I’m an engineer - assume I’m always right

There are tens of thousands of very good engineers and, thankfully, it is quite common to get very different technical opinions. How do you bring forward your own “right” approach?

I started working on a structure I never studied before, the floor beams, made in a relatively basic aluminum alloy, no composites or new fancy alloys.

Was I out of my depth? Hell, no!

Technically I was able to cope and quickly master the work, but more often than not I was surprised by management decisions taken from a global viewpoint, accounting for multiple perspectives (i.e. financial, people, etc.) and not only from a mere technical viewpoint.

I was missing the management basis and I thought about an MBA to bring me up to speed. As I was deeply involved and very much enjoying being part of the development of a new aircraft, definitely not something happening every day, I opted for a part-time, blended MBA program by IE: it was 2006, to study online 80%+ of the course was really innovative and pioneering - it was a great, great experience. Apart for the rare technical hiccups, the course ran smoothly and it was a discovery after another of new worlds, a series of aha moments that helped me to grow and to discover new worlds.

How do you collaborate and deliver your work on time and quality interacting with a bunch of fellow students scattered across the globe with an extremely varied academic and cultural background? How do you that without knowing anything about them? Btw, it’s still 2006 - internet was far slower and far less present than today, people were far less used to interact online…

Surely it was not easy, especially in combination with the daily job and something called “life”, but it was immensely rewarding, it was a lot of fun and a lot of learning.

You were pushed to learn, you were stimulated and challenged on a variety of topics and aspects far beyond the standard coursework. I had the privilege to get not only good teachers, but great coaches (both among the professors and the students) who regularly pushed me to open up, to face, reckon and review my own assumptions and biases.

If I started opening up at Cranfield, well, the MBA at IE really brought me to another level, providing me the capabilities both to understand the business and its people.

Did I improve my management capabilities? I’d dare say so, but I improved them in a far larger, broader way than I envisioned before, in which my focus was more on project management than anything else. As in the case of my aerospace engineering degree, I feel I got more in terms of first principles than in-depth know how of a narrow field and I got a lot of seeds in various, disparate fields that I tried to grow in the following years via dedicated projects or side activities like consulting on financial investments. And a huge stimulus to keep on being curious about what’s happening out there in the world.

I’m now totally happy about the breadth and the diversity of the program: I feel I can leverage upon and interpolate among the principles absorbed to understand the specifics of many business challenges.

So, in hindsight, what did I got from my formal education?

Surely a lot of formulae, notions and facts, but their added value is reducing every day.

I feel the real plus I got from my formal education are a bunch of by-products:

Could I’ve got these pluses without a formal education?

Nowadays, very probably yes, at least providing that somebody would have pointed me in the right direction, I had listened to the advice and fully bought into it. Honestly, not so realistic.

Furthermore, would the world (i.e. recruiters & companies) have welcomed me in the same way without a proper education?

I really don’t think so.

I’m curious: what did you get out of your formal education?