Group Projects

Team Production

            When it comes to team production and gift exchange the first thing that comes to mind for me is group projects. It just so happens that one is coming up in this class so I thought I would try to bring this topic up because it is very relatable and relevant to this course. The idea of a group project is perfect in theory, just like what Jonathan Haidt talks about in, “How to get rich the Rich to share the Marbles.” With group projects, they are small teams of students working together to make a better project that they would have made by themselves, with different viewpoints and work styles meshing together, and where everyone shares the work equally. With what Jonathan talks about in his article is how everyone does their part and those who get more give back to those who get less. So both of these ideas are very sound in theory, but in the real world, nothing is really that sound.

            Group projects are great and I really do enjoy them, but I myself have had some bad previous experiences with them, and I think that a lot of other people share somewhat of the same experiences that I have had. What I am talking about is the member who does no work and gets the credit. There have been a couple of group projects that I have been on where there was one kid who really doesn’t do everything, and everyone else has to pick up the slack and then the whole group shares a grade. If it is a good grade, the one student who did no work benefits the most because he did nothing and rode on the tails of everyone else and gets a good grade. Now I know that team members can tell the teacher that the kid did nothing, but in all honesty nobody enjoys ratting someone out, so it puts the other group members in a very particular situation. Relating this to the article I think that it doesn’t perfectly match up with it, but it revolves around some of the main concepts.

            In the marble scenario, two people are doing the exact same amount of work but one is getting a better payoff. It is the opposite in the group project scenario where not everyone is doing the same work, but they are getting the same payoff. I believe that what most of us are worried about in life is the payoff. A lot of people don’t look at the work; they look at the money. People don’t pick jobs because they are easy, they pick jobs because they will make more money with those jobs. So with gift exchange in my group project example, everyone wants the gift of a good grade, and some might be willing to put in the work, but others might not be, and this deals with fairness. I think that the success in this example relies on good communication from those involved, and proper organization.

            Luckily group projects work most of the time and students split the work equally and get back what they put in. The issue with this in the real world is that everyone is out for themselves and people value their work differently. Some people do get the short end of the stick, and I don’t know if our economy will ever be able to fix that.

Future Job

            I like most others have no idea what my life is going to be like once I graduate. I believe that like myself, many others hope that they can find a good job and live independently, but there are many steps to get to that point. The major that I picked here at Illinois was Economics, and I chose to have a double minor in Statistics and Informatics so that I would stand out from the crowd. I picked these three things because when I left high school I had no idea what I wanted to do. In today’s job market you need a college degree and I knew that I had to go to college, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I looked back on my three favorite classes in high school which were AP Economics, AP Statistics and Computer programming and figured that if I enjoyed it then, I would enjoy it now, and I do. I had always heard the quote, “do what you love and you will never work a day in your life” and I believe that as this quote may be true, it is also very hard to get a well-paying job. With that being said the hardest part about finding a job is showing a company that you are unique, because for every one job opening there are over 100 people who want that job. That is why I try to make myself stand out from the pack by adding a double minor, being involved with on campus clubs, and working internships. I believe that all of these things will help me get a job, which in the grand scheme of things is only step one. I believe that these actions are helping me reduce income risk because I look at these actions as investments for my future. I would much rather have spent my time traveling than working last summer, and I would much rather be relaxing than studying during the school year, but all of these thing have a purpose in my life, and that is to help me get a job. In the grand scheme of things getting your first job out of college is only step one.

            I have two older brothers who have entered the work force and have been given a lot of advice from them. Mainly they told me that preparation and patience are the two most important things one can do. Preparing yourself for something will make it much easier. Though I am very good at improvising, putting in effort beforehand makes the process much easier. This came true to me last week when I had my first job interview. I researched the company before hand and had prepared questions and answers so that when the time for the interview came I felt way less pressure than I could have. They also told me that patience is the best way to stay sane. It took both of them a few months to find a job once they graduated, and they told me at points they felt hopeless. This was because there was always someone who was just a little more qualified than you, or you weren’t the right fit at the company, etc. But thankfully they both found jobs that they absolutely love. Also with patience they told me that moving out of the house was a big step, and not to rush into it. They both lived with my parents for about six months after they got their job so that they could build up a good credit line, save money and make the right move. They told me that it was very hard for them to not instantly move out and into the city because commuting every day was terrible, but they were glad that they waited.

            Since they are my brothers I took their words very seriously and try to apply those principals to my hunt for a job so that when the time comes I know that I can manage my situation well.

connecting the dots

Connecting the Dots

Throughout my posts I do not know if there has been one central theme. I believe that my posts have been fairly independent of each other, but some of the prompts that I have had to answer have came from my experience at my internship. In terms of the second question I believe that my writing has been somewhat been connected to the course themes, but overall I have learned more after my blog has been posted. I believe that this comes from speaking about the blog posts in class after they are due. It is easy to relate to other posts and fully understand what you are talking about after you write it. Talking about it in class It is really easy to see the bigger picture and connect it to the overall theme of the course. This is because writing the blog post is my first exposure to the topic then we get to fully go over it in the class. I think that my writing has evolved somewhat because of the fact that my first blog post that I ever wrote was in this class and the only blog posts that I have written have been from this class. So overall the more I write blog posts the more I become a better writer overall. I have had some writing prompts in my life that have been like those in this class, but I feel that these posts are very independent of what I’ve done before. These posts are based on opinions more than many of my other posts, which actually makes writing here a lot easier. For future prompts I would like if they are less open ended and more directional. This is because it is less enjoyable to completely write an open ended prompt. I would relate this to the illinibuck prompt. That was my least enjoyable prompt to write, but I have found all the other prompts to be a lot more enjoyable.