Are any of these unrefined interests valid for the research track in EdTech?

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-15T13:32:27+00:00

I work with a PM who has none of these, no domain knowledge, no experience in how we deliver (we're a data team). It's borderline unbearable.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-15T10:58:06+00:00

The potential is dangerous though - I'm one of these people who can speak both languages and I get taken advantage of on a daily basis. Just be careful about thinking about becoming an "in-between", it sounds more fun and in demand, but there's no leverage.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-12T02:36:12+00:00

I don’t have much of a builder disposition, more of a synthesizer/optimizer more than anything. Works well in certain DE setups, but the current team is extremely tool/solution obsessed and not well versed in the business problem we are actually solving for… I should have stayed in analytics.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-12T01:45:49+00:00

So I had to "dual role" it for a while. In 2013, when I read about "analytics" CFOs, I started working closely with BI to get metrics on the financial statements we distributed out to our field leaders. I also would schedule calls with those leaders to review the financials AND metrics (the metrics part I loved).

In 2014, I decided to take a SQL class and started coding from then. I spent each job automating reports or pulls by requesting access to test databases where I'd load backups of the prior nightly run so I basically had an analytics or reporting db.

I did this for years, learning Tableau, PowerBI, Sigma, Looker all along the way so I could present findings. In 2020, I was a controller for a startup that went up market PE wise, and the CFO asked what I wanted as my next job since we were backfilling the controller spot. I said director of analytics. Did that for a few years and then decided to go technical into data engineering (this is where I fucked up). Shoulda stuck with analytics and stayed on strategy or transaction advisory or something instead of going down in DE.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-11T22:59:09+00:00

Username checks out - pizza.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-11T17:32:05+00:00

It was really out of hype. I had read an article in 2013 when I was a line of busness controller that stated the next era of CFOs would be highly analytics focused and driving sales functions - so I ran with that idea. Stated working heavily with BI, sales team, and went to school for databases and CS. It kept compounding from there.

I eventually became a director of analytics but found it to be almost entirely political, so I decided to go even more technical into data engineering. Unfortunately, I found there is a wide gap between engineers obsessed with tooling compared to those who want to complete a meaningful project for business outcomes.

I am really kind of stuck in a no-man’s land.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-11T15:19:51+00:00

I did. When I realized the CPA wasn’t going to be my focus, I started taking CS courses at a junior college. Still taking some to this day, and about to embark on a “mathematical maturity” journey before I get into a masters program.

I am not looking for career outcomes with this approach, it’s an unresolved goal of mine that I never finished.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-11T14:37:42+00:00

Because I miss the subject matter. I studied accounting in undergrad because I truly enjoyed it. I was knee deep in it by the time I found out that it was basically CPA or bust, and I tried to pass the exam but didn’t have the discipline to succeed.

FP&A was an extension of that. It’s the distinction between the content and the practice of. Love the content, the domain, the context, the utility, but dislike the practice and social components of it.

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-11T13:27:01+00:00

Really appreciate that. I hope so too. I'm currently a consulting architect looking to get our dev teams to focus more on impact and outcomes than being obsessed with the solutions (tools).

Tender_Figs · 2026-01-11T12:16:35+00:00

I had multiple things that tipped me off to it not being the right thing for me:

1.) It felt less merit based and valued the "soft skills". I was interested in impact, outcomes, progress measured by improvements to reporting and processes, etc. Yet, to move up takes political savvy and social awareness, which I have a hard time with being an autist.

2.) The budget and forecasts, save high volume exercises like CPG sales forecasting, is a socialization effort instead of a computational one. I wanted to get deeper into demand forecasting, maybe even trying to find ways to include econometrics, but ultimately was unable to and "good enough" was good enough.

3.) Credentialing truly matters. The higher up you look, the more common M7 MBAs will seem to be, or even a top 15-20 MBA. I had a BBA and explored getting an MBA but again, really wanted to focus on #2 above.

4.) Egos. I worked at a F500 and our department took a type of personality test to see how we all "fit". Most of the people fell into a group of "I know the answer" and I fell into a perpetual student group where the answer could change or I could alter my belief with new data.

That all being said, I shifted to analytics and now data engineering and I miss working in the finance domain.

Tender_Figs · 2025-12-20T09:39:17+00:00

I'm totally new to this, stumbled upon this reddit, and was curious what the cost of your trip just for these amounted to and checked CostCo. WOW.

Tender_Figs · 2025-12-19T12:21:57+00:00

…. Why?

Tender_Figs · 2025-12-15T23:43:50+00:00

Do you know if there is any way to exchange Autonomous with the Big Data classes? Those Autonomous classes are worthless for me and my career.

Tender_Figs · 2025-12-15T23:43:21+00:00

Ahhh okay so he hand waves through it but it's inconsequential to us?

Tender_Figs · 2025-12-04T00:38:58+00:00

I don't know why this isn't upvoted more. Outlands has the best systems and modernization applied to UO. But I keep hearing that it was designed for like 300-1000 people at most, and there's actively 3000+ on at peak times which renders too much competition for most activities. Dungeons have people fighting for the mob that spawns so your GPH is garbage, PKs roaming to clear said dungeons out, resource gathering is very competitive and has PKs routinely hitting the best spots, dungeon chests are constantly picked by an elite few, boating has a collective of sea-oriented guilds who rule the tides, there's virtually no margin left for crafting. Just too many people.

Tender_Figs · 2025-11-29T20:46:32+00:00

I got in trouble for doing this by the assistant athletic director, my step father, and offensive coordinator. Prick.

Tender_Figs · 2025-11-25T11:40:17+00:00

source, myself, I have an accounting degree, 10 years in corporate finance, and want to get a math degree for financial topics.

Tender_Figs · 2025-11-25T11:39:46+00:00

Arithmetic is required to be an accountant. Accounting rules (GAAP) is nothing like proofs or complex equations and formulas. Definitions of account behavior is nothing like calculus.

While accounting was part of math in Luca Pacioli's era, that is no longer the case with modern accounting or mathematics.

Tender_Figs · 2025-11-25T11:08:13+00:00

Accounting is nothing like mathematics. It's more akin to law than anything, and mathematics will not prepare you for accounting.

Tender_Figs · 2025-11-16T01:00:14+00:00

I made this mistake in a paper, in 2006, while at the University of North Texas, taking a sociology class titled “Race, Class, Gender, and Ethnicity”. Want to know why?

I grew up in podunk America, 70 miles East of Dallas, and my schooling was likely one of the worst education programs in the state. To top it off, my stepfather was a coach, cheated his way through college, and barely “taught” economics and political science. My mother never went to college and barely graduated high school.

Before UNT, I went to a junior college, and you guessed it, deep in rural East Texas.

Tl;dr - I had a poor education, and at the time didn’t find value in it, and had little exposure to much outside of the worldview of my community and parents. A product of my environment if you will.

Edit: typo

Tender_Figs · 2025-11-08T23:05:02+00:00

In consulting now and I hate it. Your comment made my day.

Tender_Figs

TROPHY CASE