Thread by @gauravsabnis

I just finished a Zoom call with a group of grad students scheduled to lead a case study analysis in my Marketing Analytics class tomorrow, worth 15% of their eventual grade.

All from India. Mostly Maharashtra. Like me.

My main message to them was, first of all, chill.

I'm not here to "grade" you but to "educate" you, I said to them. And switched to colloquial Hindi,

"Main idhar D-akka F-akka dene nahin baithela. Main idhar tum sabko sikhaane ke liye baithela. Jo aata woh karo, jo nahin aata, bolo merko, Prof, samjhao na."

Real education

When teaching grad courses, especially at 600 levels, which are mostly full of Indian and Chinese students, my main focus before spring break is to stress on them that I was once like them. And I remember it and get it.

My first job is to try to rid them of anxiety.

Being a foreign grad student in America, especially Indian/Chinese, with the crazy green card and H1 and such backlogs, it's an anxiety filled existence. I remember.

You upend your life to chase a dream. In a foreign country on the other side of the planet.

Anxiety is natural!

Aside - also why I get extra angry at sanghis for treating hijabi students in Karnataka or Indian students in Ukraine so cruelly and dismissively.

Students are my people. Our people. Everyone's people.

Students are global citizens.

Be nice to students, FFS!

So this zoom call was very useful in explaining

- Yup, what I've assigned you is very confusing
- But that's the real life my job is to prepare you for
- Do your best, give it serious thought
- What you don't know, just ask me
- Don't worry about grades. Grades are so pointless!

I was a grad student once not too long ago.

I hated it when a professor who had obviously taught the case a dozen times before berated me for not knowing some random footnote that they did.

Looking back, IIM profs don't really "get" the case study methodology fully.

Case studies are not contests. Case studies are not Jeopardy or Kaun Banega Crorepati. Like IIMs often treat them.

Case studies are meant to educate students in a relevant real way. To dive deep into the facts and the principles and the learnings.

It's not "boot camp".

Exactly.

That was the point.

I don't usually go through life in NYC using bambaiyya bhidu Hindi like a short chubby Jackie Shroff.

I used it here to make them feel comfortable.

So they understand, I'm no different from them. Just have a different job.

https://twitter.com/shirishag75/status/1500861197163597824?t=mKMoFYgBP43S21rs2jOCzg&s=19

Looking forward to the group leading the case study tomorrow, now that I've been able to assure them that there is no "right answer" I'm looking for.

I'm just trying to impart education.

And I did tell them, hehehehe, after spring break, it'll get even more ambiguous! 🤭🤭

I'm a marketing professor in the 21st century. My job is to help students how to deal with ambiguity the best they can.

And tell them that there is no "ONE" right answer.

There are many possible right answers if you can defend them.

Defend them. I promise I'll be nice.

Mutuals who have met me in real life will attest that I'm generally way way nicer and chill and non-intimidatory than my Twitter persona.

I breathe fire on Twitter but send air kisses in real life.