Beyond the discomfort of learning

"If a company is expecting me to learn, why would it hire me in the first place?"

Few weeks ago, I received this question while talking to AI students about the keys to a successful career. Unsurprising to many, continuous development and learning was my first advice for having a successful career. I was prepared to talk about how to develop and how to measure progress. But apparently, continuous learning has become such common-sense for me that I had to reflect about the "why" afterwards to properly answer this question.

Dear aspiring Data Scientist:

Educational system has rooted a limited mindset in us. We were taught that there is one book to study, and when we are done, we are done. And if we extend our knowledge beyond that one book, we will just be wasting time that we should spend to study this book harder.

But here is the good news: Life is way more interesting and broader than any single book. Unlike our education, real life & knowledge are limitless. The more you know, the smarter you will get. And the smarter you get, the more successful you will be.

Besides, the speed of change that we are experiencing is making this limitless world even more interesting. Those facts also mean that if we do not learn, our knowledge and skills will eventually get out-dated. So continuous development is not optional if you want to have a successful, stable and sustainable career.

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"Do I reject a good offer if the employer would not support my development?"

Dear aspiring Data Scientist: If an employer does not expect and support you to develop and grow, they will be 1 of those 3 types:

?1. The employer has an unrealistic expectation that you are already Mr(s). Know-It-All

Realistically, NO ONE knows everything, including Andrew Ng & Hermione Granger. Working for an employer that has such unrealistic expectation will only cause frustration for you and them. No matter what you do, you will never meet their "know-it-all" expectation. This will result in stress and frustration. So, save yourself both and reject the offer.

2. The employer is ignorant of the speed of change

I remember in 2015, which is not that long ago, I actually had to parallelize the processing manually. That was the advanced best practice back then that we now can only document for a museum. The speed of change in our field is one of the fastest. Some employers are not conscious about this fact. They would mistakenly think that the skills you've gained in college will be fit for good. So why should they support your development?

You might think of this mentality as comfortable and cozy. And on the short term, it is indeed. Until you will find out after a couple of years that your skills have been outdated, and the company is losing to others who learned how to develop to be up-to-speed. And you will both get outdated in some years.?

3. The rock-bottom case: The employer is following an "exploit and recycle" HR strategy

Some companies have a strategy to recruit the best talent they could, squeeze the life out of every existing skill they have in each minute of their work. And after their skills get outdated, fire them and hire new shiny talents. Rinse, and repeat. And if an employer has such strategy, why should they support your development at all? And, you would not want to work for such an employer, would you?

So, if a company does not support you to grow, run! Regardless of how "good" the offer seems to be.

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"Are there companies that truly support learning & development?"

YES! And Bayer is an excellent example to demonstrate! At Bayer, development is not just a privilege offered to the employees, but rather an expectation that Bayer as an employer has

So How does Bayer foster the learning culture?

1. Learning and development is an official goal

During my first weeks at Bayer, my Boss introduced me to the Fit office. Together with Matthias Wiencke we have set an extensive development plan for the 6 months after. I remember Matthias saying that this is a commitment from Bayer and myself. Bayer should offer me the time and resources to complete my plan and I should put the effort into completion.

2. Bayer has technically equipped us for learning

Bayer has opened access to several learning platforms such as Udacity and Linkedin Learning to all of its employees. Lately, I have been diving deeper in the Digital Marketing domain. And thanks to the open platforms that Bayer is offering us, I was able to start learning about a completely new field in a matter of minutes.

3. Our leaders demonstrate and support continuous learning themselves

This is important to let us know that learning is not wasting the company's time, but a necessity that we are expected to do.

Let me give you a few examples: Our top 500 leaders in Consumer Health have all gone through an extensive digitalization training program provided by one of the best business schools. Liam Condon, CEO of Bayer Crop Science, has had a recent interview to speak about the importance of learning. The title of this interview was "The real stars will be the ones with the deepest learning capability." Christian Ulrich, our CIO at Consumer Health, shared and discussed with us how to develop a life-long learning mindset*. And the examples can go on and on.?

?And here is one additional reason why I am proud to be a part of #TeamBayer

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Dear aspiring Data Scientist: If a company does not support your development, run! You deserve a better future.

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* https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/seven-essential-elements-of-a-lifelong-learning-mind-set