My Experience as an Associate Professor

I’m lucky enough to work in a technology environment that thrills me, challenges me enough to spur me on to greater effort and continuous improvement, obliging me to continually read scientific articles on the “state of the art” of various fields I work in. Tied in with this continuous improvement is my ongoing link with the academic world that made me; I now work in as an associate professor working part time at the university, while also working at GMV. I teach Computer Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering, and in the Computer Science and Mathematics double bachelor’s degree program at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

I hold the associate professor position in high esteem. One of its objectives is to create a link between university courses and people with industrial skills, giving a practical, hands-on slant to the theoretical teachings. This is precisely one of the ideas I try to get across to my classes, with examples from the working world, whether my own experiences or known examples from other companies, giving them a much clearer grasp of the usefulness and practical applications of subjects that might otherwise prove tedious or even senseless to study.

I’ve been teaching at the university for five years now. Not in the sense of master classes, following my own bent, but as part of the official university syllabus, albeit with a non-academic outlook. It was all a bit strange at first, the same and yet different from when I myself was a student; being on the other side of the street changes how everything looks. I look back at my own time as a student to try to offer them what I would have wanted in my time. Above all, I try to motivate them and pique their curiosity. I also try to arouse doubts in the students, so that it is they themselves who begin to question things, because I think this is the best way to learn. I also try to explain the whys and wherefores of many things; after all, it is not a question of learning something just for the sake of it but to understand why it would be useful to learn it and where it comes from. I encourage questions, even simple questions, because this helps to create an environment of inquisitiveness in which more interesting questions might be broached. Partly to offset this approachable teaching style, I’m a demanding grader to make sure only real effort is rewarded and hailed with good grades.

I enjoy teaching; it enriches me personally and helps to hone many useful business skills. In particular, we often lose sight of how to explain something that seems simple and everyday to us when the person we are trying to explain it to is perhaps hearing it for the very first time. My teaching experience has shown me how to adapt my language to my audience, looking for metaphors and stressing the truly important aspects.

I’ve met other colleagues at GMV who are also associate professors. I like to swap notes with them, especially about the generational change and the underpinning themes. In addition to the subject of teaching strictly speaking, company life involves presenting many papers and giving many talks at conferences; other colleagues run innovation blogs and give one-off technical talks at universities. There are even some colleagues who, without actually being university professors, are undoubtedly more teacher-like than I am. That’s why our working environment lends itself to this interaction between industry and academia. I believe that all GMV’s new recruits are aware of this and buy into it willingly. We understand that we work in an appealing but tricky field, and any aid always puts us in good standing. Among these new recruits, especially in recent years, I’ve found some of my past students in corridors and at water coolers. This is for me a doubly gratifying, helping to tie together my two professions.

I’ll close this post with a famous saying that serves as my WhatsApp status. It perfectly connects this dual academic, industrial fabric: “Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn”.

Author: David González Arjona