Natalia Bulchenko and Arsenii Buchatskii became the winners of the 7th season of the «I am a Professional» Student Olympiad
On 13 June, the results of the VII season of the All-Russian Student Olympiad «I am a Professional» organized by the association of the same name were summed up. The winners included the staff of the ILSIR: research assistants Natalia Bulchenko and Arsenii Buchatskii. We talked to Natalia and Arsenii and found out their impressions and secrets of successful participation.
Natalia Bulchenko, HSE ILSIR Research Assistant:
"Intellectual work is never wasted," these were my exact thoughts when I saw Susan Sontag's quote in the first Olympic assignment, sewn into an article on memory studies by Aleida Assman, which I quite accidentally chose for making a presentation within the course "Biographical Method in Sociology" a year ago and remembered quite well a year later. There was a great deal of luck involved, but luck alone is not enough if you don't have the knowledge. I am so happy to receive the status of a "winner" in the Olympiad, since I plan to continue postgraduate education.
Arsenii Buchatskii, HSE ILSIR Research Assistant:
My successful «lifehack» for getting high scores was to use in my work the structure of sections of the research proposal for applicants to HSE graduate school — I am already familiar with it from the Joint Master’s-PhD Study Track, and this format helps to show all the strengths and limitations of the research.
I was very lucky: I was interested in the topic of implicit effects in production, proposed on the basis of R. Merton's idea of manifest and latent functions — I made up a whole big story and wrote about how one company introduced a mentoring system for training interns and a new type of bonus for senior employees for the role of a mentor, but experienced employees decided to ignore the program and new incentives because they felt replaceable and unnecessary.
When thinking about the research design for this case, I was able to apply very many theoretical concepts and methodological approaches that we use with my scientific advisor, prof. Victoria Antonova as part of writing my term paper and Master’s thesis. I am very grateful to Viktoria for immersing me in the multifaceted «worlds» of organization research and practicing the use of such scientific tools — for the opportunity to see the real meanings, feelings and emotions behind a seemingly ordinary and largely formalized labor process!
My approach to my work was not without humor: I called the fictitious company in which I proposed to conduct the research «Burawoy Drilling Holding» (rus. «burovoy kholding “Buravoy”») - after the «father» of public sociology, Michael Burawoy. I hope the jury liked it!
We congratulate our research assistants with prize-winning places and wish them further success in participating in Olympiads and intellectual competitions and on their scientific journeys!