Dr. Andrew Li is the Williams professor of management for the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business at West Texas A&M University.

Williams, having obtained a Master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology, originally planned to become a human resources (HR) professional, but life had other plans.

“My Master’s program time was a two-year program,” Li said. “ So after my first year, I had a professor in my program, and he kind of realized that I was interested in research, so he recommended me to work with a couple other professors. So I spent the summer over at the University of Minnesota, working with them, learning how to do research and stuff like that. I love doing research. Because before that, I never thought about the idea of being a professor because I felt like that idea was too far-fetched to me. And then, after working there, I felt like, ‘You know what? I enjoy doing that.’”

Li did not always know he would land at WT, but he found his way here.

“Typically, getting a job as a faculty member starts a year before you graduate,” Li said. “So my doctoral program was a five-year program. At the end of your fourth year, or at the beginning of your fifth year, you do what we call, you know, going on the job market; Basically you just go out to find a faculty job. I applied to a whole bunch of jobs, one of which was the job here, and I think that the first reply that I got was from WT. So I visited, and I met with the wonderful faculty member here, and I love it here. I love the people, and decided to take the job and have been here for 17 years.”

Following receiving his Bachelor’s degree, Li was working and living in China. But found his way to the U.S. for more schooling.

“I actually came to the United States for my Master’s [degree],” Li said. “The first 25 years of my life, I was in China. I finished my bachelor’s degree. I worked for a couple of years, and at the time when I was working, I didn’t really enjoy the leadership style of the people that I worked for, and I felt like they were not inspiring. So I decided to learn more about human resource management, management in general.”

Li, through the process of obtaining his Master’s degree, came to realize he may want to shift his learning focus.

“I was trying to work in HR to help improve the relationship between employees and the organization, and to help employees to love their job and to do a better job at work,” Li said. “But later on, I felt like ‘I’m not the most personable person in the world.’ The stereotype is that you have to be like the most outgoing person in the world to be working in HR. And I kind of felt like, you know what? That may not be me. So maybe I need to do something that I feel more comfortable with, which is to do research and to teach. And that’s how it started.”

Li said that his teaching style varies depending pretty heavily on whether he is teaching an in-person or online class.

“The thing here is that when I started, I used to teach most of the classes on campus,” Li said.
“So the first two years, I think I taught all of my classes on campus. And the teaching at the time was very different from the teaching I’m doing right now. Now, I teach the vast majority of my classes online, and I only teach one class a year on campus. The style of teaching may be a little different depending on whether I teach on campus or online. When I teach on campus, I try to use a more conversational style of teaching. I push my students to think a little bit more. Now, that may not always be easy in an online environment, right? Because an online environment may not facilitate this kind of intellectual conversation.”

In an effort to offer some wisdom to students, Li had this to say.

“If I have one piece of advice for my students, it will be to put your phone away,” Li said. “Try to be more engaged with your college experience because the college is only, like, four years, right? So, it goes by very quickly. Try to be more intentional when you interact with other people, develop your interpersonal skills. That’s the number one thing I will tell my students is that a lot of employers want their employees to be interpersonally ready. What does that mean? It means you know how to deal with people. You know how to motivate yourself. You know how to become an independent thinker. You know how to collaborate with other people. You know how to think outside the box. Those are the things that you cannot get by just reading social media every day.”