@bharal Thank whomever viewed it for the 1kth time, SE for notifying me, and paparazzo for intentionally inflaming my sense of impostor syndrome so I'd remember to reassure folks facing similar post-graduation crises. ;)

@DJClayworth I think the key is that OP says "topics that are of general interest to all professionals." This isn't a company-sponsored support group; they see it as general career development with a discriminatory attendance rule.

@Paparazzi It's been suggested to me that these online courses are a good resource to become aware of all of these definitions and their contexts. I couldn't care less about some stupid certificate, unless it matters to employers, in which case I must care about it.

3. The interviewee has prepared for this, and goes into great detail how they used machine learning in their research. The interviewer becomes confused, because the interviewer is only familiar with one of the many branches of what is referred to as "machine learning".

2. The interviewee assumes they have no experience with machine learning because academics don't call it by this name. Later, the interviewee finds out that "machine learning" is an industry blanket term for all of the stats and coding they did during 6 years of PhD work.

Basically I've heard these kinds of interview horror stories from ex-colleagues. 1. They are asked about some really broad topic like "machine learning", and the interviewee seems flustered because the question seems so vague (like "what do you know about math?").

@Paparazzi Your criticisms all rest firmly on faulty assumptions about my education. Nothing I have told you is incorrect, and I have been using methods which fall into the umbrella of "machine learning" for several years in physics research. I have been warned by others who left for industry that my experiences with "big data" and "machine learning" -- however valid and in-depth -- may be misunderstood by employers, and that it would be good to familiarize myself with the terms and context in which they use these terms.

@Paparazzi 1. As an elective it would meet no unfulfilled requirement, it would be purely for a transcript, unfortunately 2. I've wasted plenty of time taking interesting sounding courses that ended up being disappointing, and 3. I have sometimes had to shirk some elective responsibilities since I currently value my research and physics courses most. An overwhelmingly well reviewed online course solves these problems.