The economy sucks. Job markets suck. Work sucks. And much like starting drugs and alcohol, I'm about to start graduate school largely because everybody else is doing it. Okay, not everybody else, just 28% of the over-25 crowd here in DC:
For those who want to shore up their worth in their chosen profession, boost their salaries, switch careers or even simply wait out the bad economy while adding to their academic résumés, the case for earning a master’s degree is strong. Especially, it seems, if you aspire to work, or advance, in Washington. Twenty-eight percent of the over-25 population here has a master’s or PhD — more than any state, according to 2009 Census data.
What seems like a long time ago (11 years), I started my undergraduate degree. Originally, I was admitted into LS&A at the University of Michigan. It's the liberal arts portion of the school. Then, once I got admitted, I made the decision to transfer to the engineering school and major in Civil & Environmental Engineering. I thought I would be designing awesome bridges with toothpicks and popsicle sticks... because I'm pretty sure I saw it in a movie once and thought it looked cool. What I got instead was a lot of calculus, then more math, then a bunch of formulas that supposedly stood for... things. Anyway, getting an engineering degree sucks. There were times where I literally thought I was going to fail out of school. And there were times when I literally had no understanding of anything that was written on the board. I thought it was Greek. And sometimes it was 90% Greek because of all the variables involved. And if it wasn't Greek, it had to be Wingdings. Was my lack of comprehension because I was out drinking the night before? Possibly. But the majority of my professors seemed to be deeply rooted in their research with not a lot of skill in teaching. That didn't help either.
Was engineering a good choice? Yes and no. Yes, because it set me up with summer internships that paid very well. Engineers also tend to have a bit easier time getting a job and higher starting salaries out of school, as opposed to other majors. No, because for me, I never had a really really really strong interest in it... I'm not really sure what was going through my 18-year old mind when I picked my major other than: "Well... I'm good at math and science so I guess I should do engineering." And that's actually ironic, because in retrospect, I don't have any kind of supernatural math/science talent- I was probably best at Spanish in high school. Mis pantalones estan fluego. I think that means "my pants are on fire." So, if I have to trace my engineering decision back to SOMETHING, I'll simply blame it on my Indian (dot, not feather) father who scared me away from all other majors! It's kinda like:
I also never really gave any long-term thought about whether I could envision spending my life in engineering. And I guess I never REALLY knew exactly what it would entail- in my case, working with lots of numbers, blueprints, spreadsheets, and not as much interaction with people as I would have preferred.
I also never really gave any long-term thought about whether I could envision spending my life in engineering. And I guess I never REALLY knew exactly what it would entail- in my case, working with lots of numbers, blueprints, spreadsheets, and not as much interaction with people as I would have preferred.
Before I got this job, I had numerous summer internships (during college) doing "engineering stuff" which gradually made me feel more and more skeptical about my interest in the field. In one, I was a QA/QC inspector on a construction site. What does a QA/QC guy do on a construction site? I tested concrete and soil. Exciting, right? Here's what you do to test concrete:
It was horrible. I sat in a truck most of the day, and when I had to get out, it was to tell grizzled construction veterans that they were not performing their work as specified. Awesome, right? First they hated me. Then they tried to be my friend. That led to them trying to bribe me- and once, in Detroit, it led to a man in an excavator threatening to bury me while I stood at the bottom of a 20' deep trench. Fun. Don't get me wrong- I DID encounter a lot of cool people along the way. On one particular occasion, the foreman of an asphalt-paving crew showed up at the start of the day with a bunch of raw venison (from a deer he killed the day before). He then wrapped it in foil and put it underneath the paver machine which basically expels asphalt at 300-390 degrees. 15 minutes later, he was riding around, chowing down on an awesome meal, and he gave me half. That was cool. But most of my experiences weren't. And so came the harsh realization for me that Civil Engineering was married to the construction industry, and I didn't want to be in the Construction Industry. But long story short, I survived my internships, my undergraduate education, and ended up getting a solid job where I've been for 7 years... and when I settled on my current company, it seemed different enough, and the people cool enough for me to stay in the field.
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| Step 1: Pour it into 12" high cylinders, and set them aside to cure. Try not to get concrete all over yourself, and try not to get run over by the concrete truck. Helpful Hint: The 1 trillion dB backup alarm will alert you when you need to move. |
| Step 2: Come back a few days later and pick up all the cylinders you made. You won't need to go to the gym today because concrete is 120+ lbs/CF. And of course, you probably had to leave the cylinders in some totally inaccessible spot, which now requires you to carry them 100 yds, one at a time, to your truck. |
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| Step 3: Take all the cylinders back to a lab, and use a big machine to exert more and more compressive force on them until they eventually smash. It sounds exciting, and it is... for like the first 3 cylinders. But you have 200 to break. |
Fast forward seven years from that point, and here I am now with one month to go before I leave that same job! And I'm excited! After seven years in the same place, I have developed an intense case of cabin fever- I've been holed up in the same position doing the same thing for too long, and if I don't get out of the cabin, I'm 99% confident that I will go insane. In fact, it was last August was when the feelings of oncoming insanity began. I told my co-worker/friend during a particularly annoying day at work:
"Dude, I swear to God. If I am not gone by next summer, I will have failed at life."
Failed at life! Such strong language! But I wasn't exaggerating! What had me at the end of my rope? Boredom. Lack of challenge. No foreseeable opportunity for advancement. Pay freezes for years. Cuts to company benefits (drastic 401K match reduction). But more than anything, it was a feeling of missing out. I feel/felt like 90% of my friends were doing cooler and more appealing things than me, and that it was time for a drastic change. And so I signed up for the GMAT that afternoon. Business school has always been a "vague" destination that I have envisioned myself checking out at one point or another because I've always been interested in the subject matter (there's a nerdy side of me that loves analyzing stocks, finance, marketing, etc)... Although I won't lie, I did go through a phase where I was vehemently opposed to graduate school of any kind because I thought it was a waste of money. And to an extent it is... because you COULD teach yourself everything you will learn in a graduate program... (cue Matt Damon's scene from Good Will Hunting- watch the whole thing)... only that requires a certain commitment/drive/motivation that most people simply don't have... I certainly don't have it! Anyway, my research and gut tells me that it is a good investment that will prevent me from being pigeonholed in the future.
A part of me still thinks that prior to taking the MBA plunge I should at least try to get a job that appeals to me in a completely non-related industry, but I feel very much branded as an "ENGINEER," and that people in non-related industries will not see what I bring to the table. The "being-branded-as-something" is a big problem for me because when you are branded, people tend to not look beyond it and you just cater to their stereotypes. For example, this is a software engineer, right?:
But I completely understand the desire to only hire people with relevant industry experience... because I would be skeptical about hiring an anthropology or french major to estimate structural repair costs and manage structural engineering projects. And even if I were to lock up a job in an unrelated industry, it would likely be accompanied with a healthy pay cut. So, re-reading this paragraph, it appears that in the face of adversity and intense challenge, I am waving a white flag of surrender by ponying up the $150K+ involved for some higher learning. IS that what I'm doing though? Hopefully not... My hope is that an MBA will give me much more flexibility to continue switching my career to match my ever-changing interests- Although there is always the possibility that my "ever-changing interests" are really just some f'd up type of personality disorder or ADD- and that they could be dealt with in a more economical manner through a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of prescription meds and a few visits to a well trained psychologist*.
*Who likely has gone to grad school
But I completely understand the desire to only hire people with relevant industry experience... because I would be skeptical about hiring an anthropology or french major to estimate structural repair costs and manage structural engineering projects. And even if I were to lock up a job in an unrelated industry, it would likely be accompanied with a healthy pay cut. So, re-reading this paragraph, it appears that in the face of adversity and intense challenge, I am waving a white flag of surrender by ponying up the $150K+ involved for some higher learning. IS that what I'm doing though? Hopefully not... My hope is that an MBA will give me much more flexibility to continue switching my career to match my ever-changing interests- Although there is always the possibility that my "ever-changing interests" are really just some f'd up type of personality disorder or ADD- and that they could be dealt with in a more economical manner through a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of prescription meds and a few visits to a well trained psychologist*.
*Who likely has gone to grad school
