Graduate school after success in the job market

[manlymatt83]

Would anyone here go to Grad school when they are doing OK in a stable career? Or at that point is it better to just pick up books that you're interested in?

 

[mugs]

People do that all the time... you can take night classes or online classes at most colleges so you can continue working.

 

[skim milk]

continue working

do it part time or distance = win

 

[Chronoshock]

Sometimes advancement within an organization or your career path requires an advanced degree. Sometimes something you've done at work will spark your desire for research. As the other posters mentioned, doing it part time is the typical approach for those trying to balance pursuing a new degree and their existing job. There are also people who simply stop working to work on the degree fulltime and after they're done, either choose to rejoin their original company (more or less reapply) or continue as a post doc/academia.
The former is if you want to use a degree to further your current career, the latter is if you are changing your focus or following a passion for research

 

[senseamp]

I got mine part time. Company paid for it too. Best of all worlds, you get degree and experience concurrently instead of consequently, and company pays for it.

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Would anyone here go to Grad school when they are doing OK in a stable career? Or at that point is it better to just pick up books that you're interested in?

I did. I had a pretty solid career going, decided to go to law school at night. Part of it was for the challenge, partly for the earning potential, but along the way, I decided that it was a profession worth practicing.

I recently left my "prior career" in mgmt consulting, so we'll see what happens. Of course, I have to pass the bar this summer.

Point is, you can be really good at something, but still not care all that much about it or find it stimulating. For a while, I just did whatever paid the most, and that worked out fairly well in the short term. However, it led to what I found to be an intellectual dead-end, so I decided to switch before I had too many responsibilities for a little bit of frictional unemployment.

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: manlymatt83
Would anyone here go to Grad school when they are doing OK in a stable career? Or at that point is it better to just pick up books that you're interested in?

I did. I had a pretty solid career going, decided to go to law school at night. Part of it was for the challenge, partly for the earning potential, but along the way, I decided that it was a profession worth practicing.

I recently left my "prior career" in mgmt consulting, so we'll see what happens. Of course, I have to pass the bar this summer.

Point is, you can be really good at something, but still not care all that much about it or find it stimulating. For a while, I just did whatever paid the most, and that worked out fairly well in the short term. However, it led to what I found to be an intellectual dead-end, so I decided to switch before I had too many responsibilities for a little bit of frictional unemployment.

I like what I do, and so far so good as far as making money is concerned. I only have a BS degree (Computer Science), and so far, that hasn't helped me one bit (have never told any employer I have gone to College, nor have they seemed to care).

But I'm in a niche market (Unix, Database Administration, etc.).

 

[HardcoreRobot]

got a masters while working. night classes for 5 semesters. hasnt really done anything for the career yet.

 

[LordMorpheus]

I just left a good r&d engineering job (that I enjoyed) to go to get a ph.d.

I'm not really worried about my future employment prospects.

 

[Elbryn]

i went back part time while working as a small department IT manager and got an mba. paired it with the pmp and am now working IT project management. in my case i figured a master's never expires and will give automatic cred from any HR dept. Besides i've been in the situation enough times where the PM doesnt know crap about what's going on and figured that having a technical minded person in that role would be a pretty good fit for everyone involved.

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: Elbryn
i went back part time while working as a small department IT manager and got an mba. paired it with the pmp and am now working IT project management. in my case i figured a master's never expires and will give automatic cred from any HR dept. Besides i've been in the situation enough times where the PM doesnt know crap about what's going on and figured that having a technical minded person in that role would be a pretty good fit for everyone involved.

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but...

What's your take on the PMP? I'm starting to look at what my options are for career advancement. Right now I'm the IT Director at a slowly failing mid-size company. I don't have any college, I came up as a self-taught programmer straight out of high school in the mid-90s. Through a little hard work I've shown myself able to work well as a project manager.

So right now I'm starting to look at what might get me into higher level (read: higher paying) positions. And not just for the money, I do actually enjoy management, I'm a big picture kind of guy. I've been toying around with the idea of going back and working towards a business degree, but I've also been looking at certs like the PMP.

Any thoughts? Is there much demand for project managers right now? Has the PMP certification increased your marketability?

 

[dbk]

I have a coworker who's getting a MBA. It'll take him 3 yes.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: BoberFett

Originally posted by: Elbryn
i went back part time while working as a small department IT manager and got an mba. paired it with the pmp and am now working IT project management. in my case i figured a master's never expires and will give automatic cred from any HR dept. Besides i've been in the situation enough times where the PM doesnt know crap about what's going on and figured that having a technical minded person in that role would be a pretty good fit for everyone involved.

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but...

What's your take on the PMP? I'm starting to look at what my options are for career advancement. Right now I'm the IT Director at a slowly failing mid-size company. I don't have any college, I came up as a self-taught programmer straight out of high school in the mid-90s. Through a little hard work I've shown myself able to work well as a project manager.

So right now I'm starting to look at what might get me into higher level (read: higher paying) positions. And not just for the money, I do actually enjoy management, I'm a big picture kind of guy. I've been toying around with the idea of going back and working towards a business degree, but I've also been looking at certs like the PMP.

Any thoughts? Is there much demand for project managers right now? Has the PMP certification increased your marketability?

PMP as an addon may be useful - many companies want the ISO certification.
To be used as a primary sales tool will only work if you are a PMP consultant helping others to setup their systems.

 

[WildHorse]

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[DT4K]

I've been doing software dev for 8 years and I'm thinking about getting an MBA. I want to move into upper management, but I don't have enough business, accounting, or management experience(or education).

 

[BoberFett]

Originally posted by: DT4K
I've been doing software dev for 8 years and I'm thinking about getting an MBA. I want to move into upper management, but I don't have enough business, accounting, or management experience(or education).

That's where I'm at. I have in the past couple of years gotten a decent amount of hands-on experience in those areas, but I'm planning on taking some basic accounting and business classes so I have a better understanding of how my role as a high level IT manager affect the company as a whole. Fortunately the director team I work with is very good (most of the companies failings are directly on the owners and their bizarre ideas) so I've been exposed to a lot of great info in the areas of accounting, manufacturing, supply chain, and QA. I just want to formalize what I've been learning on the fly so I'm better able to communicate with other upper management types.