Job vs. Grad School
If you read my last post I talked about how I was excited for a break in school work and to finally put some time into my job search. Well, as I should have known, that break in school work never came. 🙁
Because I don’t really have anything new to update you on about my job search I figured I’d tell you how I got to this point instead.
It seemed that as soon as summer started coming to an end, the topic of conversation among a lot of rising seniors was life after undergrad- grad school at WPI, grad school somewhere else, applying to companies, where you wanted to end up, etc. It seemed that a lot of people were fairly stressed out trying to figure out exactly what they wanted to do and then what steps they needed to take to get there. I dealt with this by asking everyone and anyone what their plan was. By hearing everyone’s choices and the thought process behind their decisions it was easier for me to tackle my own life.
At first I thoguht about doing the 5 year program at WPI for Mechanical Engineering. I was happy with my decision and was set on applying. Then, as time went by, I started wondering if maybe getting a graduate degree in Biomedical Engineering would be a better choice. And to make things even more complicated, a few people told me that they thought I’d do really well in a management position and that I should consider Management Engineering. For a few weeks I bounced back and forth between the different departments and what I thought the best degree would be.
I stressed about the decision for a while but then realized that I had no idea which major I actually wanted to do or which one would get me closest to my career goals. And the more I thought about it I realized that the main reason I was consering going to grad school to begin with was because I knew a lot of other people going and I thought it was what I was suppposed to do – which is a terrible reason for going. I also realized that I was getting pretty sick of doing school work from 9 am to 2am most days and I was actually looking forward to working normal hours and then coming home to no homework.
So I’ve decided I’m definitely going for a job after graduation. I think it’s the best choice for me becuase I’ll get work a little bit and figure what parts of my job I like and what parts I don’t and what I want my career path to actually be. That way, I’ll be able to figure out if I need a degree, and if I do, which one. And, finally having a paycheck will be nice too. 🙂
The fact that I finally have a plan – at least for now – is really relieving. Now I just have to find the time to actually apply to companies. But even though I still have a lot to do, knowing exactly what I need to do makes the whole process seem a lot more managable.
For those of you that are still trying to figure out what you want to do next year – best of luck.
