Grad School

[Mych]

Why did I decide to torture myself this way? Bright, sunny, and golf-able outside and I'm stuck in an Engineering Statistics class. 

 

Somebody please reassure me that it's worth it... I'm halfway through with the degree and this class is my first time reconsidering my decision (grades are fine, this class just sucks).

Edited June 30, 2022 by Mych

[ThinkingPlus]

That class is important and you are doing the right thing.  Advanced degrees make you more marketable and you will get more responsibility and more interesting work.  Stick with it.

[GHIN n Juice]

A bachelors degree is the modern equivalent of a high school diploma from the 70s.  Get the master’s!

[davechen]

I enjoyed my time in grad school.  Twilight golf at the university course was dirt cheap.

[joeburger]

I feel the same brother. Very little time for golf 😞

[Mych]

12 hours ago, ThinkingPlus said:

That class is important and you are doing the right thing.  Advanced degrees make you more marketable and you will get more responsibility and more interesting work.  Stick with it.

 

I know, my parents both had master's and my wife has a PhD, so I've seen how it helped their careers... but the 9 year old boy inside me doesn't want to do homework when my friends are outside playing. 🙂

 

2 hours ago, joeburger said:

I feel the same brother. Very little time for golf 😞

 

I have teenagers, so I should finish my program around the same time they go to college. I'll have plenty of time to play in a couple years (assuming I can find $40 under the couch cushions at that time), but right now it just kinda sucks.

[Soloman1]

No doubt that post grad work will make you more marketable. Knowing now that you’re not fresh out of undergraduate work and mid career, probably changes things.

 

Are you going to stay in engineering, plan to change companies, just hoping for advancement within your current employment?

 

Are you being true to yourself or influenced by family?

 

I’m an engineer, but transitioned to management in engineering, marketing and general management, taking advanced course work in bite-sized pieces. I liked hiring people to do the engineering work more than doing the work myself, but I certainly looked at graduate work. I couldn’t keep up trying to know everything. The world needs highly-educated engineers.

 

Engineering simply gave me a logical approach to problem solving, which gets engineers to high-level executive positions more than accounting types.

 

My experience is irrelevant to yours, but it’s a time cost vs. benefit choice now, as I’m sure you know.

 

Good luck with whatever your choice.

[Mych]

6 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

No doubt that post grad work will make you more marketable. Knowing now that you’re not fresh out of undergraduate work and mid career, probably changes things.

 

Are you going to stay in engineering, plan to change companies, just hoping for advancement within your current employment?

 

Are you being true to yourself or influenced by family?

 

I’m an engineer, but transitioned to management in engineering, marketing and general management, taking advanced course work in bite-sized pieces. I liked hiring people to do the engineering work more than doing the work myself, but I certainly looked at graduate work. I couldn’t keep up trying to know everything. The world needs highly-educated engineers.

 

Engineering simply gave me a logical approach to problem solving, which gets engineers to high-level executive positions more than accounting types.

 

My experience is irrelevant to yours, but it’s a time cost vs. benefit choice now, as I’m sure you know.

 

Good luck with whatever your choice.

 

Very similar situation. I was kinda my team's "quarterback" for the last few years and was being groomed to eventually take my boss's department management position. She got an unexpected opportunity with our customer (NASA) and I got the promotion to her job about 2 years ago (and 3-4 years earlier than I was being groomed for). That's when I decided to look into grad school. I feel very competent in my Systems Engineering work and I had an advantage since I'm managing my old group and know the people/customers/requirements very well. I also got to restructure and select my leadership team and cover up any deficiencies there, so my group is stable but I definitely feel like I'd need more general-purpose skills in order to manage a different group or to change to a different industry one day. I trust my instincts, but I don't want to have to rely on them. 

 

So I already got the "next job", now I'm just learning more about how to do it so I'll be ready for a new "next job" eventually. Definitely not being influenced by family, nobody other than my wife even knew I was in the program until I had already taken a few classes. And I really like the program that I'm in, but the class I'm in this summer is by far the worst I've taken (instructor isn't a good fit for the increased pace of a summer class). It'll be over in a few weeks, I just needed to whine last night. 🙂

Edited June 30, 2022 by Mych

[Soloman1]

38 minutes ago, Mych said:

I just needed to whine last night.

 

NASA was one of my customers, too.

 

Again, best of luck, and you showed great instincts in finding the premier place on the Internet to whine . . .

[tiderider]

On 6/29/2022 at 7:00 PM, Mych said:

Why did I decide to torture myself this way? Bright, sunny, and golf-able outside and I'm stuck in an Engineering Statistics class. 

 

Somebody please reassure me that it's worth it... I'm halfway through with the degree and this class is my first time reconsidering my decision (grades are fine, this class just sucks).

give the same advice i gave to a former student how just graduated from hs: stay in school as long as you can ... it's a goddamn s*** show out here in the real world ... 

[dubbelbogey]

Unless you truly hate engineering (and I think this is not you, from what you're saying) - it's worth it.

 

Coincidentally, my worst class in engineering grad school was also a stats class. But mine was a theoretical statistics course taught out of the math dept. My poor EE brain barely hung on to pass the class (and I mean barely!). Way out of my league, but by the time I realized it, it was too late. Not sure if the prof felt pity for me, but somehow I managed to pass.

 

But, overall, I loved engineering grad school and I'd like to think it was worth it from the professional perspective in the years and decades since then. Heck, it allowed me to retire and now play more golf!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hawkeye77]

Is attendance mandatory? Go play golf! 

[iBanesto]

On 6/30/2022 at 10:00 AM, Mych said:

Why did I decide to torture myself this way? Bright, sunny, and golf-able outside and I'm stuck in an Engineering Statistics class. 

 

Somebody please reassure me that it's worth it... I'm halfway through with the degree and this class is my first time reconsidering my decision (grades are fine, this class just sucks).