Graduate School: Now or Later?

After graduating from college a lot of people are eager to enter the workforce, only to find that entry level pay is garbage, benefits are few and far between, bosses are a pain and having to wake up early every day is terrible. This is why graduate schools exist in the first place, to keep from entering the real world for as long as possible.

I'm going to be turning twenty-five this year and I'm only sort of looking forward to it. I graduated college a few years ago (then gave Medical School a disastrous try, but that's not a story for today) with my Bachelor's of Science in Biology and then tried to enter the workforce. And tried. And tried. And tried. Needless to say, in the intervening eight months I had plenty of time to catch up on my naps and video games. When I finally DID land a job it was as a lowly technician, putting new and exciting flavors into gum. Green tea gum... Sarsaparilla gum... Ginseng gum... basically they all tasted like crap and I was always feeling sticky.

I then switched over to the fragrance industry, putting new and exciting fragrances into candles. Green tea candles... well really anything new at the Yankee candle store. The Tahitian Flower is actually pretty nice... but basically I smelled weird and always had a headache. Then I found the job I currently work at, which is solving problems customers have with industrial adhesives. It doesn't smell particularly bad but it's kind of a sticky situation. Get it? Adhesives? Sticky?

Anyway, I moved up to the role of a Senior Technician and here I am. I had my interim review recently and, after finding out I'm not completely inept, I asked about what the future holds for someone in my position. It seems that all I have to look forward to in this position in a slight promotion to a Principle (Principal? Principle would make more sense) Technician and that was about it for half a decade. Then, I could possibly move up to the position that Chemical Engineering people start at.

Hey wait a second! I took a lot of chemistry classes. In fact, I took so many that if I wasn't a lazy slacker that thought I was going to be a doctor I could have been a double major, but no, I was too busy sleeping. From what it looks like now, I'm going to be putting six or seven years into a job just to do the job of someone fresh out of college.

It was roughly around the time that this thought churned through the thick fog I call a brain that I decided that maybe going back to school was the way to go. But for what? I find science boring, a maters in the fine arts would land me right back here again... so maybe an MBA is the route to go. Even so, now I have to try to get myself ready for the entrance exams as well as getting into the mindset of sitting in class again. After being out of college for over three years this is kind of a daunting prospect to say to least.

This also got me thinking down a different path... if I had thought ahead and just went for an MBA after leaving med school, I'd be done by now! Instead I wanted (read: had to get) a job and then fell into the complacent lifestyle of looking forward to a paycheck every week thinking that I was bettering my life on a salary that's not even high enough to afford a place (I live in New Jersey... hey! Stop laughing).

Since I'm a little older now and have the wonderful perspective clarifying power of hindsight I can say one thing is for certain:

Don't Stop Going to School

Even if you're getting a little burned out, believe me, it's better than the alternative. I work hard and then I come home in the evening and have no drive to do anything. That's the inherent problem with working, even though you're only putting in eight and a half hours (plus however long for a commute), you get home and just don't want to do anything. It's hard to better yourself with the couch is so comfortable. Then all you have to look forward to is the weekend, where there's not enough time to do anything anyway. You just look forward to your paychecks to pay the bills. Whoopie! No wonder people do drugs.

So for all of you out there, before you become a complacent wanker that looks forward to a promotion ten years down the road, just suck it up and go to graduate school. Once you're done you'll be that much happier for it. Just look at it from my perspective: I'm going to have to juggle school, work, a relationship, my go-nowhere screenwriting career attempt, car payments, student loan payments and a really fashionable haircut. When does the madness end? Instead, I could have had a dur job for a little bit of money and been done with school a year ago. Even if you have to study, forgo sleep, work hard, be miserable... just suck it up and tough it out.

Let me put it to you in even simpler terms: Putting up with a few years of torture is worth making twenty, thirty or even fifty thousand more dollars a year to start.

Sure, it sucks NOW... but when you're vacationing in Europe for a month and not worrying about how you're going to pay the bills, you'll be that much happier you did it. I may be a little behind the curve now, but once I'm done I'll be one of those people, the comfortable, the "not quite happy but okay with their job" and by god, I can even stop shopping in the irregular section because I won't need the discount!

So kids, stay in school. Go to graduate school. Put up with crap now so you won't have to put up with it later. Conversely, you could always just become a chemical engineer... those guys get all the breaks.

-Michael

...yes I know they are Now AND Laters... but I like candy. So shut up.