Business School Can Help You Make a Career Change

 Grad School  7 Responses »
Apr 152012
 

Not happy with you’re doing right now?  To some extent, your resume limits your options to where you have education and experience.  If you are interested in making a career change, one way to do it is to go to business school. You can get in with any bachelor’s degree and business schools actually like to admit people with a wide diversity of backgrounds.  Business school is difficult to get funding for, but it typically requires two years of experience to get in and by then you have some years of savings also. Also, business school grads command high salaries that often make up for the up front investment. 

Business school will keep you very busy.  There are a high volume of assignments on a wide diversity of topics.  Business school essentially provides a generalist degree.  It exposes you to all aspects of business to prepare you for general management positions.  Of course you can specialize more in your second year if you have a specific area that you are interested in.  Although all businesses will typically value MBAs for high level positions, the value of an MBA will vary for other positions by field.  Finance careers will certainly benefit immediately, while engineering careers may not benefit much for many years. 

Business school students are certainly highly motivated and highly ambitious, so you will be going to school with interesting people with many different stories about their experience in the real world.  There are also executive MBAs for people who are advancing into senior levels of management and need the extra training.  Overall, an MBA will open many new doors that would not otherwise be open in your current field and in other fields.  It is like an hourglass.  People come in with a wide variety of backgrounds, get trained in the same material, and then go out into a wide variety of areas.

The Space Program Helps Get Kids Interested in Math and Science

 Grad School, Public Policy, Technical Jobs  7 Responses »
Apr 132012
 

The space program not only advances our knowledge of the universe, but it also has a powerful effect on students that are deciding which subjects are their favorite and what they want to be when they grow up.  Science museums often have space exhibits as a key attraction for children, and many of our most popular movies feature space.  Although the Space Shuttle is being retired, private companies are picking up the space exploration slack.  I actually met Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of SpaceX, which is heading to the International Space Station soon.  He is soft-spoken, but he has big ambitions.  Only America, Russia, and China have sent men into space, and soon his private company will be the fourth to make it.  He plans to send people to Mars someday. 

These efforts not only are important for advancing the frontier of our knowledge.  They also capture the imagination of children who dream of going into space themselves.  Soon, it will not be an unrealistic dream.  Virgin Galactic will be offering sub-orbital trips for the adventurous among us.  It is important to keep in perspective the cost of the space program as we develop future budgets.  The cost of exploring the universe and priming the educational pipeline with smart math and science students is a mere one half of one percent of the federal budget.  Reducing it any further would be like giving up on the pursuit of knowledge itself.  New NASA discoveries make it to the national news all the time, not to mention the invisible contributions directly to technical fields.  We are finding thousands of planets now and are inching closer towards our goal of finding out if there is life out there.  The discoveries they make show up in children’s textbooks, and inspire them to want to learn more.  Children are full of questions, and we are obligated to try and provide answers.

The space race was instrumental in setting the stage for our investments in higher education, which our economy and technology now benefit from.  We responded to Soviet advances in space with an education bill including grants and loans for higher education, and we need more of the same focus if we are now going to compete in a global economy.  Although, we have conquered low earth orbit with the space station and made it to the moon and even put robots on Mars, our need for preparing students and investing in higher education has not diminished.  If anything it has increased because of the global nature of the economy now.  Our nations may not be doing battle with space gladiators, but our businesses are still in competition with businesses from other countries.  They need the same quality talent that the space program and national defense demanded during the cold war.  Anything we can do get kids motivated to learn, especially about high-tech subjects, the better off we will be in the long run.

We Must Preserve the Incentive for Hard Work, Creativity, and Risk-Taking

 Public Policy, Work  7 Responses »
Apr 132012
 

That is the foundation of our economy.  People respond to incentives, and we must keep them incentivized to learn and innovate.  We never made any progress without someone working hard, coming up with an idea, or taking a risk.  We must preserve the incentives for people to go to college and on to graduate school by maintaining a tax system that does not punish middle class success.  After local, state, federal taxes, and employer matching, which is nevertheless earned by employees, our middle class graduates pay as much as 40% of their income in taxes. That, of course, does not include the health care benefits that are often added to taxes in other countries. The only difference is that these earnings are part of our total compensation instead of our base salary and are spent on our behalf by our company instead of our government. These rates are the highest rate of any group in our country and they are in jeopardy of rising dramatically due to ballooning deficits.  The cost of education is skyrocketing, and wages are stagnant.  We must ensure that education remains a highly profitable enterprise, because it is so important to retaining our competitiveness.

You Can Get a Graduate Degree for Free

 Funding, Grad School  8 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

That’s right. Graduate school is often paid for through work reimbursement, teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships. You already have the bachelors and some marketable knowledge that can often be parlayed into financing. Of course, funding is more prevalent in certain fields such as technical fields, which get support from government grants to do research. For others, many top employers provide funding as part of continuing education programs. You often have to take courses in areas related to your job, but then you are likely trying to improve your knowledge in your chosen area anyways.

Of course, if you can’t figure out a way to get the degree for free, then you may be able to get it for a discount by looking for an online college. The typical graduate course work load leaves some room for working on the side, so if all else fails you can work part-time to help make ends meet. There are also loans available for graduate school if you prefer to focus on your studies and work through as quickly as possible.

However, it is important to recognize that the research component of graduate school can be an important part of the experience. Although, non-thesis options are becoming more prevalent, the research component gives you some work experience and can go a long ways towards making you more marketable. Your research goes at the top of your resume as your most recent, and likely most significant, experience.  It can make you stand out from all the others you are competing with who have the same degree. It also gives you something unique and valuable to talk about in your interviews, especially if your interviewer selected your resume in part for that experience.

Of course, you probably shouldn’t sweat the cost too much if you have the drive to get that graduate degree. You will be earning on average $23,000 more per year than with a bachelors, which earns $24,000 more than a high school grad according to the U.S. Census Bureau. You can do even better if you major in the right subject. This means graduate school will likely pay for itself in a few short years. Of course there is also an opportunity cost of wages that you didn’t earn because you were in school if you go full time.  After forty years of work that is total earnings difference of 860,000 more over the bachelors and $1.8 million more than with a high school degree, not even factoring inflation and experience raises. With those factors, the difference is much greater. As a hint, inflation will likely double every 20 years, so your salary and expenses will have doubled twice over your working life, and would be four times higher at the end of your career without any merit increases.

Furthermore, you will be able to save more and invest more, so your money will start working for you. Retirement will be more comfortable because you will have a nice nest egg and likely some tax-free investments in addition to your social security, which is also related to your pay scale. Advanced degree jobs also typically come with benefits such as health care and 401k matching. I will bet that winter home in florida is sounding pretty doable at this point.

Graduate School is the Perfect Time to Test Out those Entrepreneurial Instincts

 Grad School  9 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

Just ask the founders of Google. Universities are hotbeds of innovative ideas, and you can often make time to work on a side business. You have no conflicts of interest as you would if you were working for a company, and it is likely that the university would help you patent your idea if it looks like it has potential. There are sometimes entrepreneurship classes and even incubators and startup funding available. If it doesn’t work out, then oh well, just finish your degree and continue on with a more standard career. If you make any progress, then you can even claim it as work experience. If you need more time, then just delay your graduation by a semester to see if you finish your project.

Many people dream of owning their own business, and spectacular successes have come from graduate students. You can even take technical courses that can help you execute, and it is easy to find partners because everyone’s time is more flexible. They aren’t required to sit in front of a desk for eight hours a day and punch a clock. Who knows, you could create the next innovation that sweeps the world. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates even did it as undergrads.

We Can Never Cede Ground on Science and Math Education

 Getting In, Grad School, Public Policy, Technical Jobs  7 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

One of the reasons America has emerged atop the world as the sole superpower is because we have the most advanced technology. This gives our economy and military an edge that is unmatched by any other country. We can never cede that edge, or it will surely be a very different world. Although math and science may not be the coolest subjects, many children fortunately do find them very motivating. Partially this is because of encouragement from parents that work in these fields, and partially it is because the subjects themselves present intellectual challenges that spark some children’s interest and competitive drive. In addition, these subjects tend to be graded more objectively since there is often a clear correct answer.

Math, in particular, is not the easiest subject. It requires great patience and persistence to figure out what are often very frustrating problems. Of course, with that comes a tremendous sense of accomplishment when you finally figure them out. Furthermore, the problem solving skills that are developed are essential to mastering difficult technical material later in life, for those that specialize in the fields that are so critical to keeping America in front. There are some role models in technical fields that children can connect with, including entrepreneurs that have changed the world with their innovations and astronauts in our space program. Children play with products that these people have invented and admire the accomplishments of those that do something for the first time or discover something about our world.

Yet most young children think that an engineer is someone who operates trains, and too many children get frustrated with math for good when they run into eighth grade algebra. This robs us of critical talent in the later stages of the educational pipeline. It furthermore limits the career options of children that find technical degrees to be too hard to figure out because they have been inadequately prepared. The reality is that technical careers are some of the most rewarding. They typically come with competitive compensation, and you further get the satisfaction that you are providing a useful function in society, even furthering the human race. The deeper you dig and the more you learn, the more you come to appreciate and even relish the complexity inherent in these careers. There is always something new to learn. Why do the same thing every day, when each day can bring a new and interesting challenge? Furthermore, in these careers there is less of an element of luck. If you work hard and master the details, then you will likely produce an outstanding product or service. You have control over the outcome and the quality of the results is related to the effort expended. In other careers, such as finance, there are macroeconomic effects that are impossible to predict accurately and even the most carefully researched decisions can go awry.

Moreover, in technical fields you are being paid for your brain, which makes for a more comfortable life and makes it more difficult to replace you. Robots cannot do your job, and knowledge and experience are challenging to transfer to other people. Moreover, technical fields are highly specialized, so each job must be individually mastered and there are limited number of people who can readily take your place.  There is a learning curve, but by now you are good at that.  It just makes you more valuable once you have the knowledge.  It takes months or even years to fully master most advanced degree jobs. People are paid more for the ability to learn and solve complex problems, which they started developing at a very young age when they first came across eighth grade algebra.

America Can Stay Ahead if We Develop our Most Talented People

 Grad School, Public Policy  14 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

We are in a global economy now, and the only way for our country to improve on our standard of living is to outsmart the competition. Many emerging economies are working for less, so they have a major competitive cost advantage. Our only option is to out innovate them. The good news is that we have succeeded at it for many decades. The bad news is that there is no longer a debate about which economic systems are superior. Our free market economy has clearly proven to be the superior formula, and the rest of the world is copying it. We have created a system of law and order like many developed economies and we have further preserved the incentive for hard work and creativity more than any other developed economy. Our overall business climate both for startups and established companies is superior to perhaps the entire world, but at the end of the day these businesses are powered by people.

The road to success in the economy in the future is the further education of our people, especially our most talented people. They are the ones that come up with the innovations that drive life forward for the rest of us. While much of the knowledge required to create these innovations are contained within our companies, much of it has also been captured by our system of higher education. They have been systematically advancing the frontiers of our knowledge and documenting them and passing them on to the next generation. Our graduate schools provide the base knowledge and talent required to do many of the jobs in those companies that are advancing the frontier. Although we have research credits in our tax system, many companies have cut their research budgets from their heyday and have left more of the innovation to our educational system and government grants. In fact large companies these days get much of their innovation by acquiring small companies that have found a way to improve on the products and services delivered to customers.

We have become more reliant on our graduate schools to keep us competitive at a time when it has become ever more important. Moreover, with the distribution of information provided by the internet, it has become easier for other countries to quickly learn what we know and reproduce it. In fact, the system of higher education that we have become more reliant on has a mandate to publish their findings openly for peer review. Furthermore, our writings are in english, a language that everyone can read, while those of other countries are often published in their native language, which we cannot read. These patterns make it ever more important that we out educate the rest of the world, so that our people can continue to act as the competitive advantage that allows us to outsmart them.

Although it is getting more expensive each year, our educational system is second to none. People from all over the world come here to study, and we retain a portion of that talent because people see this as a land of opportunity. We attract some of the best minds from around the world each year, and many of these people are instrumental in keeping our businesses competitive. Approximately 17 percent our people hold bachelors degrees, and about 10 percent hold graduate or professional degrees. Those that hold technical degrees, in particular, are instrumental in improving our lives and productivity and keeping our economy competitive.

Graduate School Gives You a Competitive Edge

 Grad School, Interviews, Resumes  11 Responses »
Apr 032012
 

More and more people these days are going to graduate school to get advanced degrees, and it gives them a clear edge in the marketplace both in terms of finding a job and in finding a higher paying job. In graduate school, you typically specialize more, which means you have declared a personal interest in a particular aspect of your field. You are likely to attract employers who are looking for that interest and extra knowledge, so you are likely to use at least some of what you learned in school. Also, you will have demonstrated that you can handle challenging subjects that even your typical college student might not be able to handle. Graduate school is substantially more difficult than undergraduate school and the extra accomplishment is sure to set you apart from your peers.

Moreover there is a research component to graduate school that begins to get you some real life experience working in teams, the way work is done in the real world. Many employers offer programs that allow people to continue their education even while they work because they know that they want to attract people who are interested in this type of continued learning. If you are considering this path, then the jobs that you are targeting require a lifetime of learning, particularly if you end up in a more technical field that changes rapidly. Of course on the job performance will ultimately ensure your success, but landing the initial job of your choice requires every advantage and salary computations often include objective criteria such as credentials earned.

A Masters typically requires an extra two years to complete on a full time basis, a commitment and challenge that not everyone is willing or able to make. A Phd can take many more years and will brand you for life as one of the smartest people in your field. Unemployment rates even in a down economy are much better for people with more education. Employers are more likely to hold on to you because you are harder to hire back when times are good and you likely have the talent to match your credentials. Of course salaries also increase. A bachelors and masters will typically more than pay for themselves over the course of 40 years of work at a higher salary. A PhD often takes more than a financial calculation to justify, but can be very rewarding in the expanded choice of careers that are available. PhDs often work at the forefront of innovations in their field.

It used to be that a bachelors was enough to set you apart from the field, but these days that is merely the entry point to the choicest careers and will not make all choices available. Now to get that extra edge and those extra opportunities, a graduate degree is typically required, preferably with some research experience.