Little Red Suit

Now that I’ve uncovered some of the great grad school myths, I have a confession to make. I once bought into many of these myths myself when I applied to grad school myself. Let me tell you a little about my story. I applied to grad school during my job search after college, with the 10-year plan of continuing on to my doctoral degree and teaching as a professor one day. I got in and accepted a post-college internship at a Fortune 500 company in my field.

I wanted to have the option of a flexible career future, so grad school seemed like the perfect thing at the time. I had lots of great experience, but was still in the middle of a pretty intense job hunt in a very competitive market and field. The short version of my job hunt struggle is as follows: I had no professional network, tons of experience, and frustrations more than a mile high. So, I learned the value of a professional network quickly and very definitively in the first year I was out of college.

There I was, in the middle of a graduate program, with my internship coming to a close and no full-time job in sight, ready to get through the next couple of years of grad school so I could guarantee a high paying job, a quick promotion, and a golden ticket to the top. So you see, that naïve, unthinking grad student I was talking about in the last post was basically 100% me.

One day, someone made a phone call that changed my life. In my last few weeks before my internship ended, a mentor at the company I worked at recommended me for an interview for a position at the company I work for today. I am thankful to this day that I’d had the foresight to tell the people in my office that I was looking for full time jobs if they heard of anything. The professional network paid off in a big way. See, what ended up transforming me from the type of grad student I wrote about previously was getting a full time job. It also saved me from even further career frustration and opened more doors than grad school alone ever would have.

I was nervous about doing work full time and school full time and commuting more than two hours a day, but I took on the challenge. It turned out, my new boss had a master’s degree from my university and my new job would reimburse me half the cost of tuition. Not to mention, my boss allowed me to arrange my schedule so I could leave for class early and make up the time on mornings and off days.

For me, professional experience has made a world of difference in my graduate program. Yes, it is time-consuming to work and study at the same time, but it’s doable. I comprehend things on a deeper level than I would otherwise, I can directly use my new knowledge in my job and my writing, and I’m able to challenge myself with theories, ideas and projects that have lots of real-world application. It challenges me to be a more thoughtful, strategic, reasoned professional. More importantly, it’s changed what I want out of my degree and the whole grad school experience.

I know everyone’s story will differ, as will their paths, their motivations and their outcomes – in general and regarding grad school. That’s fine. But from where I am, a little experience makes all the difference in the world.

So, now that you know a little more about my entrance into the world of grad school, stay tuned for my top reasons you should consider applying.

For Grad School 101, Check Out These Posts
Part 1: An Inside Take on the Great Grad School Debate
Part 2: The Truth about the Top Six Grad School Myths