Some days at work, I think to myself "I can't take this anymore", and I start looking at jobs on craigslist. But, I'm kind of stuck right now. I don't want to go look for a real job, because I am planning on going back to school next year. But when I try to apply for a 'less-real' job, such as the one I'm in now (but one that pays better, because almost every job in the world pays better than what I make right now), I am too overqualified. So I'll look at my resume and think "hmm maybe I should just take the master's degree out". But then I think, well what am I going to put in there for work from 2007-2009? Argh.
Just to remind myself that I did the right thing, I went back and read this. I was so angry back then! It's funny to read now, since I'm not dealing with it anymore. (I'm sure you unix fans remember helping me through all my trials and tribulations.)
The bottom line is that I was not a very good engineer. I think that's the thing that I need to explain to people when they give me a bunch of crap for not using my education. Non-engineers always assume I am a good engineer because I can count in binary or throw around terms like "Fourier Series." But being good at math does NOT make you a good engineer. It makes you a passable engineer. To be a good engineer you have to be decent at math and also be interested in engineering. For me, reading man pages was not fun. I learned the bare minimum of unix commands necessary to get through my day. Now, I was not a terrible engineer. I am smart enough to come up with some OK ideas and get a piece of code working (eventually). Many people who are worse engineers than me slog it out for their entire career (usually writing requirements -- oh, snap!). And if all I cared about was having a stable income, that is what I would do. Show up for work, count down the hours until 5, and then go home and have a beer and forget about it.
But that's not me. So, yes I am going to go back to school again! By next fall this strange receptionist period of my life will be over. I should actually be studying to re-take the GRE right now, but I'm too distracted by this new book I just got, it's really good. :)
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2 comments:
Well with a masters you can teach, you can design,you can consult.
Put up a few signs and see what happens? lol
Some people make a killing just tutoring math.
I have heard that engineers and folks with good math skills make fantastic economists! Theoretical economics is kinda dead right anyway. I wish I had time to read these days, several econ books have been collecting dust in the last year.
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