Advise to graduating students
I would like to congratulate many of you who are graduating this year. With graduation, many of you probably feel a mix of emotions. You are excited to finally complete your degrees and ready to go into the workplace but some of you may also feel sad because you are leaving many friends, teachers, your beloved universities, and the student's life.
I am sure that some of you are facing the question whether to go to graduate school or go to work and this is a difficult choice. There are favorable and unfavorable things for each decision that you will have to make. Going into graduate school will allow you to broaden your knowledge in the field of your interest and put off your job findings for few years. Go to work will allow you to learn more about your career, improve your experience, and of course, earning money. Some of you may decide that you want to work for few years then return to school later but if you go to work, will you ever go back to school? What will happen when you start making money, having many things to do, and enjoy your working life? Who will know if you are meeting “someone special” in your life then suddenly go back to school may not be a good choice anymore? Working can bring many interesting things, when you are making money and become independence from your family, it is difficult to return to school.
However, if you continue to go to graduate school, you have certain advantage but do you really know whether your field of study is the right choice or not? Many students think that they know what to do for a career before they even work in that field or understand the job market. What will happen if you select a field of study that have no job prospect? What will happen if you find out that you do not like your field of study after having a Master degree? What would you do in an area that you are no longer interested? College life is supposed to be the time for students to know who they are, what they want in life, and what their interests are but NOT every student will graduate with a career goals firmly in place. In fact, many do not know what they should do and what would be the right career for them. Many students end up working in areas that have nothing to do with their degrees.
I always advise students to spend some time in the workplace to get better idea of what their field of study is. In fact, they should spend at least one summer working at the place that relate to their field of study so they know something about it as well as their career choices. They should talk to people who work there to get some perspectives and maybe some advises. They should take time to research information about their fields of study and learn more about them as much as possible. They must keep as many career paths open as much as possible as things may change too. Today many jobs are dictated by what is happening in the world as globalization already impacted many countries. It is important that students have a broad perspective about their field of study, their careers and the job market.
Students should understand that go to university is a major investment of them and their family. Student should understand that graduate school is another major investment that they must seriously considered. I know some students chose graduate school to avoid to go to work, this is NOT a good choice because sooner or later you will have to face the reality. You can not avoid work and depend on someone to support you. Based on several years of advising students, I found that many students go to graduate school directly from undergraduate based on some idea but they make that decision with little information or no information at all. Most students do not know that graduate school sets them on a path to a very SPECIFIC professional career. If you do not have experience in that area, or have enough information about that area then how do you know that is the right career for you? For example, in undergraduate you select software engineering and you are required to know about programming, software life cycle, software methods and tools, and other activities relate to software development. Basically when graduate, you will be a “software generalist” that can fit into any environment. However, when you go to graduate school in software engineering, you must select a specific area within software engineering such as embedded area, web area, management area, security area, architecture area, artificial intelligence area, data mining area etc. After all, you will be a “software specialist” that aim at specific job, specific area. Graduate programs are expensive and require a lot of efforts. The worst thing could happen is investing time and money into something then NOT pursue a career in the field that you are trained in.
As graduating student, you must understand that it is important to be certain about what you want to study and what career you want to pursue when decide to go to graduate school. Following are some advises that I hope some of you will seriously consider before making any decision:
1) Know what interest you. If you enjoy study and want to learn more then you should go to graduate school.
2) If you are NOT sure and want to know something about your career choice then you should start working first then consider a graduate program after few years.
3) Do you really like your field of study today? If you do NOT care then go to graduate school in that field is a bad idea.
4) If you do NOT enjoy learning but manage to graduate anyway then do NOT go to graduate school.
5) If you think graduate degree will help you making more money and advance in your career then the fact is: You do NOT need a Master degree to advance your career. You can earn more money by NOT spending it in graduate school. You must research that issue carefully before making decision.
6) If you enjoy learning, love to teach and want to develop the next generation of “Knowledge workers” then go for it, go all the way as far as possible (get Master degree, get Ph.D degree and do some Post-Doctorate) as you will enjoy it.
Congratulation on your graduation and good luck with your career.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
