Going back to school and changing career

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, and I have been working as a software engineer for almost 10 years now. I enjoy writing software, and the money is decent, but I’m not sure I want to do this for the rest of my life. I’m also feeling increasingly frustrated by how things are done in the software industry in general. I’m considering going back to school full time and getting a degree in aerospace engineering. I’ve always been fascinated by things that fly for as long as I remember, and in fact that was the major I started out in when I first went to school. I changed my major back then for a number of reasons, but I think I’m ready to give this another go now. I know it is not going to be easy if I follow through with this. But I’ll pretty much have to act right now, while I’m still young (sort of) and still single. I’ll essentially be starting out all over again, and I’ll need to make a lot of adjustments to live the life of a student again. But if I don’t at least give this a try, I’ll probably end up with a career that I’m sick of and wondering if things could have been different for the rest of my life.

Has any doper done this before, going back to school after working for a while? What was your experience? Were there any problems that you ran into? How did it work out in the end? Do you regret doing it? And if you don’t mind telling, how did you pay for it? I’d really appreciate it if I can hear from someone who has done it before. Thanks.

2

I finished up my M.A.Ed. back in May with a 4.0 GPA despite having been out of school for nearly 20 years. I “paid” for it 100% with student loans, but will be able to write most if not all of it off after a few years of teaching. Really the only problem was that I didn’t work while pursuing the degree - but then working full-time while raising a six and four-year-old was well nigh impossible anyway. We relied on hubby’s “feast or famine” income as a small business owner - and the First National Bank of Grandma when times got tough. Nevertheless, most of my classmates did work during school and they’re doing fine despite their constant moaning about the rigor of grad school work.

So what I’m saying is, go for it! I could not be happier and just wish I had done this much, much sooner.

3

After six years working as a lab technologist with my bachelor’s degree, a decently-paying but utterly boring job, I quit and went back to get my PhD, dragging my newly-acquired wife and stepson with me. That was a year ago. I don’t regret it at all, and would do it again if given the choice, but in many ways it’s been harder than I expected. Mainly with money. It turns out that I HATE HATE HATE being poor.

I get a fairly small stipend from my program, which I am supplementing with more student loans than I care to think about. I am also lucky in that my parents are in a position to support us if all else fails. I haven’t had to rely on them much yet, but frankly I don’t know that I would have taken this leap if I didn’t have that safety net there.

4

Thanks guys for the responses. It looks like both of you do student loan. Is it difficult to get one, especially considering today’s economy? I was fortunate that my parents helped me out with my bachelor’s degree, so I’ve never dealt with that before. Thanks.

5

I should add that if I were single, the stipend I receive would be adequate to live on. I don’t know what the stipend situation would be like in the programs you’re looking at. There was a recent thread about how they vary radically.

If you’re going to get federal student loans, which there’s a ninety plus percent chance you are, it’s a piece of cake. Just talk to your school’s Financial Aid office. They’ll have you fill out a FAFSA, and then you magically receive money. There’s not much more to it than that.

6

I’ve been seriously considering, if my boyfriend ever starts actually making money at his businesses, quitting my job to go be an apprentice midwife. I mentioned it to my mother and the next day she calls me and says, “Hey, your father and I will pay for you go to get a Ph.D. Why don’t you go get a doctorate in library science?” Uh, no thanks, Ma. “What about a business degree? Don’t you want a second Masters’?” Uh, no thanks, really. I guess she really didn’t like the midwifery thing.

7

May I suggest you check out http://www.studentloanjustice.org before taking out any student loans? If you’re making good money now, as you say, and have no dependents, I’d seriously try not to take out any loans if you can possibly help it. Maybe you can get an assistantship or something?

8

I have a BSc, obtained in 2003, and in 2007 I quit working and went back to school to study mechanical engineering (aeronautical concentration). I had to start over at zero because none of my classes from my BSc gave me credits for my new program, and, in fact, I’ve started off at “less than zero” because I had to take refresher courses in Calculus. I expect to graduate in 2011, if all goes well (I anticipate mostly scheduling issues to get all my courses done on time).

I don’t regret it for a minute. I enjoy my new field of study, and I’m working hard and getting good grades. I’ve been fortunate to find summer jobs in the industry that interests me, and I feel that there’s a good chance I’ll land a job once I graduate. At the same time, I started participating in a new sport, and with the two together, I have to say I’ve never been happier. I really didn’t know what I wanted from my life the first time around, and now I’m so focused! I start a new semester tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to it.

In my case, I am incredibly lucky to have my husband to support me; he basically handles living expenses, and my summer job covers my year of costs for tuition, textbooks, bus passes, etc. I’ve never had student loans either, so I can’t help you with that!

If it’s what you want to do, do it. Don’t spend the rest of your life working in a field you hate, wondering “what if?”

9

I strongly second this.

I have tried some crazy-assed, expensive things in my life. The biggest was probably investing $100k of my own money into shooting a feature-length movie with a bunch of film students. The movie was not successful (it has some good moments but for the most part kinda sucked, due to our combined lack of experience). But during post-production I was diagnosed with a serious illness that quickly became progressive. Now I am almost 44 years old and significantly disabled. I’m so grateful that I took all my crazy risks while I could. I can’t say that I made a good movie, but I can say that I made a movie.:stuck_out_tongue:

I only regret the things I didn’t try, and I’m grateful for the things I did, and all the rich experiences they brought me. Of course, YMMV.

Best wishes to you, darlin’!

10

See, if you hate your current field, it’s easy. But if you like your current field but just can’t get something else out of your head, that’s the hard thing.

11

Thanks, I’ll have to check that site out.

I want to avoid getting a loan if I can, but I’m not sure I have enough to make it through all the way. I have saved up enough cash to pay for everything for about a year, and probably another year if I dip into my retirement account and manage to successfully sell my condo. I’m not entirely sure that I can finish everything in just 2 years. It also doesn’t help that at this point, I don’t know if I can be directly admitted into grad school, or whether I’ll have to do another undergrad degree first. I’ve looked around a little bit, and it looks like getting a master would make more sense than getting a second bachelor in my situation. Grad school will also likely have more options financial-wise that don’t involve a loan. However, for the school that I’m looking at (UIUC), from the web it looks like they can admit you to grad school on a probation status if you have an unrelated undergrad degree, but supposedly they only give you one semester to make up for all the pre-requisites that you are missing :eek:. I’ll have to talk to someone there and see what my options are…

12

This is kind of what I’m thinking. So I’m not completely out of my mind. :slight_smile:

13

Yeah, this is kind of a tough call. I’d say I kind of like what I’m doing right now, but I can also see that I’m probably gradually burning out.

14

I was also in the software field, as a systems analyst for a big pharamceutical company. At the age of 27, I decided I wanted to be a doctor. At 28, I quit my job and started a full-time postbaccalaureate pre-medical program. Now, at age 32, I am in my 3rd year of medical school.

I regret my decision and, if I could go back, would not do this. Since midway through second year, I have felt that going to medical school is not worth it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t like my previous job, and would not go back to it, but there are so many other things I could have done which I probably would have enjoyed more. I did medicine not out of genuine interest in or passion for it, but because of what I thought it would do for my life. I hated my job, felt I needed a drastic change, and thought medicine would result in a life more like what I wanted. I convinced myself that I truly did want to do it, but deep down, I should have known that wasn’t true.

The issue comes down to whether or not you truly want to do whether you’re proposing, or whether it’s just an escape. As Zsofia said, if you hate your current field, it’s easy–but it may be too easy. Don’t let hatred of your current job wrongly convince you that something else is your true passion. If, on the other hand, after some deep soul-searching, you determine that aerospace engineering really is what you want to do with your life, then you’ll probably be happy.

As far as finances go, I had more than enough savings and investments from years of working to pay my way through the post-bacc, both tuition and living expenses. For something like medical school, student loans are plentiful, which means that I haven’t had to worry about how to get through in the short term. This is also a downside, however, in that debt is a millstone around my neck. I’m already $125k in the hole, and if I knew of a job I could take that would allow me to make payments on that while living comfortably I’d quit tomorrow, but for now I’m pretty much stuck with going through with this solely for financial reasons.

15

If you have enough money go for it, if not remember that most people are in jobs they find boring or don’t like the way corporate life works. Unfortunately a lot of people don’t realize that it’s the same in most corporations regardless of what they actually do.

Taking out student loans to HELP is OK, but not to pay for the course of the degree.

You are only going to wind up in debt, over your head and unlike other forms of loans you can’t write them off, they stay on till you pay them off.

So what happens is you wind up with another degree, a corporate environment that is the same as the one you left and now you’re so far in debt that you have to take another job to pay off the loan and now you have TWO jobs you hate and you’re always tired.

The easiest way to do this, is first check out what program you want to enter. Then for the next year take classes as you work in your present job. If you find things are going OK and you like the classes fine.

You also need to ask yourself is it my career or is it my JOB I’m not happy with, perhaps a different change of environment.

If you write software, why not try writing some programs and selling them youself.

You can make tools or software for things like music and video and then put them out there with a free/professional version and get on places like FileHippo and Snapfiles, and sell things that way. It’s an interesting hobby.

You do not want to go into debt for a second choice career. As you saw most of the others who did this have financial backers.

16

I went from a childhood dream of “being a scientist” to a career in computer science and then tech management.
The problem with computer science is it leaves you feeling, as one friend of mine put it, like you put your hand into a bucket of water, and when you pulled it out there was no trace you had ever been there. The new version is being written before the one you’re working on is delivered, born obsolete.

The trouble I see with aerospace is that your hope of making an impact is zero.

If I were looking to a new career, I’d look to something smaller and broader. At one point I helped a small group create a science museum, by creating computer-based exhibits, and my designs are entertaining and edifying youth as I write. I guess they’ll be gone in another decade, but it’s been satisfying in the meantime.

17

I find this thread interesting since I am considering a similar move. Once I get my PE I’m going to start actively looking to go back to school and try to switch careers.

I’m not a fan of engineering and even though I switched companies to a much better work environment I still don’t like the job. On top of that I want to move back to my hometown and my industry doesn’t exist there so I need to find something that can get me a job there.

It’s nice to hear from people who have done it and other people that are thinking about a similar move. Even though I’m a long way off from making the change, knowing that I’m not the only person who is thinking about stuff like this helps with the looks I get when I talk about leaving my cushy job.

18

It might make sense to look into grad school in computer science, working with a professor that does work with aerospace applications. Surely there’s someone out there doing it, and if you’re willing to put your solid computer science background to work advancing that research, they are more likely to fund your efforts to learn about aerospace. And you would come out of that very marketable, having added to your skillset rather than traded one skillset for another. If there are prereqs, consider taking a couple of them before you decide for sure to quit your job.

19

That’s more likely to fall under the purview of computational science rather than computer science, but either way some familiarity with aerospace engineering–in particular, the physics background–will be required.

When I was applying to graduate school the first time around, I was tired of working in consumer application development, and wanted to switch to a financial institution. So I went for a master’s degree in CS with an emphasis on high quality software development. Along the way the bottom dropped out of that industry and I discovered that what I was really interested in was machine learning and optimization, so now I’m starting a PhD in statistics to become an expert in those topics.

In general, the people who are most successful going to back to school are the people who have a clear goal in mind, and a clear plan as to how the degree they’re going for will help them reach that goal. It’s like I tell everyone who’s thinking about law school: the schooling only lasts three years, and after that you have to be a lawyer for the next forty. That’s the sort of thinking you should be doing when you’re deciding whether to go back.

20

Thanks, guys, for the additional perspectives. They give me something to think about, and I really appreciate them.

I have spent some time pondering the question of whether it is just my job or it is the field that I don’t like. I appreciate the fact that there will be a lot of corporate bullshit in most jobs in all fields. However, let’s just say that if other engineering industries operate like a lot of the companies in the software industry, planes will be falling out of the sky left and right. Things have got to be better (I hope)!