Career Composer

Every Factor You MUST Consider Before Going to Grad School

• Erin Ahart • Season 1 • Episode 4

Share episode

Grad school can be an important step towards achieving your career goals, but is it always necessary? Erin shares what she's learned from coaching master's and PhD students in her full-time job and getting her own master's degree. She discusses the importance of industry research, cost, the balance between school and personal life, long-term benefits, and the importance of what you learn versus just having the degree. Erin emphasizes the value of work experience and soft skills and highlights how to make informed career decisions. She also explores alternatives to grad school, such as certifications, professional associations, and gaining relevant experience through jobs and internships. Don’t miss this episode if you’re contemplating whether or not to go to grad school!

Timestamps: Career content - 7:51

Billboard Article

Flowers x When I Was Your Man - Miley Cyrus ft. Bruno Mars (Mashup)

cupofbeer YouTube Channel

Career Composer Playlists

Submit Your Song & Playlist Recs!

Socials:

Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, Threads: @careercomposer
YouTube: @careercomposer

Email: careercomposerpodcast@gmail.com

1:1 Career Coaching Services: Email Erin at careercomposerpodcast@gmail.com for information about her coaching services! Use "1:1 Career Coaching" in the subject line.

This is Career Composer. I'm Erin, and I'm helping you, professionals under 30, navigate your careers with a music themed twist. I'm giving you the job search and career advice you need to get that job, but we'll also talk about music, how to balance our personal and professional lives, and figure out what we're meant to do. Ready? Let's go. Hi guys. Welcome back for another episode of career composer. I'm Erin. I'm a full time career counselor in Washington, DC and in my full time job, I specifically coach masters and PhD students. So today I'm so excited to be sharing every factor you must consider before going to grad school. These are the factors that typically influence people's decisions, but also what no one tells you about grad school and how to assess whether or not it's really the right choice for you. In our last episode, I brought my friend, Sarah on the podcast who shared her experience deciding whether or not to go to grad school. So I really encourage you to check out that episode as well. As always, if you want to get right to the career content, the timestamp is in the show notes below. You can also stay up to date on all things career composer by following us on Instagram, Tik TOK, and X at career composer. Every song we talk about on the podcast can be found on our master career composer playlist. And there's a link to a survey in the show notes below where you can submit songwrecks and playlist ideas too. Finally, you can always email me at careercomposerpodcast at gmail. com with questions, comments, and suggestions. Symphony If you're new here, the Prelude is our music portion of Career Composer that's a brief little appetizer to our career content. Today, we're digging into the Miley vs. Bruno Mars of it all, and you get a bonus round. In the spirit of making decisions about grad school, I also couldn't decide what music to cover. So, you get all of it, and we'll also cover some female singer songwriters that I think got brushed over during the Chapel Roan revolution this summer. Getting into it, a lot of you have probably heard by now that Miley Cyrus is being sued for her song Flowers for copyright infringement of When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars. My mom is actually the one who told me about this back in September. Bruno's people who are suing her, not Bruno Mars himself. And they're essentially saying that she copied the song. Now that I've had some time to think about this, there are a couple of things that I think are pretty interesting. When I was your man was released on January 13th in 2013 and flowers came out on January 12th, 2023. So if it had been one more day, it would have been exactly 10 years later. The 10 years thing is kind of freaky to me, so I was wondering when music copyright expires and when lyrics and melodies are fair game. Music copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. This is a really long time when you think about US patents, which expire for a product after just 20 years, even if the inventor is still alive. And here's what I'm most concerned about. Will Miley's Grammy be taken away? First of all, this is Miley's first Grammy. I have no idea why at the climb and party in the USA, we're not deserving of Grammys back in the day, but I'll live. I would just be so sad for Miley because I believe that she's really earned this recognition. And also, do we think the Academy considered the fact that this song is so similar to When I Was Your Man? Or did they discount that because Tempo Music, Bruno Mars people, hadn't jumped on the lawsuit yet? At the same time, I can definitely see why the songwriters for When I Was Your Man would be really upset. On that note, I do think we need to acknowledge just how crazy similar these two songs are. People copy each other in music all the time. You can easily search on YouTube and see just how many pop songs use the exact same chords with the exact same chord progression. But in the show notes, I linked a mashup of flowers. And when I was your man, the specific mashup is by a YouTuber called cup of beer, and the channel has a ton of us and K pop covers. I also linked a billboard article published in 2023, right after flowers came out explaining from billboards perspective, why Miley Cyrus does not need to credit Bruno Mars on flowers. So if you're interested, definitely check out those two things in the show notes below. Speaking of Bruno, his song with Lady Gaga, die with a smile. I love that song. Again, this is coming out. A month after, Die With a Smile is released, but I'm still listening to it. I don't love the other new one that he just came out with, the one with the pink cover. And I also really don't like Lady Gaga's new album, but I really love this song. Also on the agenda for today are the female singer songwriters who fell under the radar when Chapel was, quite literally, taking over the world. I also must say, it makes me so happy that Chapel is so popular. I really don't think music like hers would have been this popular 10 years ago. And I went to a spin class where it was Chapel Rhone versus Olivia Rodrigo and the spin instructor wore a curly red wig for Chapel Rhone as she was running the spin class. It was insane. And I was just so excited to look around and see how many people knew every single word to the chapel songs. First we have Cut by Maren Morris and Julia Michaels. This one is from Maren's Intermission EP. Very fitting for those of us who don't have it all figured out. Basically the message is, it's just intermission. We're just getting started, which I love. Next is Terrified by Debbie Dawson. If you remember, Any song from today, please go listen to terrified. This is just one of those songs that I really couldn't turn off. It came on either from Spotify's release radar or like, I don't know, one of those curated for you playlists. And it came on as I was walking around my neighborhood and I just immediately thought this person's voice is so special,

Erin:

The hype she's getting kind of reminds me of

When Celeste gained popularity. I'll add some songs by Celeste too. If you don't know who Celeste is. She's the one who sings,

Erin:

Isn't It Strange? Strangers to friends, friends into lovers, and strangers again.

that song. There was a cover of it in Bridgerton. It was on that new Netflix show with, um, Kristen Bell. Uh, oh my gosh. Nobody wants this. So for some reason, the song by Celeste is in every TV show, movie, whatever. But what they were saying about Celeste, is that she sounded like Adele. Had the same potential as Adele and I will say that Celeste voice is the

Erin:

closest I've heard to Adele. my friend Sarah described Celeste's voice really well. She said it sounds like she's very much on the edge of her voice, which is a great way to put it. anyway. Definitely listen to Terrified by Debbie Dawson. I also think that she has potential to become really, really big. I'm also going to throw a couple more songs on the playlist this week, just because I feel like it. And the first one is Labor by Paris Paloma.

I also love the song Fruits and it's called Free Fall by her. Paris Paloma's full album Cacophony came out in August. A couple others that didn't come out this summer, but Again, I just feel like putting on the playlist. Should've Been Me by Mitski, who is the same artist who sings My Love Mine All Mine, and then Self Care by Lily and Madeline, which came out a while ago, but I just love the song. Now let's get into it. Every factor you must consider before going to grad school D minor, K. 504, No.

Erin:

today, we've got what employers are looking for. Researching your industry, the best time to go to grad school cost, balancing school and personal long term benefits for your career and earning potential. How important is what you learn versus just having the degree. Should you go to grad school? If you don't know what you want to do with your career alternatives to grad school and so much more. We're covering Everything today. I'm so glad I can give you guys this information all in one place. I really wish I had this information when I was looking at grad schools three years ago. I also want you to know that while I do coach masters and PhD students for my full time job, I'm not biased towards either choice. I always tell my students I have no loyalty to the university I work at. If it's better for you to quit your grad program and go start your dream side gig business that you want to build, go do it. I really don't care if you go to grad school. There are so many paths to success. So I really just wanted to come at this episode today from an objective standpoint. I'll also use some examples from my own grad school experience today. So to kick us off, I'll quickly share my story. When I graduated college, I was pretty sure I wanted to be a career counselor, maybe become the director of a career office. I'd worked in Penn State's Career Services Center as a student for two years, and I loved it. I wasn't set on getting my master's right away, but I did know that I would need one to move up in my field. So I decided to get my master's of education in higher education and student affairs. I looked into counseling programs, wasn't really interested in clinical programs or school counseling. So those are the routes I weeded out. I also knew it would be difficult to get an entry level job in career services without a master's. Something that's really unique to me is I knew I wanted to live in Boston since I was 17. I wasn't able to go to the colleges that I wanted to so I went to Penn State and said that, well, if I didn't go to college there, I would be there the second I graduated from Penn State. And that's exactly what I did. I knew that it would be even harder at some of the prestigious colleges there to get an entry level job without a master's. Many colleges at the time were requiring student facing staff to have their master's degrees. And I also couldn't afford to live in Boston or pay the grad school tuition at BU, BC, or Northeastern. So I ended up going to Salem State University in Salem, Massachusetts, which really felt like the next best thing. And it was great. I commuted 35 minutes into the city on the weekends. Still got to live out that dream, have fun, meet people, really feel like I was doing what you're meant to do in your twenties. and live out that dream. of living in Boston, even though it was 35 minutes away. So first, let's talk about where grad school is on a macro level and what employers are really looking for. Across all industries, other than academia, non academic research, medicine, and maybe law, employers are increasingly valuing relevant skills and work experience at a higher level than a degree. Other exceptions to this might be licensure programs, but completing a relevant internship experience and passing an exam to demonstrate your skills and knowledge is often part of getting licensed in your field. Employers also highly value soft skills and professional etiquette, also known as professional logic, the ability to operate professionally in the workplace, understanding how organizations work, sending professional emails, knowing how to navigate different kinds of professional relationships. These are all parts of professional logic because undergrad and graduate degrees are becoming more and more expensive for a number of reasons. Fewer people are pursuing them and are seeking alternative ways to get experience. Work experience allows people to develop the professional skills and professional logic that employers want, sometimes faster than education alone, and employers are really starting to notice that. A graduate degree is not a golden ticket, and it's not a guarantee that you will get the job you want. It gives you a leg up, as long as you have the other things that employers are looking for. Skills, experience, and professional logic. And what would be even better if opportunities to get relevant experience are built into your graduate program, then you get both Besides getting your dream job and becoming a more desirable candidate. Another major reason why you might be considering grad school is to get more pay. Whether a grad degree is necessary to get the pay and or job you want really depends on your specific industry, which leads me to the first major factor you should consider your industry. When I was considering grad school fresh out of Penn State, there were some larger shifts happening in higher education as an industry that I didn't know about. And people still didn't know all the ways that COVID would affect education. So at that time, back in 2021, many colleges and universities were still requiring entry level student services staff to have their master's degree. Like I shared earlier, but now you don't need a master's degree to enter higher education because in the last two years, there has been a shortage of qualified student affairs professionals. Instead, hiring managers are looking at experience and transferable skills. This is why it's so important to research the current state of your industry and get opinions from people in your field. What are they observing? What are they hearing from leaders at their company and in the field? Informational interviews are an amazing way to do this. Comment below if you're interested in an episode on informational interviews in the future. You can also follow top contributors in your field on LinkedIn and sign up for newsletters from professional associations. I highly recommend joining the Professional Association for your field, profession, et cetera, et cetera. It's just a really great way to meet people and you really should be a part of the Professional Association. You might even be able to access the membership directory on the Association website, even if you're not paying to be a member of the Association. And then you can find people on the directory who you can reach out to for informational interviews from there. Besides informational interviews, LinkedIn is one of the best possible tools you can use to further your career in general, but also just to do your research about your industry. You can use the search feature on LinkedIn to find people who work in roles you're considering at some of the companies that you might want to work for eventually, and look at those people's experience. What degrees, skills, and experience do they have? Whether a master's degree is required can also depend on the size of the company they work for. So look at people who work at different size companies. Um, and if you're interested in working at both for profit and not for profit companies, also look at the differences there as well. Now, a master's degree is still required to move up and out of an entry level role in my field in particular. If you find that the same is true in your industry, or if it's something that's not required but that could definitely set you apart from other candidates, maybe the question is, should I get my master's degree right now? Some of the reasons you might wait, or maybe not get a grad degree at all, are money, needing time to save, waiting for your company or a future company to pay for your education, Time having other commitments and responsibilities, not wanting to spend multiple years, taking classes, not knowing what you want to do with your career yet, or which specific degree you want. So first on my mind is typically the cost. I think that's just really important when you're thinking about is your education worth it? Grad school can be expensive and that can be really stressful when you don't know whether the risk is worth the reward. So here's what you need to know. There are two kinds of costs. The direct costs or the cost of tuition, books, relocation expenses, and anything else that would have an immediate and measurable impact. This includes taking out a loan. The other type of cost are opportunity costs. Opportunity costs are what you would potentially miss out on when you choose one alternative over another. For example, the salary you would forfeit if you choose to go to grad school instead of working full time, the work experience you would miss out on, again, if you choose not to work while in school, and an opportunity cost might be any job opportunities you miss out on if you don't gain relevant work experience while in school. Most people focus only on the direct cost and forget all about opportunity costs. You should consider both. So for direct costs, unless you're getting your doctorate or your employer is paying for your degree, you'll likely pay close to the sticker price for grad school. Overall, grad students receive less funding than undergrads, so I wouldn't go in expecting the school to cut the price in half with merit aid and scholarships after you apply. On the other hand, grad programs can offer some unique opportunities that might help you pay for school. For example, grad assistantships. Assistantships are paid work opportunities that are typically on campus and are relevant to the degree. And these are great because we already talked about how important relevant work experiences for getting a job today, where I went to grad school, having an assistantship also gave you tuition remission, meaning that your tuition was waived. This does not mean that the entire cost of grad school is waived sometimes, maybe at state schools. The fees are higher than the tuition. So, really do your research and watch out for that. There might be scholarships available for people who meet very specific eligibility requirements. For example, if you're from a state that the university is trying to recruit more students from, they might offer you a scholarship. My school also gave people who lived on campus a 5, 000 yearly housing credit. However, if the school doesn't have housing available, and the other grad students snag it first, won't get the credit. Which is actually what happened to me, so I did have to go pay for expensive off campus housing. Every university has different funding opportunities that vary greatly from school to school. So I highly encourage you to politely interrogate your designated financial aid representative at each school you're applying to so you know exactly what you can expect to pay. Before you get there, that is one of the biggest mistakes that I see grad students. I work with every day. It's one of the biggest mistakes they make. They come to me and they're desperate to find an on campus or off campus part time job because they can't afford their tuition and they didn't. Calculate how much it would actually cost. And it's really sad. So for cost related questions, always go to financial aid. As you consider each school, you'll probably also communicate with the program director. Remember that it is the program director's job to recruit you their job and having students to teach depends on it. So as nice and as welcoming as they may be talk to financial aid, so you know exactly what you can expect to pay. People also often ask, does the reputation of the school matter? Because reputation and prestige often means higher prices. Remember that while a school's reputation may help you later on in the hiring process, it does not replace having valuable work experience, and it doesn't change the cost. If you've done your research and you've come to the decision that you want to go to grad school, that's great. I'm so happy for you. Just be realistic about what you can afford and what your limit is for what you're willing to spend. And because reputation doesn't replace having valuable work experience, it's generally not as important as people think it is. Still do your research and make sure that this is true for your specific industry. If you're paying for your degree, I'm assuming you want to know that you're getting a good education. Reputation makes us feel like we will, because it's supposed to be a great school, right? But it's important to ask, why is this program reputable? Why is it well known? Is it just because of the name of the university? Or is it because this program has a track record of their graduates becoming employed in their field within six months of graduation? That statistic matters way more to me than the name of the university. Are employers hiring graduates from this program because the school has adequately prepared these graduates to work in their field? Or, does the program guarantee field placements? These are all questions that you should be asking. And we still didn't even get to opportunity costs yet. If you want to get the most out of your degree, minimizing opportunity costs is the way to do it. The biggest opportunity costs I mentioned are the salary and work experience you would give up if you choose to go to grad school instead of work full time. I would think about how you can both make money while in school to offset the cost and how you can gain relevant experience. Another thing that breaks my heart is when people work a full or part time job that is not relevant to their field to offset the cost, but because of that they miss out on internships, assistantships, research, or other kinds of experience because they need to work and then they'd have no time to do other kinds of experiences. You will get less out of your grad program for your hard earned money and might have a harder time getting the job you want when you graduate than your peers who had those other experiences. If you need to work while in school, how can you find some kind of middle ground? Can you cut back on some hours at your other job? Move from full to part time to free up some space in your schedule to get other work opportunities offered by your program. You do have options. I was very lucky, and then I ended up getting a full time job at the university where I was going to grad school. So I took two classes instead of three classes each semester, and I also took classes in the summer to make it work. I worked in career services, so I was gaining relevant experience that helped me get the job I have now. I still had to pay for school, though. Don't be fooled. I still had to take out loans. But the last thing I'll say about opportunity costs is that if you haven't guessed it by now, one area where I am very biased is that you should definitely choose a grad program that offers opportunities to gain relevant experience. Do they offer assistantship and research opportunities? Do they require students to complete an internship or practicum? Do they work with students to help them obtain these off campus work opportunities? These experiences, again, are what you have to show for your program on your resume. How you applied the theories that you learned to practice and hands on experience. These are the things that you can talk about in an interview. I can't emphasize this enough. And a quick note about employers paying for your degree, because I do get a lot of questions about how this happens. Some large companies offer this benefit to all employees, and you're told about this benefit when you're hired there, or you can easily find it on HR's website. Sometimes people are able to negotiate continuing education as part of their job offer. And sometimes the company offers this as a benefit, but if you choose to use this benefit, you enter into a contract stating that you will work at that company for a certain number of years. So that way the company gets its return on its investment for paying for your degree. Sometimes it definitely can be beneficial to wait to get your master's if you plan to start a new job and you know you're applying to companies that offer this benefit or companies where you think you may be able to negotiate this as part of your package. Of course, make sure you know what your current organization offers if you're currently working full time and you think your organization might be able to pay for some of your grad school. Now moving on to time and balancing school and personal. Maybe you have other commitments and responsibilities, or you're just not sure if you want to spend multiple years of your life taking classes. Are you willing to put in that extra time outside of class to make your degree worthwhile? I worked a full time traditional nine to five job. I took grad classes at night from 30 PM. Grad classes are longer, but they typically happen only once a week for each class. So you can expect to have anywhere from two to three classes each week for about two to three hours each. Now, I'm not sure if this changes, if you're in a scientific stem kind of field and you have labs, you might have more of a time commitment there, but professors will likely tell you that each credit hour yields about three hours of work per week. So if you have three, three hour classes, that's nine credit hours, which means you should expect another 27 hours of work outside of class every single week. Every program is different, but grad school is meant to push you and take you to the next level of your career. To get the most out of your program, you shouldn't be half assing it, you should be giving it your all, and you'll easily be able to put in at least 20 hours a week, if not the 27 that we just talked about, for your classes if you're doing your assigned readings and your other assignments with just a moderate level of commitment. I remember spending half of my one hour lunch break doing work every single day. Then, refreshing my memory of the readings while I was eating dinner between five and six. Class was at six. And then two to three nights a week, I would do homework after class when I got home at 9pm. And I would spend at least one weekend day every weekend in JAHO. That was one of my favorite coffee shops in Salem and Boston. For about six to eight hours, and then spend another three to four hours doing work every day. on that Sunday night. When it comes to time and balancing school and personal life, I would encourage anyone deciding whether or not to go to grad school to think about what's most important to you. Most of you listening are in your 20s. I'm assuming your career is important to you, future earning potential and or doing what you love is important to you. And this motivation, especially if you're studying something that you really enjoy, will get you through the program. It's really important. Do you have responsibilities you legitimately can't sacrifice like taking care of family, taking care of your physical and mental health? It's time with your friends and going out on the weekends, your priority right now. And again, if it is good for you, we're young, it's the best time to be social. If money is a little tight, maybe really value having a full or part time job right now. I want you guys to think about all of these things because something does have to give. Even though we're young, even though many of us don't have anyone dependent on us, it is still really, really hard. Talk with the program director at your school to learn about the time commitments and expectations of the program, and be really honest with yourself about how grad school is going to fit into your life. Grad school can be great, but I still want to be honest. Working full time while going to grad school was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I have always been that kind of person who says, you know, if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. The sky's the limit. No one else can hold you back. I've always been super independent. I've always worked towards really high goals that I set for myself. And still I wasn't able to get as much as I wanted out of my classwork because I was so tired all the time. My mental health was at the lowest point it has ever been. And I didn't have a support system because I moved nine hours away from home and didn't have time to make new friends outside of my program because I was working all the time. I still went into Boston on the weekends. I still was able to meet people. Do the things that I set out to do, but it wasn't what I expected. Working yourself to the bone can have a huge impact on even the strongest people. And you have to find a self care routine that actually fills you up. That being said. I did get through it. Grad school can still be a great option. I'm just saying this because I want you to be realistic, and I don't want anyone going into this huge decision thinking that it's going to be easy, because it's not. I will say though, now that we're talking about time and balancing school and personal, I can't imagine going back to school, working full time and having kids or other family members dependent on me at the same time, especially if I didn't have anyone to help me out. If you're going to do something hard, your twenties might as well be the best time to do it. It's a time to take risks, make choices that you might not have the luxury to make later in life. And at the same time, maybe you do want to power through grad school later. If that means you'll be better off financially and you wouldn't be going into a bunch of student loan debt. Again, it's really just what matters to you. At this point, we've talked about grad school overall, researching your industry, cost, balancing school and personal life. What's left? Long term benefits. How important is what you learn versus the actual degree? What if you don't know what you want to do with your career yet and alternatives to grad school? I really decided to pack this all into one episode. Um, so long term benefits and really your long term goals. How could this degree help you get the job you want in your industry? What might your earning potential look like with this degree in your industry? And will getting this degree help you become a better professional because of what you learn? you A lot of this all goes back to industry research, talking to people in your field, the job and salary that your degree could lead to varies dramatically across different industries. But I still know some of you will want a more specific answer, and I get it. According to the Social Security Administration, there are substantial differences attainment. Men with bachelor's degrees earn approximately 900, 000 more immediacy and lifetime earnings in high school graduates. And women with bachelor's degrees earn 630, 000 more than high school graduates. Men with graduate degrees earned 1. 5 million more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates and women with graduate degrees, earn 1 million more than high school graduates. When you take out the high school part and look at earnings compared to those who've completed their bachelor's degree, men with graduate degrees earn approximately 600, 000 more than men with bachelor's degrees. Women with graduate degrees earn approximately 470, 000 more than women with bachelor's degrees. Now, this 2015. More recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that for 25 to 34 year olds who worked full time year round, those who had higher educational attainment also had higher median earnings in 2022. For example, in 2022, the median earnings of those with a master's degree or higher with a salary of 80, 200 were 20 percent higher than the earnings of those with a bachelor's degree, a salary of 66, 600 as their highest level of attainment. What this more recent data doesn't show is the gender pay gap. I'll do an episode on that in the future. And like I said earlier, the variation in pay by industry really makes this data meaningless to me. I get it. You still want to know, but since this varies so much by industry, these statistics, they just don't matter. But moving on. What you learn versus the name of the degree. What if one of your long term goals is to get better at what you do and become a more knowledgeable, well rounded professional because of what you learn in grad school. Sometimes you can't simply learn by doing you need the theories, tools, techniques to do your job the best, or to give your client the best experience. If you offer independent services or you do freelance work. One example of this is life coaching versus clinical mental health counseling. Anyone can become a life coach. There's no governing body that says you need to have X, Y, Z certification. The certification is just optional, but for a clinical mental health counselor, if you are a client seeking mental health support, I assume you want to know that that counselor has all of the theories, all of the techniques from their program, because of the kind of support they're administering to you. So. Anyway, you need the theories sometimes, and this leads us into a discussion about how important is what you learn versus the name of the degree. Whether your goal is to move up, get your dream job, get better at what you do, become a better professional, or all of the above, what you're learning in grad school is so important. You are investing money, time, and effort into your coursework, so why wouldn't you want to find a program where you're excited about the classes that you're taking? Even if you're thinking, I don't really care about the degree. I just know I need it to move up. You can come out with a degree and get the promotion and you'll be happy, but it will be so much more fulfilling if you choose a program where you're excited to go to class and you come out with skills and experience that you're really proud of. When I chose my school and my degree, I didn't really care that I felt lukewarm about some of the classes. I ended up learning more about the field of higher education and how my field operates than I did about how to do my actual job, which is career counseling. I learned everything I know now about career counseling and career advice purely through work experience. My classes definitely helped. They gave me a different perspective when working with college and university students, but if I had the chance to do it over again, I would have preferred something more skills based. We'll come back to classes and skills in a minute. What if you don't know what you want to do with your career? And this is my favorite part of today's episode, guys. It will all come full circle. I don't think you should go to grad school if you have no idea what you want to do with your career. There it is. I said it. That's my opinion. Even if money isn't a factor, your time is so valuable, especially in your twenties. This is the time where you're setting yourself up for your dream job in your thirties and forties and your future success. In the two years that it takes people to finish their master's degree on average, you could be doing so many other things that will help you figure out what you want to do. Then you can save your money and take more informed steps towards your future. After you have a clear direction, shadow people, conduct informational interviews, get a relevant internship, get an entry level job in your field that lets you dabble in everything at a basic level. So you learn what you like, get certifications, Grad school may help you figure out what you want to do and might confirm for you that this career is a perfect fit, but there's a good chance that it won't. What you want to avoid is getting your grad degree and realizing along the way, or after the fact that you want to go a different direction, this still might happen. Even if you thought for sure that your grad degree was right for you. And that's okay. But what if that different direction also requires a master's degree? If at that point it's still feasible for you to get a second graduate degree, this unfortunately may cause suspicion for some employers who are wondering why you have two master's degrees, or it could make you overqualified for the jobs you want, which can also hurt you in the job search process. I'm not trying to scare you. There are always ways to frame your experience and qualifications later. So your application is more attractive to employers. It's just something to think about. There is one exception to my original statement. You shouldn't go to grad school if you don't know what you want to do. And that's if you're interested in a specific job family or category of careers, and you just need to find your niche within your field. In my higher ed program, most of my peers didn't know exactly what functional area of the field they wanted to specialize in. I was the only one who knew career counseling was for me. But by the end of the program, almost everyone there knew what they wanted to do because of what they had learned about the field through the program and the internships they had. Grad school can actually be a great choice if this is you, because not only can it help you focus your interests and figure out what you love, but it sets you up for a more advanced role once you graduate. Someone in my program who had never had a full time job, but who had a ton of internship experience, went to conferences and won awards, She bypassed entry level roles and got her first job as an assistant director at a great school. If you're not sure what you want to do and you still want to go to grad school, one thing I talked about with Sarah in our last episode is the importance of gaining transferable skills and liking what you learn. This is a full circle moment. I said I was coming back. So here's a clip from my conversation with Sarah in episode three.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-8:

Is there anything that you've done that has been really helpful in making a decision? Whether it's to gain more information, to do research, maybe some informational interviews or shadowing. Is there anything that you've done that you think our listeners could implement if they're struggling to make their decision?

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-9:

Yeah, so I will say the first thing that I did I looked at what programs were even offered at my university. That was step number one. And fortunately, but unfortunately, the university offers a ton of different master's programs. However, I will say that when I was looking at the programs, I also looked at their curriculum. one thing I feel like I might be able to cross off the list is getting a master's in higher education. Just because when I look through the classes that I would have to take They didn't really resonate with me and they didn't really click Which is interesting because again, I love campus environment. I am fine with my job right now So I was kind of surprised that I I didn't really click with the curriculum, but whatever.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-8:

I also love that because a lot of people, when they go to school, they think about the outcome. Like, what can I do with this degree? But, it's so important to know that you're going to like what you learn, and that you're going to be gaining skills that you actually want to take with you, in addition to just the name of the degree, because If you're open to a lot of options, you want to be able to talk about those transferable skills. So anyway, love that you did that.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-9:

thank you, thank you.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-8:

I think in this stage of life, it's really easy for people to feel stuck, especially if you don't know what your next steps are. So I think what's important is that. We all continue to seek out small ways that we can gain new skills or improve ourselves, even if we don't know what our dream job or our passion is Something that you recently told me is that you're participating in something called Toastmasters. Can you tell us what that is and what prompted you to get started with it?

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-9:

Yeah. So Toastmasters is, I believe, an international club where you can practice public speaking, gain leadership experience, and then also get comfortable doing on the spot public speaking.

Erin:

And last but not least, alternatives to grad school. How can you gain skills and experience without committing to a grad degree? This is probably not what you would expect me to say, but you can actually take one or two classes towards the program you're interested in without pursuing the full degree. Many programs allow this simply because they want your money. And this can be great if you know that gaining one specific skill would be really helpful. For example, learning a programming language and applying it in a class, taking a project management course, if you want to enter into a management role, taking a marketing class. If you're looking to take on some marketing tasks for your company and possibly transition into that space, you're looking at a couple thousand dollars, maybe even less for one class, instead of potentially thousands of dollars for an entire degree. If you're trying to move up in your current company, you're also way more likely to convince your boss to pay for one class that is directly related to your job than convincing your company to pay for the full degree. If that's not something they typically do for their employees. The same is true for certifications. I am a huge proponent of certifications because you get to say you're certified in something on your resume. Yay. Who doesn't want that? And because certifications sometimes take even less time to complete than a class. And on top of that, they're even more focused on one specific skill. Certifications range in price. And if you can afford them, you could quickly rack up two to three certifications in one summer and dramatically boost your value as a professional. Certificates. You can get a certificate instead of a grad degree and certificates are different than certifications. A certificate means that you've completed a handful of related classes. So for example, taking three to four classes in project management and project management certificates are a Very popular. If you didn't know activities with your professional association or another professional club, Sarah talked about this in episode three as well. She currently participates in Toastmasters, which is a public speaking club. Next internships, full time jobs, and even volunteer roles are also great alternatives to grad school. Like I said in the very beginning, professional logic, soft skills, and hands on experience are so valuable to employers and are things that grad school and formal education doesn't always teach. Even if you think you don't have time in your schedule for these opportunities, you can always shadow other professionals and conduct informational interviews just to get started. Talk to your manager about the skills you want to gain and how you want to grow. Your manager might be willing to work with you, and Sarah also talked about this again in last week's episode. In a future episode, we'll talk about the art of job crafting, which is making small adjustments in your current role to gain new skills and move in the direction you want. There are so, so, so many alternatives to grad school that we could talk about all day, honestly. And that is every factor you must consider before going to grad school. Guys, that was a lot of information. Making any decision about your career can be overwhelming. It can be really scary, but I want you to know that I'm here for you. I support you. I really want you to succeed. And in the words of the great Maren Morris, every good show needs an intermission time to be intentional, reflect, and think about what makes sense for you, you'll be just fine.

Analogue 1 + 2 (Focusrite Usb Audio)-15:

I hope you found today's episode helpful. Career Composer will be back with a new episode every other Monday. And if today's topic really resonated with you, I hope you'll consider leaving a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. Reviews will really help this podcast grow so I can keep bringing you the career content that you want. You can also email me at careercomposerpodcast at gmail. com with feedback or questions, because I want to give you the career advice that you actually want to hear. That's all for now. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time and have a great day.