Might be a hot take but I think both high school and university are (typically) much more difficult and stressful than career work. Constantly having to process, assimilate, and retain new information at a breakneck pace; perpetual assignments and exams which have huge educational, social, and monetary repercussions upon failure; all this while also having to find a way to earn enough money to survive on minimum wage shit jobs with zero job security or recourse for poor treatment.
Yes, by the time you’re employed you probably have way more responsibilities both inside and outside the workplace which can make life more stressful, but no workplace I’ve been in has challenged me nearly so much as hs and uni.
You know, there’s some validity in that. College was hard as fuck; and half the stress was the jobs to keep living and going to class, but 3 jobs makes for little study and sleep. It’s a race to the bottom where you may get a degree, or may die of malnourishment.
A PhD will delay the last panel a few years.
Don’t forget the post doc!
Employment is more like a slide down into a valley filled with sewage, with the next slope out labelled “surviving to retirement”.
I had to climb up the employment mountain before I was able to start getting any kind of degree
Ha!
- school
- army
- college habit and bankruptcy before degree
- poor but working from contact in college
- work work work work work work <- i am here
But hey. (Find something to) love (in) what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.
Did you find something to love in what you do?
More like…
Seriously, OP is one lucky son if a bitch that they got to go to college, especially if it wasn’t on their own dime. Most of us can’t afford student loans.
Retirement is the cliff you jump off at the end where you get to enjoy a few moments of bliss before you splatter into the ground.
Nidhogg
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I love this
The frustrating thing is advanced degrees can make it harder to get jobs outside of your degree.
Within your area of expertise too, even. In my field, Ph.Ds are viewed as being overqualified with not enough field experience
I work in aerospace engineering and i hesitate to hire PhD. In my experience, PhD always want to find the best engineering solution and cant, dont, or wont bother to understand the business implications of budget and schedule. They simply cant say, “good enough,” and move on. They always need 1 more study, or to so the 1 month model instead of the 1 day hand calc because it gives a more accurate answer, and theyre a pain in the ass to manage. Sometimes all management needs to understand is directional trends to make a decision
Bingo. It’s like this here too.
We recently ran into a situation where we got an update to NX and the new version physically couldnt model a part we had designed. The part was very specifically designed around its aero features. Our CFD PhD said itd take him 3 months to determine the impact to the features.
I sat down with one of the other engineers, we ran through every scenario possible, ran it all through 1d flow solver models, and determined worst case scenario (which we were certain wasnt going to happen) was 7 degree F change to the metal temperature. When we’re talking metal temps 1200F+, 7 is insignificant.
We came to that conclusion in 4 hours and told the team to keep going with what NX could do.
I dunno what any of that means but that’s cool. I thought aerospace engineering would be working with metric units even in the USA though.
Well… Are they wrong?
Not usually. For my sphere, you need field time to understand how things work. The academic smarts gives you the horsepower to the hardest problems, but it doesn’t replace the foundational skills that comprise 97% of the work
You know you can decide what to put on your resume, right?
If my degree is not relevant to what I’m applying to I will either selectively reveal it or leave it out entirely for this reason.
This was taught to me this was too
Congratulations on your masters that’s something to be very proud of! What kind of career are you interested in?
Barista
I’m sorry but we have had 3 English lit PhD candidates, one of whom pronounces it “expresso”, and a doctor of philosophy apply. We’ve decided to go with someone who has more experience.
I have the most essperience.
😂
And about 50% of the time that dip before employment is an actual cliff/crevice.
Now it’s time to get your hands dirty with just about everything that comes your way and build up that experience. You’re not meant to be a master of your field, you’re meant to be able to think intelligently about your subject matter
Can I eat experience too or…?
I am currently on the successful at entry level positions. Wondering how I get to leadership track or if I should…
Eh, first few years. Eventually you’ll be the old guy others ask for advice. Provided that you don’t get bored and look for a different position.
There’s a short downward slope at the peak, and then it just drops straight down. Assuming you don’t just die at your desk at work.
Well then it’s only 6’ down.
Onward and upward.
