Okay, so I have a couple more possible paths outlined for my future. Two involve staying at gao for more than a year longer, two involve leaving gao in the next year or so.
Option 1: suck it up, stay in chicago, stick with healthcare; it’s been good so far, if you don’t press your luck, you get no whamies.
Option 2: switch to gao’s physical infrastructure team (which does mostly transportation, and some telecom, construction, and postal work) and move to either dallas or LA (I.e. Move to LA) if I do end up leaving gao, this gives me experience more in line with my interests. It also involves a fuck of a lot of travel (both plus and minus there)
Staying with gao has a few advantages. Staying another year (3 in total) ups my vacation time for any future federal service, vests me in the federal 401(k) equivalent, and burns no bridges. 4 years means I don’t have to pay back my student loan benefit, 5 years means I could get more student loan benefit and the federal pension (n% of the average salary from my three highest paid years, where n is the number of years working for the govt, for the rest of my life). Also I can continue with at least one stable element in my life. However, it gives me very limited control over my research subject matter and, in practical terms caps my salary at modestly upper middle class. I’d also climb the ladder a bit and I think I’d be a good manager and would enjoy it.
Option 3: bail out, find job in cali doing enviro policy. (Probably sf). Con: welcome to the world of entry level position, again. Salary wouldn’t change much, but living expenses would increase.
Option 4: screw you guys I’m going to grad school. Who doesn’t love a good phd program and eventual professorship? More choice in research topics, sorta. I would likely develop an expertise and, if I understand the dance correctly, end up researching almost entirely within that. Apparent freedom of choice, but they will make me dance for the grants. (Technically not incompatible with options 1-3)
Um, yeah, so what do you think?
Stability v what I think (or at least thought) I want(ed) to do. =)
Chicago and LA look like such great places when you don’t live in them. I wonder if they’re as much fun as a local?
I really like LA and Orange County, but I know that it’s not universal. I’ve had success in health, job and relationship here so I can’t complain. But I also know that everything’s situational depending on the social network you find.
If you can get half-time work and half-time school, that might be a good option. Full-time work and part-time school is madness. Full-time doctoral training is kind of OK, but I’m not sure it’s entirely worth it in a life-affirmation kind of way unless you’re really set on a career that requires it — either professor or PI researcher (it is clearly not worth it in terms of money).
As a childless dude with relatively modest tastes, you’re in a position to put personal fulfillment first.
Do number #2 while researching #3, and #4 only if you see a dream opening that requires the degree or you get rid of all your current debts.
Grant writing is an annual frustration in my lab, but there’s lots of help available too. Academia does have some pretty sick perks if you have enough commitment to build tenure. The senior researchers pretty much spend their time working 10-20 hour weeks and flying around collecting honoraria.
I don’t really have useful input on the suggestions, but if you do #2 I have a great monthly game night in Pasadena to start taking you to. 🙂
I always vote for you to move back to the Bay Area, but LA would be cool too.
Move to LA. Rent my apartment. I’d love to have someone I know living there.
Don’t expect to finish a PhD while working elsewhere full time. I have known a lot of very talented people who have tried it. I haven’t known any who have accomplished it.
So, having done grad school + work half time, I’ll say this.
Most classes meet sometime between 9am and 5pm. Even if they meet later, it may take you some time to commute between work and skool.
Most jobs require one to be in between 9am and 5pm.
So you’re going to need some sort of job that lets you be out of the building whenever you have to take classes.
That having been said, working half time and doing a masters is the easiest thing in the world — provided one is paying in-state tuition.
Right now, the state of the economy is such that I would be really leery of ditching GAO. Work with the LA people to get more experience in the area you want to work in, build up some connections, & when things get better, use that experience & those connections to make your move towards another degree.
Getting to 5 years with GAO sounds like it would be good for you.
If LA doesn’t work out for you, can you try another location? I’m concerned that the culture here might not work out that well for you, and 3 years is a long time to tough it out.
The grass is not greener.
Would you have said the same thing when I talked about switching from comp sci to public policy?
I don’t know, we were different people back then 😉
I’d definitely say it today. Especially to an American. We’ve got way too many law/pub pol/poly sci dreamers and not nearly enough comp sci/engineer doers.
Ah, a reasonable point, when viewing me as a resource from the perspective of a labor economist. But in terms of my personal utility, I have to say that public policy has been a step up for me, in no uncertain terms.
But would a different public policy area in a different large US city really be that different in terms of your personal utility? At some point you have to stop moving your settler unit and start building your civilization 😉
As someone who recently spent too much time in cross-country travel, holy hopping hornytoads do we need people working on the goddamn physical infrastructure. We’re crumbling!
I was thinking the same thing last year when you talked about that, but I am not him.
I also didn’t say anything (or if I did, not as much as I wanted to) because we need smart people in public policy, and if you actually get to the point where you influence policy decisions, the world will be a better place.
So while it may have been better for you to stay in software, it could be better for me that you go into policy.
LA is a hole.
But there are some interesting spots in the hole. =)
Work and school is tough, even in a half-assed program like mine. It seriously cut into my WoW-time (well, pretty much eliminated it for months at a time). It will be really tough to have a life, and almost impossible to establish one in a new city.
That being said, if you’re going to start over there is no better time than the present. Do what you want to do, where you want to do it if you can.
Hmm… tough choices.
I think vesting in your 401K and not having to pay back existing student loans is a huge win. Especially during uncertain economic times.
In general I think part time grad school + full time work is awful. For a PhD, being full time student is the way to go. Otherwise you never finish and/or never have any time to enjoy life. (At least from what I’ve observed).
In my experience what worked well was to save up some money by working for awhile, becoming clear of debt, and then going back to being a full time student. That way I wasn’t working my tail off in order to eat ramen every night. :). It also helped me to figure out what I wanted to do, and what I wanted to focus on.
There are quite a lot of “mature” graduate students in PhD programs; so it’s really not a big deal to be doing a grad program in your 40s or 50s even. Especially with work experience, in your field, no one would look down upon you either in graduate school or when applying for professorships. If anything having your head out from under the ivory tower for awhile is a good thing.