Comment My Experience as a Mechanical Engineer w/ Masters (Score 1) 369
I thought about and planned on getting a Masters in some branch of mechanical engineering right after my BS degree, but during my last year, I realized I needed to just finish my BS and get a job. I had had enough. So I get my job at a medium sized aerospace company and several years pass. My supervisor recommends getting an MS (and not a PhD, unless I had a personal interest) in a technical field and lets me know that the lack of one will limit my career choices at the company. The company pays for tuition if I keep working fulltime. I take the deal. It takes me three years to get a Masters in Material Science (emphasizing meturllagy, fatigue, fracture mechanics, and composites) working full time. During that same time, I got married, bought a house, and had the first of my children.
It was difficult at times, but I'm glad I did it. Frankly, to do my job well takes more background knowledge than a BS will cover. We now recommend that all of our incoming structures analysts get a Masters if they don't hire in with one. It is a massive plus that my company will pay for school and be flexible with schedules, etc.
The path I took was get a basic degree in engineering, get a job at a firm with good benefits, find out what I like doing and am good at in the industry, and then use the company's resources to make myself more valuable to the company now that I have a clue. I will say, that academically, grad school wasn't difficult after working as an structures analyst in industry. I made much better grads in grad school than as an undergrad. The biggest problem was just fitting it all in. But working full time and getting a technical masters or an MBA is entirely possible, even with a family. Even if tuition hadn't been covered, it really wasn't all that expensive. I wouldn't have needed a loan, for instance, based on my pre-masters salary.
Basically, you just have to knuckle down and do it.
It was difficult at times, but I'm glad I did it. Frankly, to do my job well takes more background knowledge than a BS will cover. We now recommend that all of our incoming structures analysts get a Masters if they don't hire in with one. It is a massive plus that my company will pay for school and be flexible with schedules, etc.
The path I took was get a basic degree in engineering, get a job at a firm with good benefits, find out what I like doing and am good at in the industry, and then use the company's resources to make myself more valuable to the company now that I have a clue. I will say, that academically, grad school wasn't difficult after working as an structures analyst in industry. I made much better grads in grad school than as an undergrad. The biggest problem was just fitting it all in. But working full time and getting a technical masters or an MBA is entirely possible, even with a family. Even if tuition hadn't been covered, it really wasn't all that expensive. I wouldn't have needed a loan, for instance, based on my pre-masters salary.
Basically, you just have to knuckle down and do it.
