It's no secret I moved out to Tulsa strictly so I could keep my relationship with Scott. I'd been applying all over the country for 8 months, looking in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and even Chicago (for illegitimate reasons). But as soon as he got hired in Tulsa, my search focused here. Not one month later, I got a call for an interview and ended up with the job I have now. I was beyond relieved, to just have a stupid job and to also be able to keep the relationship I had fought so hard for.
But the thing is, my job is doing nothing for me. It's great experience, absolutely yes. Otherwise, I'm an hourly employee getting payed dirt without benefits and an hour commute. However, Tulsa doesn't have the most opportunities for a chemist with under 10 years of experience and only a bachelors degree.
There are so many things I want to do and there are so many options that I'm stuck with not having a clue what my next step is.
I've given thought to grad school but I don't really like the idea of being in school for another 5 years. I want to start having kids before I'm 30 (which is in 5 years. wtf?!), would I have to pause grad school? Would it be better to just delay grad school until after?
If I do go to grad school, should I just go for my masters or my PhD? If I did masters, I'd study analytical chemistry, if PhD, I'd study chemical education. Would getting my masters even be worth it or would it be equivalent to having 2 years of experience in the industry?
I'd like to be able to try my hand at teaching but not here in Oklahoma, and not particularly with the education system we have now.
Maybe both? Get my masters degree so I can teach community college chemistry? I'd love to not have the restrictions of the public school system.
But where would I go? Again, I moved to Tulsa to be with Scott. I don't want to move away from Tulsa until he does but that restricts me considerably.
.......
ohhhhhhhhhhh the things we do for love.
:throws hands up:
I love how I checked this for the first time in forever and you updated yesterday. Still psychic! Have you talked to Scott about this? What does he say? Other than that, my solution is always get married, stay at home and have babies so yeah. I'm no help. Haha.
ReplyDeleteWoah!
DeleteI've brought it up quite a few times but he's never any help. He just says something along the lines of 'I know, I don't want to be here either.' But his sister-in-law just graduated with her PhD in biochemistry so I'm going to ask her about grad school and if it'd be worth it.
Haha I would be all down for that, as soon as we could afford it.
So, here's my experience and advice about graduate school and hopefully it is helpful and doesn't scare you away (haha).
ReplyDeleteMy experience: I went straight into grad school not knowing what I wanted to do (BAD!). You need to have at least an idea of what you'd like to study (if you're doing a research/thesis route) because if you don't hit the ground running/not aggressive about it you're going to get majorly stuck, which is where I am now. On top of that, because I was not aggressive I got stuck funding about half of my degree (and out-of-state grad school is expensive as f-). Your field may be completely different, but funding in mine is just about gone.
But good thing is, you're already one step ahead in the game since you have one year of real job experience... that should not only give you an advantage getting into graduate school, but if you decide to go it'll make you look better than most that went straight into graduate school without any experience (me!!). I'm also assuming that because of your actual experience, you know you love chemistry and what you'll study. Hold onto that, because you may end up hating your project, making the temptation to drop out almost irresistible... just remember it should be worth it in the end... leading to my last point...
Make sure to talk to lots current graduate students in your field and make sure it IS actually worth it! I went to grad school because I knew I couldn't get a job with just a B.S.. I thought having a M.S. would pretty much secure a job in my field for me, which is not true anymore... there are no jobs for me haha. I'm hoping to get lucky someday, but at least my degree will be in a STEM field, which should at least guarantee me an okay job somewhere (maybe just not in atmo).
Another side note... Having a baby while you're in grad school obviously makes it so much harder, but at the same time school is extremely flexible (hours and work wise), so it's not impossible and actually works out well for many people (instead of having a baby at the start of a new job... not nearly as flexible). So don't let that scare you away from it, you're a determined person so I know you'd be able to make it work if that's what you'd like to do :)
So the short version: If it would be worth it and you think you would actually enjoy it, go for grad school and don't let having kids/other stuff get in the way. Just make sure you know what you want.
Don't stress too much about it... you and Scott will make it work. Maybe y'all can come up with a rough target area of where you'd both like to be in the long run (Huntsville, AL, maybe ;) ), so both of you can start looking at jobs/schools in that area, and eventually both end up there? I know long distance sucks, but it will hopefully only be a short time!!
P.S. The url was right but my "reading list" still says it's wrong... I'll just have to search for your blog every time I'm on here haha