The last time it happened, I had applied for a Sr. Web Admin position with a company in Vancouver. I got through the first round of applications, and had been called back to arrange an interview, then was called back a few hours later to be told (very contritely) that they were only interviewing university graduates and that apparently my resume had slipped through the initial weeding process. She said it had slipped through because of the impressive portfolio and/or experience, but maybe she was just trying to soften the blow at that point. I was mostly just sitting there with the world’s largest, ‘you have GOTTA be kidding me’ thoughtbubble over my head.

Maybe I could have raised a stink. At that point, I was just sick and tired of being told I needed a degree to get a job und zo off to school I went.

Rich, I keep typing out things here but nothing really sounds right. Good luck and let me know if you guys want to get together for that dinner/drink anytime soon :)

First, I regret that I went; I shouldn’t have done it; half my reason for going was a reflexive “well, I need to do the next thing now that I’m done my bachelor’s degree”, and the other half was the (wrong) idea I had about wanting to be a career academic (does that map into your vague, and possibly incorrect ideas about success, prestige, management?…). I ended up burning several bridges with important colleagues and supervisors by doing something I couldn’t actually “get behind”, and that’s really unfortunate.

That’s probably not terribly helpful to you, but I wanted to lay it out there as context.

Second regret: having gone, and having figured out that academics wasn’t what I wanted to do forever, and that it wasn’t a good fit, etc. etc., I regret *even more deeply* that I didn’t just finish the sucker. I think I could and should have just put my head down, gotten the darned thesis project done, gotten the letters after my name and moved on with my life. Instead, I essentially have nothing to show for the experience, and I think that made it even more of a waste.

Ultimately, you’re the only one who can measure the mental cost of this — but make sure you’re not just making a short-term decision: it’s only a year! If you can survive, if you can grit your teeth and just get through it, I wonder if you might find you do get something of value out of the experience in the long run– colleagues? networking? –and I can’t imagine that having the letters after your name is ever going to *hurt* you.

kalimonster: There certainly are those jobs where they only hire those who have those letters. Management consulting, for instance. And it’s definitely easier to get into senior management in large (GE, IBM)-size firms that way. But those aren’t jobs I want. I can’t quite put my finger on why I think I did. I had this generic idea of success and prestige in my head instead of thinking about what I wanted to do. I don’t want meetings and reports. I’m an engineer at heart, and for that sort of things the letters are probably irrelevant. And they’ve three very expensive letters, both financially and in mental health.

I went back to school because I was tired of being told that, despite however lovely my resume and work experience was, I didn’t have letters after my name, and they only hired those who did.

I guess I see the potential for something similar happening to you, here, and would rather it never did.

[Devil’s Advocate]Then again, maybe life’s too short to spend a whole year doing something you don’t like.[/Devil’s Advocate]

From your description of the course, it doesn’t sound like there’s much room for you to do the same. It might be worth the effort, however, to approach one or two of the more interesting profs and say to them exactly what you’ve said here.

I remember one prof in particular who ended up giving me as a term paper topic: Ernst Mach and the Dadaist Movement – parallels between science and art. I researched and wrote my heart out for that, only to receive a ‘B’ – the only B I got that year. I was incensed, especially after finding out that she had done a significant amount of post-grad work on exactly that topic.

Effectively, the woman – bless her heart – had decided to measure me against the toughest metric she had: her own expertise. She did so to put me in my place, to let me know that, while I was a top-flight undergrad, I should be prepared to be measured using a different metric. And by that metric, I was found to be adequate, but not stellar.

My essays and my research improved significantly from that point on, if only to spite the prof who had trapped me so easily. 8^)

Long story longer: If you *can* get something more out of it, whether through selfish means or by motivating your profs to push you, then great. If not, get the letters and, to the extent that it’s possible to do so, use the time to educate yourself further.

I haven’t said it before, but it bears mentioning now: You’re probably right about your self-analysis, but honestly I would rather see you in an executive position than just about any other colleague I’ve worked with in my life. Not immediately, perhaps, but few people actually comprehend things quite so completely as you. Some things only come with experience, but you have most of the rest.

So be a little mercenary – get the degree. You’ll find that there are greater sacrifices in life than a year spent coping with mediocrity, and you might well find the opportunity to test yourself, though perhaps not in the way you originally envisioned.

But it’s obviously been a good experience in *some* way since it’s gotten you to sit down and think about things.

Whichever way you choose to go, I am sure it will work out well.