After more than a decade of being out of school, I found myself enrolling back into a professional career program.  I weighed the Pros and Cons and ultimately found that learning never has a Con.  It’s always considered a positive for your current employer and many times in large companies they are willing to pay a portion if you keep your grades.

I enrolled in this program for the following reasons: disconnect some of my energy away from work, add this program and school name to the education section of my resume, and test if I can balance work, school, and my life.  These reasons are probably not the ones one would expect.  And of course, my employer who’s paying half does not know of these reasons.  But let me explain.

In the last few months my department has seen some transitions.  I have been letting these transitions settle down.  As an outcome of these transitions my workload has decreased significantly.  The work that I’ve been assigned has less importance than the work I was completing at the beginning of the year.  Due to this I decided to take this time to focus my energy away from work.  This has been one of the biggest challenges as I enjoy working.  Weird, I know.  But I get satisfaction from completing work and achieving work goals.

If you had asked me last year, I would have had a different answer.  I would have said “I want to retire here.”  But this year I started to look at opportunities outside of my company.  I would have never expected this and so soon.  I mean I’ve only been here 7 years.  I know that as one’s career evolves it is important to look outside of one’s company to see what the market is asking for either within the same level or a level up.  Never would I have thought that I would be looking this year.  What I found in my search was I need to beef up my resume.  So, this is what I am doing.  I am investing time and money in this program and school to add to the education section of my resume.

The next question is, how much time and money I am willing to invest?  When I look back on my college days, I know I did not take school seriously.  I know I could have done more studying.  I know I could have challenged myself with harder classes.  Yet I didn’t.  I don’t regret it.  But I know I could have done more.  Am I ready now?  Should I continue with education and get a Masters.  How bad do I want it?  These are the questions I am eager to answer at the end of this program.