The Worst
22 November 2009
Graduate school has its ups and downs. Each benefit comes at a cost:
I was working at a real estate management company making $40,000.00 a year when I found out that my application to graduate school had been accepted. It was the kind of company that gets written up in the daily metro papers for caring more about filling my bosses pants with wads of dough than about the freezing cold elderly woman, dying of pneumonia. I'm not to say where truth lies. Yeah, we kept the heat at minimum and we evicted people. Sometimes things didn't feel right. That was me. I knew my boss to be a great guy, incredibly skilled, honest, and a dread of cunning when it came to making money. I don't understand how the elderly could find sense in complaining my ear off about having no heat in the building when they themselves where only paying the landlord $200.00 in rent per month for a two bedroom apartment. As it was noted in the recent 30 Rock episode, there are no rules when it comes to New York City real estate.
Anyway, when I told my boss, one of the shrewdest men in the real estate asset management business today, that I would be leaving in the fall to attend a graduate program in the humanities, a happy smirk crossed his face, "I can respect you. I think it's great if that's what you want to do. I just don't understand how you could want to do it." My boss found it difficult to consider the possible benefits of attending a doctoral program in literature as having any significant weight in the balance against the job and the life he knows, at least in terms he personally could relate to.
Any-who, he is right. Making any kind of comparison between the two is almost impossible. The person who chooses to go to such a graduate program has an almost entirely distinct set of priorities from the person who works in real estate management. (How did I end up doing both? Probably has to do with issues of mental health...I'm really mentally dynamic.)
Any-woh, it's not a question of graduate school in general. My boss had earned a business masters at Columbia University (like I said, smart guy). But, when you think in terms of dollars and numbers, like the ones I highlight above, it is a decision that doesn't compute. Not at all.
Any-wee, I really liked certain aspects of my job at the real estate management and asset management companies, and I have often thought of returning to the industry. I knew where I had to be. I knew what I had to do. I knew where we were going. I had resources to get done what needed to be done. I could see results, physical, substantial short, mid, and long term results. So, why did I leave?
In the meantime, this pasty commercial sweetness is the kind of self-affirming rhetoric you have to maintain when no one else is making sure you get your job done, when none one else knows how to tell you that you are doing a good job.
Culture happily places graduate students at the very bottom of the food chain. Remember the video from above? Here's some clips that shed more light on the issue.
Poor life choices.
This explains everything.
Graduate school has its ups and downs. Each benefit comes at a cost:
"Getting to set your own schedule" a.k.a. having to figure out how in the world you are going to find time to do all the crap that you think is expected of you.....$5,000.00
"Only working on what interests you" a.k.a. having to found serious lines of research in fields of study where no one has worked through before......$12,500.00
"You have all the time in the world to pour over what you consider the most interesting data and texts" a.k.a. long periods of self-imposed isolation......$7,266.00
"Working on the front lines of the quest for knowledge" in other words, only five people in the world will read what you wrote, and none of them are your mother.......$6,230.00
"You are working because you love what you do; you can be passionate" in other words, you are going to have one hell of a time getting a job, and the one you get will come in just above working the cash register at McDonald's (i.e., the manager will make more than you).......$24,987.00
I was working at a real estate management company making $40,000.00 a year when I found out that my application to graduate school had been accepted. It was the kind of company that gets written up in the daily metro papers for caring more about filling my bosses pants with wads of dough than about the freezing cold elderly woman, dying of pneumonia. I'm not to say where truth lies. Yeah, we kept the heat at minimum and we evicted people. Sometimes things didn't feel right. That was me. I knew my boss to be a great guy, incredibly skilled, honest, and a dread of cunning when it came to making money. I don't understand how the elderly could find sense in complaining my ear off about having no heat in the building when they themselves where only paying the landlord $200.00 in rent per month for a two bedroom apartment. As it was noted in the recent 30 Rock episode, there are no rules when it comes to New York City real estate.
Anyway, when I told my boss, one of the shrewdest men in the real estate asset management business today, that I would be leaving in the fall to attend a graduate program in the humanities, a happy smirk crossed his face, "I can respect you. I think it's great if that's what you want to do. I just don't understand how you could want to do it." My boss found it difficult to consider the possible benefits of attending a doctoral program in literature as having any significant weight in the balance against the job and the life he knows, at least in terms he personally could relate to.
Any-who, he is right. Making any kind of comparison between the two is almost impossible. The person who chooses to go to such a graduate program has an almost entirely distinct set of priorities from the person who works in real estate management. (How did I end up doing both? Probably has to do with issues of mental health...I'm really mentally dynamic.)
Any-woh, it's not a question of graduate school in general. My boss had earned a business masters at Columbia University (like I said, smart guy). But, when you think in terms of dollars and numbers, like the ones I highlight above, it is a decision that doesn't compute. Not at all.
Any-wee, I really liked certain aspects of my job at the real estate management and asset management companies, and I have often thought of returning to the industry. I knew where I had to be. I knew what I had to do. I knew where we were going. I had resources to get done what needed to be done. I could see results, physical, substantial short, mid, and long term results. So, why did I leave?
"Being the leader of my own life" a.k.a. finding real happiness......priceless
In the meantime, this pasty commercial sweetness is the kind of self-affirming rhetoric you have to maintain when no one else is making sure you get your job done, when none one else knows how to tell you that you are doing a good job.
Culture happily places graduate students at the very bottom of the food chain. Remember the video from above? Here's some clips that shed more light on the issue.
Poor life choices.
This explains everything.
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