Hanging behind me are two pieces of paper that should make me very proud: my undergraduate degree from Cornell and a master’s from Penn State. The first I worked hard for and really consider an accomplishment; the second prompts mixed feelings.
Being a book-smart kind of guy, an advanced degree was always in the back of my mind, even as I took a job after Cornell. It took a while for that job to pick up steam, though, so I looked to solve my boredom by doing a master’s on the company’s dime.
Financially it was a great deal, career-wise it was a moderate booster, but I just wasn’t that passionate about the material. The electives were great - robotics, neural networks, genetic algorithms - but the bulk of the material was dull but necessary systems engineering and math. In hindsight, it was worth doing, though I would’ve preferred all those hours to be infused with more of a spark.
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