Decisions, Decisions

[Erin]

I am going to be graduating in December and over the last few months I've steadily become more and more terrified about choosing what I want to do. Right now I can't seem to make any concrete decisions at all. A huge toss up is trying to decide whether I want to go to grad school or simply find a job. I feel extremely burnt out with school right now so grad school seems like a fairly overwhelming prospect at times. Do any of you have advice about how you handled or are handling this type of situation?

[Phoenix]

I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life b/c I didn't want to go into what I had gone to school for. And I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to school right away (although I knew I wanted to go to grad school eventually) b/c I was kind of burnt out from doing 2 degrees and working on top of it. My advice is below...

If you go the job path:

One thing to remember is that you aren't necessarily locked into doing something for the rest of your life. I've known people who have switched careers by applying skills they have (communication skills, for example) to other jobs. I myself have worked in an area that I did not go to school for. If you choose something and it doesn't work out or interest you, don't be afraid to choose something else that you think might and try to get a job in that area instead.

Or, you can always go back to school after earning some money.
This may be a more practical option for two reasons:

1) If you have debt from loans you'll be able to pay some (or all?) of it off. Depending on how long you work and how big your det is as well, you may even be able to save a little bit for grad school.

2) You'll get some job experience. I have a friend who has gotten his master's but b/c he has no real work experience (he got his bachelor's then his master's immediately afterwards), he hasn't been able to get a job. (I'm not saying that his situation is or will be the case for everyone.) If you work, go to grad school, and then try to get a job, you'll probably be looked at a bit more by employers b/c you have some previous "real world" job experience (even if you are applying for a diff. field than the one you worked in previously).

If you go the school path:

I think you have to ask yourself if you can handle it if you're burnt out at the moment. In addition, you may want to make sure that you know what you want to go to grad school for. It would be a shame to waste time and money going for a degree that you are uncertain about. (I don't know if this is an issue for you...I just thought I would throw it out there.) But if you know what area you would like to get your degree in and pursue a career in that field after you graduate, you may want to consider going right back to school (if you think you can handle the workload -- it will be at least another year or more before you would graduate depending on what one you're getting).

Hope this helps!