Leaving a Job to Pursue a Master's Degree

Every young professional faces the dilemma of choosing between an education and an investment in the future versus a career and income in the present. Certainly there is a certain allure to developing one's career in the immediate present. Career experience helps build a resume. Having a job also has the convenient benefit of earning a guaranteed paycheck. However, most careers require a higher level of education for advancement into the highest ranks. Thus, it is often necessary to leave a job to earn a masters or higher degree. In addition, many people, upon completing their undergraduate studies find themselves unable to get a job in their chosen field and find themselves settling for jobs outside that field or not in the capacity in which they feel most qualified. Thus, returning to school can be a way to take up anew the pursuit of one's chosen vocation.

What does one face in renewing one's education? Leaving a job for a master's degree is an exchange of a paycheck for a series of debts. A graduate education is not a cheap or easy commodity to come by. While it is sometimes possible to find a job that will pay for one's master's degree, most people have to take out student loans to pay for this further round of education. Another drawback to leaving a job for a master's degree is the atrophy of academic skills experienced while working for a job that does not require such skills. For examples, a technician for an engineering firm is not likely to retain their familiarity with integral calculus after a few years on the job. Many professionals have not written anything like a term paper in years or have not been required to read the hundreds of pages of unfamiliar material that graduate study requires. Thus, renewing one's education can be a disconcerting experience that requires a great deal of catch up work.

Acceptance to a graduate school is also not an easy task. Grad schools are going to weigh your grade point average, activities at school or in the community and job experience when making admissions decisions. In addition, while they do not like to admit it, most grad schools make admissions decisions in part, on an applicants need for financial aid. Another admissions consideration is the battery of standardized tests that various graduate schools require. Most graduate schools require a GRE, while business schools require a GMAT, law schools an LSAT and medical schools a MCAT. These tests are computerized trials administered by ETS, the company that makes the SAT. They are difficult tests of math, verbal and writing skills. These tests are hard for the student fresh out of undergraduate studies, but for someone who has been working for a few years and thus not habitual test takers, they can be even harder. People who have been working in the field for ten years suddenly face GRE math questions that can be difficult word problems which do not allow test takers a calculator and must be completed in an average of a minute and a half. Thus, when applying to graduate school, many professionals seek test prep courses for their standardized testing needs and admissions consulting in order to streamline the process of graduate school application.

In addition to the trials of applying to and funding a graduate education, there is the added stress of leaving a job. When leaving a position to pursue a graduate education, the ordinary conventions apply. You must inform your employer formally two weeks in advance of leaving your position. Since you may want to work for the same employer in the future or in the same field you should draft a formal letter of resignation that is conciliatory in every way. If you approach this process candidly, your employer will understand, after all, you are not the first person to leave a position in order to seek a better life with a higher level of education. Before you decide to leave your job for a graduate education, however, you should consider whether or not such a step is necessary. There is an ever increasing selection of online graduate schools or night classes that you can pursue without leaving your job. While such a work load is certainly daunting, you will be earning money and an education simultaneously which will defray the cost of your degree. In addition, your tuition expenses are a big write off on your income taxes.