Got me a big decision to make, and not much time to make it.

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So, I got my bachelor's in Atmospheric Sciences (meteorology) last spring, and then got a job that's kind of in my field about a month later. I can't f*****g stand it though, the people I work with, including (and maybe even especially) my boss are literally some of the most vile, god-awful, condescending pieces of s**t I've ever had the misfortune to meet in my life.

However, I have an opportunity to get out. Normally, it'd be a no-brainer... take the opportunity. However, the opportunity in question is moving 1200 miles away to Nebraska for graduate school... without funding.

I honestly don't know why I'm even putting this on this site... I guess, in my mind, if anybody's managed to get themselves into this kind of situation in the past, it would probably have been an Aspie hahaha... so yeah! Anyone else ever had anything like this happen to them before? Not a unique situation, but probably pretty rare.

you are young, full of energy and smarts and wherewithal, so I would take the plunge if I were you, you of all people can find a way to make it work. life is too short to squeeze one's square peg through a round hole in that snake pit you described.

just to chip in that there's no easy way out, can't really compare your to mine. But I've worked for a company many years and it the same problem, no team work. But it the pay that still keep me there, I've change shift, change department, even take some worst choices to stay away from the people I don't like and problems still. If it a good pay and I think you can make it, never know if the new life will be better.

Pabalebo, two things. First, in my experience, graduate school was filled with arrogant, egotistical jerks, with the faculty being the worst offenders, especially at major research universities. Second, in some fields having a graduate degree can help advance your career, but in others it does not. (I do not know what the case is for atmospheric sciences / meteorology.) I worry that at the end of your studies you may find your self older, in debt, and without any better career prospects.

These things do not mean you have to stick with your current job forever. You should also consider retraining in another (possibly related) field with better employment prospects. There is a growing body of free and low cost courses available via the world wide web (for example, https://www.coursera.org/ , https://www.edx.org/ , https://www.futurelearn.com/ , http://www.ocwconsortium.org/courses/ , and https://www.udacity.com/ ). You may also want to investigate courses offered by your local community college.

If you already have a job, I wouldn't go somewhere where there is no funding, especially a place 1,200 miles away.

You will find ****bags in all jobs. You will also find them within graduate programs. You can't escape the inevitable.

I, myself, wish I could work at the Weather Channel, and wear those blue winter jackets! LOL

When my children were grown up and moved away, I changed fields dramatically. I used to be a civic engineer/computer programmer with my own small company, and I retrained (1 year of school) and changed jobs to medical transcriptionist because I could work from home on my own. I took a HUGE pay cut to do that. HOWEVER, it actually was so easy to accommodate myself to the reduced salary. Work was such a pleasure compared to previous that I could easily manage without all the "stuff" that I used to want.

My message here is that there might be unanticipated perks to a new job/field that you had not anticipated if you can find a place where you work happily. It does not sound like you are going to work happily where you are now.

There are other reasons for me wanting out than my work environment. The company I work for was recently bought out by a larger company (which, in turn, was bought out by an even larger company about two weeks later), and is now having problems both internally trying to integrate with the new parent company and externally with losing clients, because we've bitten off waaaaaay more than we can chew lately and that's starting to show in our work. Where I'm at professionally is really not a great place to be... one of the newest, least experienced employees of a company whose future seems a bit uncertain at best. I've also been looking into switching jobs quite a bit lately, and most announcements that I see want either a master's degree at least and/or many years of experience. I do think my year of professional experience before starting graduate school would give me a competitive edge upon leaving. However, the no funding thing is the big sticking point. My debt from undergrad is quite minimal by student loan debt standards... on the order of roughly only $5000 at the moment. I do quite enjoy that fact though and kind of don't want to screw it up.... even if I'm able to secure all funding from outside the school that I think I'd be able to, the first semester alone will slightly more than double the debt I'm in right now... and that's just tuition, no living expenses included. I've got enough saved up from this year of working that I could probably last about a year on it if I live conservatively and don't insure my car (as I've done in the past). But making this move is certainly a gamble, and I've only got another week to figure out if it's a gamble I'm willing to take...

I should also add that I do think earning a Master's would improve my chances of finding a job in meteorology that doesn't entail me sitting on my ass for minimum 9 hours every day... one of the major aspects of this job I can't stand either.

Meteorology has pretty good employment rates... STEM fields in general still do, although from my perspective at least, that appears to be slowly changing for the worse. Past work experience has given me a pretty solid background in the basics of a few other sciences as well... hydrology, geology, biology, engineering, ecology. Overall I consider myself pretty employable already... but I want more. I just don't know how much money I'm willing to put in to getting more.

Whoa, I totally missed this one.

Ready?

DO NOT GO TO GRADUATE SCHOOL WITHOUT FUNDING UNLESS YOU LIKE THE IDEA OF LIVING AS AN INDENTURED SERVANT FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS. OR, POSSIBLY, FOR LIFE.

There. Yeah, I know, it sounds hysterical. I say this as someone who works in STEM with undergrads and grad students, who was a grad student, and who's seen what's happened to the job markets for STEM.

DON'T DO IT.

Get another job doing something else. Work at Target. Do anything where you aren't generating a negative cash flow of $20-40K/yr. And nondischargeable debt in the mid-5-figures that will hobble you for decades if you can't find solid employment.

Don't, just don't.

Let me just add: it kills me, every year, to watch young people get all excited about having been accepted to unfunded programs, and in a tizzy about the privilege of forking over large sums of cash for letters of dubious value. I should also add that I'm also a landlord who usually rents to grad/professional students, and that this year marks the first time I've had to turn down a quarter-time-funded PhD student, because I could not see how he was going to pay the rent. He'd already nearly maxed his student loans, mostly on an MA. And I could see why he wanted to do the PhD -- it meant deferment of those loans. But that deferment was going to come to an end, and when it did, my, that boy was going to be in serious long-term trouble.

You can find a smarter way to do this.

Last edited by tarantella64 on 08 Apr 2014, 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

the American system of higher edumacation is a racket.

Wrong. In fact, it's probably the opposite. Sorry to say this, but having an Master's may actually hurt your chances of getting another meteorology job as it made me overqualified for the types of jobs you're presently working at. If going the research route, you really need a PhD, so a MS leaves you a "no man's land" where you're overqualified for many forecasting jobs, but under-qualified for research jobs. In addition, research and teaching jobs are extremely hard to come by even if you have a PhD due to tight funding and competition. Even if some of these jobs say they only require an MS, you'll be competing with PhDs.

If I were you, I'd try to keep the current job or maybe try to get into the NWS when you have racked up enough experience. 2-3 years of experience will be far more valuable than a Master's degree anyway, especially since going to grad school unfunded is tough to do. An unfunded grad student is usually at the bottom of the pile with the least respect compared to those with TAs, RAs, or fellowships. If you really want to do grad school, try to get a funded position somewhere and go all the way through for the PhD.

A Master's in meteorology has left me pretty much unemployable as I wasn't able to land a job right out of school and now I am 3 and half years past my 6 month expiry date. I probably would've had a better chance getting a job in the field if I had forgone grad school to enter the job market.

Add in my Aspie issues, and the trouble I have with working in teams, office politics, networking, sensory issues, etc. and I'm in a pretty bad spot.

Listen to Mitch, he's telling you true things.

A question for you, though: Did you have to apply as an MS student, or did you kneecap yourself by not applying for the PhD program? It's very late in the year, but if you can apply to the PhD program directly, do so. There's no law saying you have to go all the way through to PhD if it doesn't suit you, and you should be funded. Not necessarily happy, but funded.

I am in a completely different field but I was in the job market for two years when I made the jump to grad school where I tripled my debt, that part sucked. I'm nearing graduation and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I've grown so much over the last few years. I have found the people in the higher level academic programs seem to be more "aspie friendly". If you can score a place to live by yourself and enough money for ramen, I would say go for it. Worry about the career stuff later, more doors opened for me because of it.